The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has named the new managers of the five sections of the remediation division of the agency. A few years ago, the TCEQ "reorganized" such that people in the remediation division worked on all types of projects Superfund, Petroleum Storage Tank, Voluntary Cleanup, and Corrective Action. One of the complaints voiced by the regulated community was that the parties that knew an area well were struggling in the other areas. In particular, I led a group of ten or more environmental attorneys and consultants to meet with the TCEQ last fall, and discuss our concerns that one of the leading Voluntary Cleanup Programs in the country was becoming less effective as a result of the reorganization.
We thought that the parties who were working on the VCP matters were not in tune with the purpose of the program and did not understand fully the VCP Program, the Innocent Owner/Operator Program (IOP), and the Municipal Setting Designation Program.
Fortunately, Brent Wade took over the remediation division and determined to put the programs back in specialized groups. He recently announced the managers of those programs as follows: