Document Jvax1N4XawwgKD08YgbeQbGEe

k t-t- >. aa* TM< E .5 1>3 SJ2EH'5cc,,si ^ gu"as^uS'oa- S JS P +* jc o is - U3> 1*20-g|c'3 *a-aJs3si! US -a -c O o-<a : s -J ~ C/e+t. L**.tr- /)0tr* t'&trsm* Air Board Delays Hoescht Decision The Texas Air Quality Control Board has post- ponedd its decision in the American Hoescht permit case until the latter part of February. The Board met in Austin on Jan. 9, prepared to deny the petition to rescind the permit granted to the American Hoescht Company in July of 1977 for con struction of a facility in the Bayport Complex area. According to Clark Thompson, representing the Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association (GBCPA), the Board has attempted to push the hearing through without due consideration of objections filed by the Association. Of a somewhat different opinion was Jim Mathews, staff attorney for the Control Board. According to him there is some question as to whether or not the GBCPA submission was filed on time. The matter was not officially deter mined at the hearing. However, in an effort to give full consideration, the Board announced the post ponement. "The objections were made on the basis of the Board's ignoring statutory requirements," said Thompson. The Texas Gean Air Act stipulates that the best available control technology be applied, that land use, priority of location and social and economic value of the source be considered. The GBCPA submission deals with specific examples of where these requirements have not been met. Mathews cited the Hearing Examiner's Report as the only basis thus far for a change in the Board's original decision to grant the permit. "The report recommended granting the permit with two minor The first would be a special provision that the emission rate should not exceed those represented in the original application for. permit. The second would stipulate that American Hoescht monitor ambient concentrations of benzine and report the monitorings to the Executive Director of the Air Control Board. It is the Association's hope that the Board would not grant, and will in this case rescind any permit to a company which fails to meet statutory requirements as set down by the State. BFG16798 21830001