By Jason Clay Jansky

Residents along County Road 211 just south of Falls City are getting more peace and quiet, these days.

The TexStar sour gas and oil processing plant is undergoing revisions after some major complaints from citizens in the area and the location is a lot quieter than it used to be, according to County Commissioner Jeff Wiatrek.

"All the neighboring people around there were (concerned) with the noise and the smell and all that," Wiatrek said. "The company really did go in and go to work for the people. If you go down the road and look at it, they’ve put up sound barrier walls around it. It looked like they’ve eliminated a lot of noise. It is getting better."

In addition to the sound barrier walls, the company also has installed mufflers on the engines at the station, according to County Judge Alger Kendall, Jr.

He also said the company has been taking steps to reduce the odor the plant gives off. Reports from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also indicate TexStar has been working on curbing odor.

After the TCEQ responded to several complaints from citizens in the area, changes were made.

"We’ve had seven on-site investigations since October 16 (2006) and no violations were documented," TCEQ representative Andrea Morrow said. "The company has made changes in response to our investigations. With (odor problems), it’s not uncommon that we would find no violations. What’ll happen sometimes is you’ll have an odor situation and then it dissipates. Our inspector gets there and it’s already gone."

Morrow said the TCEQ still has interest in making sure the plant is following state environmental laws and will keep an eye on the situation, despite having not found any violations as a result of past inspections.

The station in question is operated by TexStar and contains a compressor engine, storage tanks, and a glycol dehydration unit, according to the permit authorization issued by TCEQ August 15 last year.

The same notice explains that the station will be releasing acceptable amounts of volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide.