Last week, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved a wastewater discharge permit in northwest Bexar County to allow the release of up to 1 million gallons of treated wastewater per day into Helotes Creek, a body of water that feeds directly into the Edwards Aquifer.
Such an approval from the commission isn’t unusual – but what is noteworthy about the process is that the go-ahead was given in spite of opposition from residents, environmental groups and elected officials.
Diego Medel, public safety reporter for the San Antonio Report, has been following this story.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: What was this wastewater permit for in the first place?
Diego Medel: Well, so Municipal Operations LLC, a private company, is being contracted to build and operate a water treatment plant that would serve Lennar Corp’s planned Guajolote Ranch development, which is gonna be about 2,900 homes in Northwest Bexar County outside of the city of Grey Forest.
Originally, they wanted to authorize 4 million to 1 million gallons per day of treated wastewater into Helotes Creek. Like you said, it’s a very porous terrain. Feeds directly into the Edward Aquifer, where 2.5 million people get their drinking water in Central Texas.
What was the concern? Who was trying to stop the approval of this wastewater release, and what were their concerns?
So there’s actually a lot of groups. Some of them are the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance, the City of Grey Forest itself, and county commissioners here in San Antonio and Bexar County.
The concern is, citing a 2020 Southwest Research Institute study funded through the city’s Edwards Aquifers Protection Plan that found any wastewater discharge into the Helotes watershed would significantly degrade water quality for all the residents in the drinking area.
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Wow, that sounds pretty serious indeed. So what does the TCEQ say? How are they defending their decision to grant this permit to these developers?
You know, it’s actually a really interesting story. It’s been going on for about a year. It was previously approved and then challenged again and voices were heard.
And this time around, the three-member commission adopted the recommendation based on review from an administrative law judge from the State Office of Administrative Hearings. They reviewed the contested case, heard the community’s voices, but the commission found that the evidence and records supported the administrative law judge’s determination that the application met its burden to show that the drafted permit is protective and meets all of the minimum requirements.
Basically, in short, they said that the application meets every legal and technical standard under the current state rules.
You note in the piece that previously the company behind this project had the option of connecting its development to San Antonio Water Systems sewer lines. But they instead decided not to do that. Why not?
And that’s where things get kind of interesting. You know, San Antonio Water Systems, or SAWS, offered to connect their two sewer lines, but the cost would have been between $20 million to $40 million for the company who’s building the development.
Instead, the company chose to build a private treatment plant and funded through a proposed public improvement district, or PID, which would issue a $183 million bond for the infrastructure and be built and they would be at no cost to them. It would all be repaid by higher property taxes on future homeowners who buy into the development.
Now, it’s my understanding that opponents of the permit are hoping that the TCEQ would do a re-hearing. Any update on that or whether or not there’s any possibility that this might be scotched?
The opposition is primarily led by the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance, and they are planning to file a re-motion for rehearing. I’m not sure where they are in the status of that, but that would delay finalization of the permit for up to 55 days after they receive the official notice.
If they still decide to deny the rehearing and move ahead with the approval, they will have 30 days to appeal in the district courts in Travis County. But what’s interesting is that the Bexar County Commissioners still have to approve the PID. And that’s another step that could still block the project locally.
