Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Responses to

The public comment period for the proposed May, 2015 Odor ESL Position Paper, Approaches to Derive Odor-Based Values, and proposed Odor ESL List ended in July 2015. The American Chemistry Council’s Center for Advancing Risk Assessment Science and Policy (ACC), Texas Chemical Council (TCC), Arkema Inc., and OXEA Corporation submitted comments. The TCEQ appreciates the effort put forth by these commenters to provide technical comments on the proposed Odor ESL Position Paper. The goal of TCEQ is to protect human health and welfare based on the most scientifically-defensible approaches possible, and evaluation of these comments furthered that goal. A summary of comments from each group is provided below, followed by TCEQ responses. The full comments are provided in Appendices. Comments on issues that suggest a change in the Odor-ESL Position Paper are addressed whereas comments agreeing with TCEQ’s approach are not. TCEQ responses indicate what changes, if any, were made to the Proposed Odor ESL Position Paper in response to the comments.