Months ago, over emotional objections from community members and elected officials, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) licensed a concrete batch plant next to a park and residential neighborhood in East Aldine.
Now officials of the agency will host a public hearing Monday night on whether to change air quality standards for such future industrial plants.
The public hearing starts at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, on the first floor of the East Aldine Town Center, 2909 East Aldine Amphitheater Drive.
Residents will be allowed to make comments to agency representatives. They don’t need to sign up ahead of time to make remarks, according to agency spokesman Victor Gonzalez.
The agency will conduct the hearing as it reconsiders its functions as part of a state-mandated “sunset review” and because of feedback from the public about batch plant permitting, he said.
East Aldine residents and officials have expressed concerns that the approved plants will emit pollution and dust and cause other ill effects.
The agency is considering a requirement that the state conduct an “updated Air Quality Analysis” before granting new permits for concrete plants.
The analysis would be “a report containing information that demonstrates that emissions at a concrete batch plant authorized by (a) permit would not cause or contribute to a violation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, exceed a state property line standard, or adversely affect human health and the environment.”
TCEQ this year approved a permit for Avant-Garde Construction Co., a LaPorte-based business, to operate a concrete batch plant at 10945 Eastex Fwy., next to Harris County’s James Driver Park and several residential streets. The county recently spent $7 million on improvements to the park.
The proposed amendment wouldn’t affect the Avante-Garde permit, “unless they submit any renewal or amendments to their permit,” Gonzalez said.
The East Aldine hearing is the only one scheduled in the Houston area on the proposed new standard.
— By Anne Marie Kilday
