Texas environmental agency shuts down online permit filing system after data center controversy

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has shut down its automated electronic filing system after watchdog groups said the agency violated a directive from Gov. Greg Abbott and issued multiple stormwater permits related to data center construction.

The agency said it had suspended specific data center permits identified by the watchdog groups this week. On Wednesday, TCEQ also announced on its website that its electronic filing system “used for automatic authorizations” was being temporarily disabled.

“To ensure all applications are thoroughly reviewed by agency staff to determine if they are related to data centers, applications must be physically provided to TCEQ,” agency spokesman Ryan Vise said in a statement.

The online system, called the State of Texas Environmental Electronic Reporting System, or STEERS, is used for a wide array of permit applications, including those related to air and water pollution. It’s also used for companies to report operational information. The system allows some permits to initially be automatically approved.

The STEERS web portal on Wednesday was inaccessible.

Public Citizen, an advocacy group that’s been fighting data center development along with concerned residents, and FracTracker Alliance, a nonprofit that researches environmental impact from industrial development, identified multiple stormwater permits that the groups said had been approved by TCEQ for large construction projects related to data centers.

Their findings came a month after Abbott told TCEQ to stop issuing “all permits related to data center projects” while other state agencies and the state electric grid operator gathered and checked information about data centers’ proposed water and power use.

The agency’s chaotic messaging and actions along with the shutdown showed the pause wasn’t real until the media and watchdogs scrutinized it, Sam Law, research and communications manager for FracTracker Alliance, wrote in an email. The groups identified other types of permits they said TCEQ had been advancing.

“If our own environmental regulator can’t figure out which permits belong to data centers or have to take down their entire system because of them, it’s a real sign that we need a real moratorium backed by legislation,” Law wrote.

Stormwater permits help regulate water quality impacts from water flowing over a construction site that can have pollutants, according to the agency’s website. Companies submit a “notice of intent” in the online system, which would then get automatically approved.

“In this case, the agency’s rubber stamp worked so well, even the agency had difficulty stopping it,” said Kathryn Guerra, director of Public Citizen’s TCEQ Watchdog Campaign, in a prepared statement. “Texans don’t need another reason to distrust TCEQ, but here it is.”