New Enforcement Action Against Bastrop Co. Rendering Facility Reflects the Uphill Battle to Hold Texas Polluters Accountable
TCEQ Sends Troubled Darling Ingredients Back to Enforcement for Wastewater Dumping and Air Quality Violations
AUSTIN, Texas — A new enforcement action against a complaint-plagued animal rendering plant in Bastrop County underscores the lengths and persistence needed to hold corporate polluters accountable in Texas, Public Citizen said today.
On Tuesday, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) published an investigation report after receiving nearly 500 citizen complaints submitted since July about a Darling Ingredients animal rendering facility in Bastrop County. The investigation confirmed nuisance-level odors, the unauthorized discharge of wastewater into Piney Creek, and harmful levels of hydrogen sulfide emissions resulting in seven violations and referral for formal enforcement action.
For years, residents have described the facility’s odors as intolerable – burning, putrid and pervasive enough to disrupt daily life. The community-led campaign, Stop the Stink Bastrop, formed this summer to increase awareness of the source of the widely known smell and to teach residents how to submit formal complaints to the TCEQ.
“These violations are not the result of stringent oversight by the TCEQ, but because the residents of Bastrop County refuse to remain silent while the TCEQ and Darling ignore their concerns,” said Kathryn Guerra, the director of Public Citizen’s TCEQ Watchdog campaign. “Instead of defaulting to their weak enforcement policies, our environmental regulators should be aggressively seeking compliance, especially from repeat offenders. No community should have to file 500 complaints before the state takes action.”
After receiving nearly daily complaints, the TCEQ sent investigators to conduct odor surveys, which confirmed strong, offensive odors on multiple dates in August. But more alarming findings emerged mid-October, after the agency deployed its Mobile Monitoring Team to test for hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas highly hazardous to humans. Four separate exceedances were confirmed.
“Darling Ingredients is not a good neighbor, as they frequently claim in their PR,” said Corbett Jones, a Bastrop County resident who co-founded the Stop the Stink Bastrop campaign. “They love telling county officials that they are working to solve the issue while continuously polluting our air and now our water.”
An October complaint that Darling was dumping wastewater from its animal rendering processes into Piney Creek resulted in additional enforcement action. According to the investigation report, Darling was unable to tell investigators how much wastewater was discharged or for how long it had been occurring. Later in the month, Darling reported that a rain event washed additional wastewater from the spill into the creek. In early November, Darling reported a third spill of wastewater into the creek.
Darling is already facing a separate TCEQ enforcement action for air quality violations from 2024, including emitting harmful levels of hydrogen sulfide and nuisance odors. The new exceedances constitute a violation of the company’s signed agreement with the TCEQ, which could lead to additional financial penalties.
Since the community campaign launched, Darling has received 12 TCEQ violations.