Texas Observer: How Texas Lawmakers and Industry Have Weakened Citizens’ Rights to Fight Pollution
What are some of the unique challenges Texans face when opposing industrial projects in their area? Since 2015, the state legislature has worked to make the environmental permitting process faster for applicants, straining the ability of community groups to...
COVID19 Notice
Due to COVID19 we are operating our office at a reduced capacity. However, we are open and our current office hours are M-F 9am-5pm. If you have an urgent issue please contact us via email at lindsay@txenvirolaw.com. Persons entering this office must wear facial...
Hearing Concluded on LCRA’s Groundwater Permit Application
Proposal for decision, announced early in 2020, is a victory for Environmental Stewardship (The following information is shared directly from our clients at Environmental Stewardship.) A contested case hearing before two Administrative Law Judges on LCRA’s application...
Parties Rest their Cases in Hearing on LCRA’s Application for Groundwater Permit
We are proud to share the following update from Environmental Stewardship: Pictured: FPAR Attorneys Marisa Perales and Eric Allmon presenting at SOAH We finished the contested case hearing on merits today right at the closing bell. Using the baseball analogy, we had...
April 24th Legislative Hearing
Legislative testimony On April 24th Eric Allmon and Marisa Perales testified at a legislative hearing on behalf of the firm and Texas Center for Policy Studies. Eric spoke about the problems surrounding landfill “placeholder” applications, in which applicants submit...
Post Oak Landfill: Protestants file suit over TCEQ remand
A collection of landowners and local governments have filed a lawsuit in state district court challenging the failure of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to deny the permit application of Post Oak Clean Green for a new landfill in...
Typical Schedules for Environmental Permitting at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (“TCEQ”)
There are three potential stages to TCEQ permit deliberations: (1) an application to draft-permit stage, (2) a hearing stage, and (3) a post-hearing/pre-final-order stage. For the overwhelming majority of permits, there is only stage (1) and a day or so for stage...
Your Local Government May Be Able to Help You
Although the TCEQ is the main regulator of polluters and the main enforcer of pollution permits, you might be surprised at the amount of power your local governments have to inspect permitted facilities to check for problems, to initiate enforcement proceedings...
Court Decision Makes Water Planning More Rational
Our firm recently scored a victory for its clients, Ward Timber and a number of landowners in Northeast Texas, in the 11th Circuit Texas Court of Appeals. Texas is divided into a number of water planning regions, and the issue in the case was whether the State had a...