Chief Engineer's Office

David C. Schanbacher, P.E., Chief Engineer/Deputy Director
Staff: Address/Phone/Fax

Toxicology
Air Quality
Water Quality Planning

The Chief Engineer’s Office (CEO) develops and implements statewide and regional plans, rules, strategies, and technical guidance to attain quality standards for air, surface water, and groundwater.

This includes a broad range of specific responsibilities:

• Assess the status of air and water quality, and model outcomes of planning scenarios and compare them against real-world results.
• Assess risks to human health from air and water pollution, and from polluted sites to guide their remediation.
• Implement plans to protect and restore air and water quality in cooperation with local, regional, state, and federal stakeholders.
• Track progress toward environmental goals and adapt plans as necessary.
• Advise the executive director and the deputy directors regarding uniform compliance with engineering standards, specifically regarding executive-level technical and policy matters.
• Review plans, processes, permits, and regulations for scientific accuracy and feasibility.

The CEO also coordinates activities with external organizations and internal offices to:

• develop strategies to implement new legislation and
• review innovative technologies related to TCEQ regulatory compliance.

In addition, the CEO:

• represents the TCEQ with the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and
• assists professional engineers within the TCEQ on matters such as licensing requirements and continuing education requirements.

See Also:

Texas Board of Professional Engineers
Interstate Technology Regulatory Council
Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators

Toxicology

The Toxicology Program helps focus TCEQ resources on areas with the greatest potential risks by:

• assessing risks to human health from exposure to environmental pollutants and
• reviewing models, data, assessments, permits, and cleanup plans for possible risks to human health, and estimating their effects on overall air and water quality.

Air Quality
Susana M. Hildebrand, P.E., Director
Staff: Address/Phone/Fax

The Air Quality Division works to protect and restore air quality through four programs.

Air Implementation Grants
Under the Texas Emission Reduction Plan (TERP), Air Implementation Grants provide funding and financial incentives to offset the costs of eligible projects that reduce emissions of NO_x from high-emitting diesel sources.

Air Industrial Emissions Assessment

• Provides information about the Toxic Release Inventory Program.
• Maintains the inventory of point source emissions for industrial sources of air contaminants.
• Develops the emissions inventory for area emissions, such as those from small businesses that are not regulated as point sources.
• Assists companies in interpreting emissions and inspection-fee rules and performs audits to ensure fees have been correctly reported.

Air Modeling and Data Analysis

• Analyzes data and conducts photochemical models in support of pollution control strategies and designs.
• Manages air quality research for the agency, including the:
• • Texas Air Quality Study (2005-06), which examines the causes of air pollution in Texas and collects data critical to developing controls to meet new federal clean air standards, and
  • Texas Air Quality Study (2000), data from which are used in the development of the State Implementation Plan.

Air Quality Planning

• Coordinates the development and implementation of the State Implementation Plan (SIP) — the state’s plan for air quality protection and improvement — which explains how the state will comply with federal air quality standards.
• Performs research to identify and develop appropriate pollution control measures.
• Develops the emissions inventory for mobile sources of air contaminants.
• Reviews federally funded projects such as airports, roads, and ports to ensure they comply with the SIP. Also reviews transportation projects in nonattainment areas to ensure emissions do not exceed budgets in the SIP.
• Administers the state’s Low-Emission Diesel, Low Reid Vapor Pressure Gasoline, and Gasoline Vapor Recovery programs.
• Implements a number of other programs to reduce pollution related to transportation:
• • AirCheckTexas Motor Vehicle Emissions Testing
  • AirCheckTexas Drive a Clean Machine Program, which provides financial assistance for replacing or repairing qualifying vehicles in certain counties
  • Vehicle Emissions Enforcement and Smoking Vehicle programs

• Administers the Air Emissions Banking and Trading Program, which:
• • provides flexibility for compliance with the federal Clean Air Act through a market-based framework for emissions banking and trading while achieving net reductions in air emissions, and
  • offers incentives for voluntary air emissions reductions.

Water Quality Planning
Kelly Keel, Director
Staff: Address/Phone/Fax

The goals of the Water Quality Planning Division are to assess, protect, and improve the quality of Texas surface water resources.

Planning and Implementation Section
The Nonpoint Source Pollution Managment Program:

• Works with stakeholders to develop and implement watershed-protection plans for water resources affected by pollution in runoff.
• Administers EPA grants that support prevention and reduction nonpoint source pollution.

The Total Maximum Daily Load Program:

• Develops TMDLs, which determine the amount of a pollutant that a water body can assimilate daily and still meet water quality standards.
• Works with other TCEQ programs to evaluate the best approach for restoring impaired water resources, and develops plans to meet pollutant-reduction goals in TMDLs.

The Galveston Bay Estuary Program and the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program :

• Implement 20-year scientific, strategic plans developed by their communities to protect and improve the quality of bay systems.
• Encourage and support wetland and habitat protection.

Monitoring and Assessment Section
The Water Quality Standards Program:

• Develops and revises the standards for surface water quality in Texas.
• Works with TCEQ permitting divisions to implement the standards through permits.

The Surface Water Quality Monitoring (SWQM) Program:

• Coordinates the monitoring and assessment of surface water resources and oversees the statewide network of monitoring sites.
• Reports the status of water quality in the biennial Texas Water Quality Inventory and 303(d) List of Impaired Waters.
• Develops guidelines that ensure data quality and scientifically sound assessment of water quality in relation to the standards.

The Clean Rivers Program:

• Coordinates with the SWQM program and a partnership of regional governmental agencies to monitor water quality and establish priorities for future monitoring and corrective action that are locally driven.
• Promotes cooperative watershed planning and effective resource allocations.

The Water Data Management and Analysis Work Group:

• Develops and revises the Data Management Reference Guide.
• Manages the Surface Water Quality Monitoring Information System (SWQMIS) and coordinates data management and analysis with all monitoring partners.

Houston Laboratory
Sixteen TCEQ regional field offices and EPA Region VI submit samples to the TCEQs Houston Laboratory for analysis. The lab:

• Analyzes samples of water, wastewater, soils, sediments, and sludge.
• Develops analytical procedures and supports special investigations, projects, and monitoring activities through cooperative agreements with other agencies.