LTR - Ep 52 - Current Event: "TCEQ ETF" (Texas Commission of Environmental Quality - Environmental Trade Fair)

In this 52nd episode, I discuss a Current Event:  "TCEQ ETF" (Texas Commission of Environmental Quality - Environmental Trade Fair.

The TCEQ ETF is the premier annual conference for all things Environmental.

As the old saying goes, "Everything is Bigger in Texas," The TCEQ ETF is the largest environmental conference in The United States.

The TCEQ ETF is always held in mid May and bounces around between Austin and San Antonio Texas.  The Conference is put on by The State of Texas' Environmental Regulatory Body; TCEQ.  The conference has both educational sessions and an exhibit hall.

The educational sessions which provide continuing education credits, are all put on by The Staff of TCEQ and cover everything from Air, Land, Water, Licensing, Permitting, Compliance, Enforcement, Emergency Response and Remediation.  There are over 100 sessions available to choose from.

The Exhibit Hall is massive and has everything from Environmental Contractors, to Environmental Consultants, to Suppliers of anything and everything that could be needed by anyone in The Environmental Industry.

It's a two day event and unless you have been numerous times, you will definitely need the full two days, as you could spend two days in just the Exhibit Hall alone.  So if you are also attending sessions, you will need to carefully schedule out your time, to assure you are able to fully cover the Exhibit Hall.  In the Exhibit Hall, you will have discussions and network with both The Exhibiting Companies and The Attendees alike.

If you are in The Environmental Industry, you definitely should plan to attend, whether you do business in Texas or not.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Thanks for tuning in. We love having you here, and it's our mission to bring you all the latest and greatest tips, skills, and know-how to make you the best that you can be. We know that you have it in you, and we're going to show you how. Now, now let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hey there, let's talk remediation. This is your host, Charles Fader, and this is our 52nd episode of Let's Talk Remediation. Our 52nd episode is brought to us by our ongoing sponsor, Hambi Environmental. Hambi Environmental is a manufacturer of field test kits providing uh analysis for soil and solid surface and water analysis for petroleum hydrocarbons, for PFAS and PFOS, as well as chlorides. Hambi Environmental manufactures field test kits for those analyses, providing results that are efficient. Four minutes for soil and solid surface and six minutes for water analysis for petroleum hydrocarbons at $35 a test for soil and solid surface and $45 a test for water within 10% of a lab result. As for PFOS, it's $250 a test, it takes 10 minutes. And for chlorides, it is $20 a test, and it takes 2-3 minutes, depending on if it's a soil sample or a water sample. So thank you, Hambi Environmental, for your ongoing support of this podcast, Let's Talk Remediation, where we are trying to have a positive impact on the environmental remediation industry. And with that, we will start our 50-second episode, which is a current event. The current event is TCEQ EFT. TCEQ stands for Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, and ETF stands for Environmental Trade Fair. So the TCEQ Environmental Trade Fair is the annual conference put on by the TCEQ. TCEQ is the Texas Environmental Regulatory Body. And TCEQ has been putting on this environmental trade fair conference for over 30 years. And as the old saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas. If you have never attended the TCEQ Environmental Trade Fair, the TCEQ ETF, then I would highly recommend it. If you have anything to do with environmental or remediation or compliance, it is the largest premier environmental conference in the United States. And it is put on by the actual regulatory body. So there's two parts to the conference. The conference has educational sessions, and those educational sessions are put on by the TCEQ regulatory staff. And you can earn continuing education credits for attending those classes. And then the second part is obviously the exhibit hall where there are over 300 exhibitors that relate to everything that has to do with the environmental remediation industry. Now, whether you're in air or you're in land or you're in water or you're dealing with licenses or permits or reporting, there is something for you at this conference. I mean it it covers the full gamut. And if you have even if you're not in the state of Texas, if you're in another state, it is highly recommended that you would attend uh you should attend this conference. Even if you've never uh you're not in the state of Texas doing business in the state of Texas, most of the regulatory stuff uh from state to state is pretty close to the same. So to have this large of a conference put on by the actual regulatory body is something that you should experience. Now it's a two-day event, and this year it is held today, which is May 19th, and tomorrow, May 20th, um, 2026. And um it's a two-day conference, uh, and you know, if you've never been to it before, I you you should plan to have you know it to take the entire two days because you are going to identify the different and uh educational sessions that apply to you, and you're gonna want to attend those as well as um you know, you want to have time for attending the exhibit hall because the exhibit hall has everything from environmental consultants, environmental contractors, to uh suppliers of everything you would need in the environmental remediation industry. So uh you you want to have time allocated for attending the exhibit hall. And in the exhibit hall, not just uh dealing with uh walking around at to the different booths, um, but in addition to that, even the attendees, uh you you will meet them in the halls or you know at the you guys talking to exhibitors at booths, y'all are uh hearing other people talk, and um you know, it's just uh you you need to spend time in the exhibit hall for sure, but you can identify uh the sessions that apply to what you like to focus on and work in the exhibit hall around that. So you would need to attend uh the full two days uh if you've never attended it before. Now, this particular year um uh I've attended the TCEQ Environmental Trade Uh Fair uh numerous times, and it's about 50-50. Sometimes I will be an exhibitor uh with every size booth from a 10 by 10 to a 10 by 30, uh, and some years like this year and last year for that matter, um, I just go and walk it. And because I've been there so many times, I can walk it and be uh do the whole thing in one day. But uh if you've never attended it before, you you definitely want to uh plan for the full two days because there's probably sessions that you'll want to attend, and it's a little bit overwhelming on how large the exhibit hall is. Um so you'll want to, you know, maybe take the first day walking it, identifying the uh the booths that you want to go back to to have more in-depth conversations on maybe say the second day. But as they say, everything's bigger in Texas, it is huge. And so, you know, even if you're not in the state of Texas, I highly would recommend uh attending the TCEQ Environmental Trade Fair sometime in the future. And so historically, it has always kind of bounced back and forth between Austin, Texas, where that's our capital and that is the headquarters for our regulatory body, TCEQ, and uh San Antonio, where it is this year, uh uh May uh 19th and 20th, 2026. It's and for that matter, for the next two years, um in uh it's always in mid-May. Um so for the next two years, it's actually also in San Antonio again. So um in uh let's see here, in May of 2027, it's gonna be May 11th and 12th for 2027, and then the following year in 2028, it is May 16th and 17th for 2028. Um, and then uh they haven't decided yet if they're gonna continue to have it, or most likely up my guess is it will bounce back to Austin for a couple years, and then uh it'll bounce back. It's always bounced back between Austin and San Antonio. But again, you know, uh the the vast amount of educational opportunities to get continuing education credits, because the all of the sessions are put on by the TCEQ, uh, Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, our environmental regulatory body, they're the ones putting on all the sessions. So that's why they qualify for the continuing education credits. And um yeah, and then of course, you know, there's uh they up every different category of of opportunity from you know air to water to oil and gas to industrial and solid waste management to compliance and enforcement and remediation programs. Um there are sessions for uh anything related to the environmental industry. And then in addition to that, the gigantic uh um exhibit hall from which to continue to learn about uh you know what's new, what's old, um what works, what doesn't, and the networking opportunities to talk to other people in the industry. It is bar none, uh, you know, the opportunity that you do not want to miss because it it is so if you've never attended before, I highly recommend it, and that's why I wanted to have a uh current event about it uh on the podcast, because it is the largest environmental remediation um conference in the United States. Like I said, if you want to flag it for the future, just always know that it's mid-May. Like I said, in 2027, it's it's the 11th and 12th, and in 2028 it's going to be um the 16th and 17th. But uh mid-May, put it on your calendar and try to, you know, get to Texas and uh attend uh the environmental trade fair. And you know, look it up online, you know. Do do just Google it, uh, you know, and uh look it up and see, and you'll find out. The TCEQ stands for Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, the Texas State Environmental Regulatory Agency. Uh and then ETF stands for Environmental Trade Fair and Conference. But look it up, TCQ ETF, and uh check it out, and I I I promise you you're gonna be surprised. And it's very affordable because it's put on by our state agency. So um, you know, uh you can get uh the full conference for a very reasonable price of you know a couple hundred dollars before uh before the event, and then also same if you just want uh if it's old old hat to you and you you know you've been before, you know, you can get an exhibit hall only pass for you know a very reasonable thirty dollars um prior to the event. And then of course if you wait to the last minute because you're not sure you're gonna go or not, or whatever the price doubles on you, but it's still it's only sixty bucks to to walk that exhibit hall only, and there's so much there that you know you'll get good value there. And then of course for s for students they have very d low discounted rates just to try to get you know get get get the students opportunities to interact with uh you know professionals. So anyway, that's uh that's the 52nd episode that I wanted to cover today, just this current event about what's going on. I went and walked it today, um, and uh it continues to to impress me year after year uh about the opportunities that uh that are provided by this gigantic uh conference. So uh with that, um like I say always towards the end of the the podcast, if you have a future uh topic you'd like for us to address, uh just uh or a qu specific question you'd like for us to address, just drop me a line at my email at C Fader, that's C Frank A T O R at let's talkremediation.com. Uh and I thank you for tuning in, and uh we'll catch you on the next one. This is your host, Charles Fader, and I am out of the way.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

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