Office of the Chief Engineer

Susana M. Hildebrand, P.E., Chief Engineer/Deputy Director
Staff: Address/Phone/Fax

Air Quality
Toxicology

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

This includes a broad range of specific responsibilities:

• Assess the status of air quality, and model outcomes of planning scenarios and compare them against real-world results.
• Assess risks to human health from air pollution, and from polluted sites to guide their remediation.
• Implement plans to protect and restore air 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.
• Implement the Tax Relief Program for Pollution Control Property, which provides determinations of whether certain pollution control property may be exempted from property taxes.

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

Air Quality

David Brymer, 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.
• Coordinates the Rider 8 program, an initiative that supports air quality planning activities to reduce ozone in specified areas of the state. The areas include: Waco, El Paso, Beaumont, Austin, Corpus Christi, Longview-Tyler-Marshall, San Antonio, and Victoria.

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.
• Implements the Tax Relief Program for Pollution Control Property, which provides determinations of whether certain pollution control property may be exempted from property taxes.
• Evaluates appropriate pollution control strategies, develops plans to implement the stationary source control measures necessary to comply with federal air quality standards, and provides technical guidance to stakeholders affected by these regulations.

Toxicology

Michael Honeycutt, Ph.D., Director
Staff: Address/Phone/Fax

The Toxicology Division 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.