Giving credit where it's due. Such steps are badly needed in Bush/Perry's Texas.
MCM Feds up oversight of food and worker safety, pollution in Texas 01:16 PM CDT on Thursday, September 10, 2009 By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected] <http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/091009dnbusenforcement.4169897.html>http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/091009dnbusenforcement.4169897.html WASHINGTON - Federal agencies are sharply increasing their oversight of pollution and other public health threats in Texas, in a particularly focused example of the Obama administration's promise of stricter regulation of business. Having enjoyed Republican-led governments in Washington for the better part of a decade, Texas and its business-friendly state regulators suddenly find themselves in the crosshairs of federal supervision. In the most prominent case, the Environmental Protection Agency this week proposed rejecting major features of the state's clean air program, potentially annulling dozens of permits that have been issued to Texas power plants, refineries and chemical plants in recent years. The EPA says state rules have allowed major industrial polluters to exceed pollution limits, while the state denies that charge and insists its programs have improved air quality in Texas. The U.S. Department of Labor has also beefed up enforcement in Texas. After Labor Secretary Hilda Solis questioned the state's worker safety record during a speech in San Antonio in June, the Labor Department dispatched extra inspectors to Texas from other states. The special initiative yielded a 60 percent increase in construction site inspections and an 85 percent increase in citations, according to Labor Department figures. Also, efforts to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration are likely to put pressure on Texas health officials to improve the state's food safety inspections and procedures for tracking food-borne pathogens. "Obama promised during the campaign that he would work to improve the ability of agencies to enforce the law," said Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy for OMB Watch, a research and advocacy group that focuses on federal regulation. Congress and Obama are "beginning to restore regulatory powers, and that means enforcement and inspections; it means hiring people and having the ability to promulgate regulations," Melberth said. President Barack Obama entered office promising to restore regulation of banks, hedge funds, oil traders, food manufacturers and other economic actors blamed for breakdowns that occurred over the past several years. In some cases, the administration says new laws are needed to restore balance to the relationship between regulators and business, particularly in food safety and financial services. Environment The EPA and Labor Department, on the other hand, appear to have the tools they need to enforce compliance with federal laws and regulations. Their leaders, appointed by Obama, say they are simply getting "back in the enforcement business," as Solis told an audience in San Antonio, after years of a laissez-faire approach under President George W. Bush. Gov. Rick Perry, a frequent critic of Washington priorities, says the added federal enforcement is an "overreach" that isn't justified by Texas' improving air quality and enviable record of job creation. "It is alarming that Washington and this administration continue to overreach, increasingly dictating how states should run their business," Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said. "Governor Perry believes Texas is the blueprint for success, and Washington should be following our lead instead." The EPA has questioned Texas' implementation of the Clean Air Act for years, but it's only under the Obama administration - with an assist from a federal lawsuit that set a timetable for resolving the problems - that it is taking action. Under the law, states are allowed to set their own plans for reducing air pollution, and the EPA must approve the plans. If a plan doesn't meet federal requirements, the EPA can take control of enforcement from the state. "We are at a point now where the problems with the state's air pollution program are so pronounced and so pervasive that EPA has to take action," said Ilan Levin, senior attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, which has sued the EPA and Texas power plants to compel compliance with the Clean Air Act. "And the other thing is clearly a change [to] the Obama administration, which just takes environmental regulation and enforcement of the Clean Air Act more seriously than the previous administration," Levin said. In a recent roundtable with reporters, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson cited one particular area of concern - that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality hasn't always allowed the public to review and comment on changes to permits for pollution sources. The EPA also says that Texas rules allow polluters to treat major changes as minor ones, which require less monitoring and record-keeping at a pollution site. Jackson said the dispute between the EPA and Texas was "awhile in the making." She said it was "not impossible" that Texas could lose its ability to permit pollution sources. "The taking away [of] the Texas regulatory authority is certainly one of the ways that EPA can respond if we get to the end of ... a road and we find that we aren't aligned with the state," Jackson said. "It is the most extreme way, and I wouldn't relish having it happen. But it points to why it's so important that right now, while we have an opportunity to avoid that future, we all try to sit down and get to a better place," she said. Texas petroleum and chemical businesses, among others, are closely watching the dispute. Texas regulators have proposed changes to their air-permitting programs, which industry groups hope will form the basis of a compromise. "Now that the EPA has placed its cards on the table and we finally know what specific objections they have with our programs, we look forward to working with them to resolve outstanding issues," TCEQ executive director Mark Vickery said in a statement. Environmental groups say that if the EPA's final decision is disapproval, the move could jeopardize permits that have been awarded under the state rules. The TCEQ suggests the fallout would be more limited. Richard Hyde, TCEQ's deputy director of permitting and registration, said disapproval could affect pending applications. "A lot of the discussion that needs to happen is around what to do about the existing permits and the permits being issued today," Levin said. "These facilities are vulnerable, or at least they should take [this week's] actions as a very serious wake-up call." Working conditions The Labor Department focused on Texas after three workers died in June when scaffolding collapsed at a condominium development near the University of Texas at Austin. The department's attention was focused by a report, also issued in June, that detailed low pay and benefits for Austin-area construction workers and highlighted the higher number of construction deaths in Texas than in other large states. "We were contacted shortly after that by the Department of Labor" and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said Cristina Tzintzún, project director for the Workers Defense Project, which wrote the report. Tzintzún said other Labor Department divisions have been "collaborating" with her organization when it lodges complaints on behalf of low-wage workers who aren't paid. "They would not even return our phone calls before," she said. The added OSHA enforcement peaked in Dallas in late July and August, according to safety professions and construction trade groups. A spokeswoman for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which enforces worksite safety laws, said the inspections were unannounced. "They have brought in compliance officers from all over the country and paired them up with inspectors already in the area," said Greg Smith, Austin-based regional vice president of the American Society of Safety Engineers, whose members work closely with OSHA. "If they see an active job site, it's more likely than not that they'll visit. They are under a magnifying glass now," Smith said. The initiative surprised construction firms that were accustomed to Labor Department "partnerships," which allow firms to avoid inspections if they implement federally approved, comprehensive safety systems. "There is going to be a different perspective - a different outlook than there has been in the past," said Raleigh Roussell, president of TEXO, an association of North Texas builders and contractors. "In the past, OSHA was acting more like a coach. Now they are acting more as a cop." Food safety Texas food safety regulators inspections were blamed last year for poor detective work when a salmonella outbreak was linked to nine deaths nationwide. The Texas regulators didn't know the peanut processor responsible for the outbreak had a plant in West Texas, where inspectors later found dead rodents and bird feathers above a production area. The FDA is now stepping up its audits of contracts with state food safety agencies and expanding a program that seeks uniform standards for food inspections and laboratory testing across states, said Michael R. Taylor, senior adviser to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. "This will become over time a prerequisite to receive contracts from the FDA," said Taylor, who wrote a key report that outlined problems facing state and local food-safety efforts before joining the Obama administration this year. "For many states, there is a need to ramp up. This is raising the bar, no question." The FDA also announced this week that food and animal-feed companies will be required to alert the government about suspected food-borne outbreaks within 24 hours. Separately, the inspector general for the Health and Human Services Department, the parent agency of the FDA, is auditing the FDA's supervision of state food-safety contracts, including its arrangement with Texas. The inspector general has told lawmakers it plans to issue findings in the coming months, according to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who chairs a House panel that writes the FDA's budget. "I look forward to reviewing their findings when they become available and working with FDA to implement necessary changes and ensure there is adequate oversight of state labs," DeLauro said. Texas is already putting the microscope on itself with a conference scheduled for Sept. 16 and 17. Part of the forum will examine how the department's procedures can be improved. The forum, which will include FDA officials, will "take a hard look at the way inspections are done and the way manufacturers and their products are assessed when it comes risk," said Doug McBride, spokesman for the Department of State Health Services, which handles most food safety inspections in Texas. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [email protected] OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
