The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality welcomed back more than 2,000 registrants to its Environmental Trade Fair and Conference at the Austin Convention Center, May 10-11, 2022.

Agency staff led more than 100 courses and discussions, in 14 different educational tracks, over the two days with topics including air and water permitting, oil and gas, industrial and solid waste management, compliance and enforcement, and remediation programs. The exhibit hall featured more than 300 companies, as well as the TCEQ’s emergency-response mobile command center and the Take Care of Texas program.

This year’s culminating event honored the Governor’s Texas Environmental Excellence Awards winners at a banquet the evening of May 11, 2022. This annual awards program recognizes the achievements in environmental preservation and protection. Since 1993, the program has honored more than 250 successful environmental projects and activities. Through the TEEA, TCEQ hopes to encourage others to initiate like-minded projects and reinforce a spirit of environmental stewardship.

Entries are reviewed and selected by a Blue-Ribbon Committee. This year’s winners include a Dallas-area youth who boosted the solitary bee population in the native Blackland Prairies, as well as a Texas school system was recognized for its innovative approach to achieving energy and water savings through conservation and increased efficiency. Other winners installed equipment to reduce wash-water generation, control the wash water in an enclosed system of piping and tanks, and install a water treatment system to segregate latex solids from the wash water through pH adjustment, flocculation and filtration; and taking students on weekly trips to the wetlands where students kayak, collect water quality samples, and do various other environmental management tasks.

Those honored included:

Agriculture:

WINNER

Bird and Bee Farm LLC, Rockdale — Bird and Bee Farm

Civic/Community:

WINNER

City of San Marcos, San Marcos — San Marcos River Litter Abatement

Pollution Prevention:

WINNER

Kelly-Moore Paint Company, Inc., Hurst — Wash Water Reduction to Landfill

Education:

WINNER

Houston Community Partnerships and Engagement Program, Houston — Virtually Wild! Texas

Youth:

WINNER

Spencer Jackson Burke, Dallas — Preserve the Pollinators

Technical/Technology:

WINNER

Samsung Austin Semiconductor — Copper Ion Exchange

Innovative Operations/Management:

WINNER

SAISD Energy & Sustainability Program, San Antonio — SAISD Energy & Sustainability Program

Water Conservation:

WINNER

City of Midland, Midland — City of Midland Water Pollution Control Plant Secondary Treatment Upgrades

Environmental Educator of the Year:

WINNER

Katie Doyle, Flour Bluff ISD, Corpus Christi — Oceans Teacher

Winners from the Take Care of Texas’ Art and Video contests were also honored at this year’s banquet and awarded prizes from Texas Chemical Council and Waste Management.

Information about the TEEA categories and videos highlighting this year’s winners can be found on the TEEA website. Information on how to apply for a future TEEA is also available.

Next year’s Environmental Trade Fair and Conference will be at the Austin Convention Center, May 16-17, 2023.