The fine, which was assessed at $7,290 by the governmental agency, came shortly after a recent inspection turned up a paperwork error for the city's waste water management system, according to Assistant City Manager Todd Darden.

“We were required to register our sludge-hauling truck that takes the sludge from the waste water plant to the landfill. It had a registration at one time, but for some reason — whether it's staffing changes or what have you — someone forgot to get the truck registered,” said Darden. “They now have a new check list, and when they came to do our annual inspection, they found it because of the new checklist. We researched our records but could find out what happened and why it stopped being registered some years ago.”

According to Darden, TCEQ offers municipalities found in violation a chance to make up for their mistake instead of just forking out the fine.

“They (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) allow you an alternative settlement method rather than just paying the fine, which in this case was $7,290,” said Darden. “Instead of paying the fine straight to the State Comptroller's Office, you can pick an environmental project for your community, and you can do that project on your own, or you can partner.

“I want us to partner with Keep Big Spring Beautiful because we've worked with them on E-waste, litter pickups, lake projects, just numerous things like this,” he added. “It helps their program in trying to achieve the Governor's Award and it it does something good for the environment.”

The project would help eliminate dangerous chemicals and items that might otherwise find their way into city water drains and sewers, according to Darden, and would cost the city approximately $5,000, considerably less than the fine assessed by TCEQ.

“As I told the county several years ago, the city is eligible for 75 percent of funds from the COG (Council of Governments) for every tipping fee we collect at the landfill,” said Darden. “The county, including Big Spring, gets back $1.25 from each fee, and it equates to several thousand dollars each year. The city has used ours for education programs, working toward things we needed at the compost facility, and the county used to use their part for household hazardous waste collection. What I want to do is bring that back to the community. We've had requests over the years.

“There are certain things that can go in the dumpster, and there are certain things that can't go into a dumpster. And I believe that by offering this program, instead of holding on to them and trying to figure out what to do with them like people are doing now, they will be able to dispose of them, and do it properly, without harming the environment. We're talking about hazardous items and chemicals, things like paint thinner, old paint and pesticides. Those are just a few of the things many people have cluttering up their property and no real way to get rid of it.”

This isn't the first time the city has attempted to bring a defunct program back into use, as several years ago the municipality brought back its Large Item Pickup program, which is designed to help local residents get rid of items too large to be hauled to the city landfill by conventional methods.

The large item program, which works its way through all six districts in the city each year, has been extremely successful since it was brought back several years ago, and Darden said he feels like a hazardous household waste program could do the same.

“I hope to see it get the attention from the community the large item pickup program has garnered. I feel like this could easily turn into an annual program, just like that one did,” said Darden. “The company we'll be working with on this has done a similar program in Midland, and it's been very successful over there during its past few years. I feel like it can be successful here in Big Spring as well.”

The council approved the use of the program as an alternative to paying the TCEQ fine by a unanimous vote.

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it