A sign on Highway 46 between Boerne and Borgheim expresses opposition to a proposed concrete batch plant nearby.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday rejected pleas from residents and organizations not to discard a limit on potentially harmful emissions from hundreds of plants that supply wet concrete to construction sites throughout the state.

Such facilities, called concrete batch plants, emit dust while mixing cement, air and materials such as sand and gravel in large drums. As Texas’ continued growth drives demand for these plants, they tend to be built within 30 miles of the projects they support because concrete’s quality can degrade when hauled long distances. And with increasing development in towns and cities, plants are often close to residential areas.

The dust they emit contains crystalline silica, which has been linked to lung disease, chronic respiratory problems and silicosis. Community and environmental advocates say the uncertainty as to whether batch plants emit enough silica to threaten people’s health warrants further study before deeming limits unnecessary.

Nevertheless, despite significant opposition expressed at Wednesday’s TCEQ meeting and for months prior, commissioners concluded that a study conducted in 2012 and other industry-related documents justify batch plants not having to monitor or limit crystalline silica in their emissions.

Toni Lott stands on July 1 near property Highway 46 between Boerne and Borgheim where a a company is proposing to build a concrete batch plant. Parents from a nearby Montessori school and area residents have been fighting the plan.

“I am pretty comfortable moving forward and finalizing the proposed revision of the standard permit to bring us back to the point we departed from in 2012, given that level of analysis our agency really rests all the standard permits on,” TCEQ Commissioner Bobby Janecka said.

Until 2012, the TCEQ issued air quality permits for batch plants that included an exemption for limiting crystalline silica from their emissions. The exemption was removed inadvertently that year, the agency said, though the TCEQ and the industry carried on as if it was still in place.

Now, the exemption has been restored.

The TCEQ has issued about 800 permits since 2012 with no issues arising, Janecka said.

“That makes a good argument for me that this was just a clerical error that needs to be fixed,” he said.

While the commissioners said the TCEQ could have been more transparent regarding its study and other relevant information, they decided that moving toward imposing a moratorium on air permits could unnecessarily threaten concrete batch plants.

“A moratorium is not a place we want to be,” Janecka said.

On ExpressNews.com: 'Out of breath': Oversight of hazardous Texas concrete plant emissions comes to a head

The crystalline silica exemption’s removal went largely unnoticed. But in 2020, an administrative law judge advised the TCEQ to deny an air permit for a concrete batch plant in Tarrant County, saying the plant was not proven safe with regard to crystalline silica.

In May, the TCEQ proposed amending its standard permit for batch plants to restore the exemption. A 30-day period for public comments followed, during which hundreds of Texans and two dozen state senators asked the agency to study the effects of crystalline silica further before acting.

At Wednesday’s TCEQ meeting, numerous residents, environmental organizations and state officials also asked commissioners to wait. Opponents of the exemption argued that the TCEQ was not transparent enough regarding the permit revision and that the agency needs to take more time to understand crystalline silica’s effects.

Others called emissions from concrete batch plants a “textbook environmental justice” issue.

Stephany Mgbadigha, the legal and advocacy director for Air Alliance Houston, said the TCEQ has been overly deferential to concrete plant operators in this matter.

“I don’t think it should be the TCEQ’s mission to make sure the industry is satisfied,” Mgbadigha said. “They need to make sure that these permits are protective of human health and the environment.”

“The TCEQ knows there’s a problem, but their primary focus is maintaining the status quo,” she said.

For Air Alliance Houston and other environmental organizations and advocates, this issue is far from over. Corey Williams, policy and research director at AAH, said they will be doing more research and having more conversations to make more people aware.

Adrian Shelley, the director of Public Citizen, said the issue must be viewed more broadly than an administrative matter.

“You can’t take a clerical error rule correction without hundreds of affected members of the public objecting and raising really significant, substantive issues on the approach,” Shelley said. “Then there’s a problem. You have to acknowledge that there’s a problem.”

Elena Bruess writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. elena.bruess@express-news.net.

Elena Bruess joined the Express-News as the environment and water reporter in June 2021 through Report for America. Previously, she covered water issues for Circle of Blue in Michigan and wrote about COVID-19 in Chicago as a reporting fellow for the Pulitzer Center. She has a master's in science journalism from Northwestern University and a degree from the University of Iowa's undergraduate writing program. She is originally from northeastern Iowa, but also grew up in central Greece.