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An Oct. 6 public hearing hosted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) regarding a local wastewater permit drew significant opposition from area residents and organizations.
Allied Development LLC applied to the TCEQ for a permit (No.
WQ0016475001) to authorize the discharge of treated domestic wastewater at a daily average flow not to exceed 45,000 gallons per day. The facility would be located approximately 1.5 miles southeast of the intersection of Farm-to Market Road 150 and Ranch Road 12, which is the proposed site of the Madelynn Estates development. The treated effluent would be discharged to an unnamed tributary, which feeds to Onion Creek.
The meeting, which was held at Dripping Springs Ranch Park and Event Center, was requested by Texas Representative Erin Zweiner. The first part of the meeting consisted of an informal discussion period, where members of the public could ask questions to the applicant or to the TCEQ staff. The second part of the meeting was for formal comments to be submitted into the official record.
During the formal comment period, ten people submitted formal oral comments. Some excerpts from those comments are provided below.
Formal Comments “Let’s start with the fact that there’s an existing wastewater treatment facility three quarters of a mile away from the proposed Madelynn Estates treatment facility. The Dripping Springs wastewater treatment plant could accommodate 45,000 gallons per day from the proposed development, and in fact, the City of Dripping Springs has proposed this to the development… Rather than pointing Allied Development towards the City of Dripping Springs, who beneficially reuses much of their wastewater, TCEQ has inexplicably chosen to issue a polluting draft permit which would endanger nearby Onion Creek with treated sewage discharge. For this reason alone, the Allied Development permit should be rejected by TCEQ.” -Mike Clifford, technical director for the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance “Back in the Q&A session we established that many chemicals forever chemicals, things like personal care products, contaminants of emergent concerns, antibiotics, antidepressants, antifungals, hormones, diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, hazardous waste, the PFASes, PCBs, alkylphenols we established your response was that we don’t do anything to prohibit it, to test for it, to monitor it, because the government allows it. Aren’t we better than that in Texas? So Allied, I’m just asking you, if you live three miles down from this and you’re gonna discharge into this creek, which is a karst stone bottom creek, would you and your family drink this water where I live three miles down? I’m a businessman myself. I’ve been in business for 30 years, but I’m appealing to you tonight to look at your alternatives.” -Wesley Morgan Pitts, Protect Our Water, area resident “I’ve heard a lot of references to Edwards Aquifer this evening, but nobody has ever mentioned the Upper and Middle Trinity Aquifers and the Cow Creek Aquifer which is who I speak for tonight. That is what this area is directly recharging into, so those are the impacted aquifers primarily. The Cow Creek Aquifer is what supplies Jacob’s Well, which is a Hays County asset… I also want to put into the room here that it is up to the applicants how rigorous they want to be with the limits of discharge. So you can actually choose a more strenuous phosphorus limit. You can choose a more stringent nitrogen limit. You can actually choose to filter your water more if you want to. We’re referring here to the legal limits on the state level, and they’re not rigorous enough for this area. So respond to the people and do better, and we will be here for you in that process.” -Zane Porterfield, Watershed Association, area resident “To the TCEQ guys, I’m just disappointed. I feel like you guys hide behind bureaucracy. You know, you had this dye trace study for over seven years, like I mentioned earlier, and you know there are detrimental impacts to our community. You know that anything that’s discharged in Onion Creek hits private wells. We have proof, we know this. So we just expect better and we expect sharp, clear answers.” -Richard Beggs, Protect Our Water “These Hill Country Creeks are very low in nutrition value. They also contain an algae which grows very well in low nutrient environments… findings indicate that if you change the nutrients a little bit, like phosphorus, then it’s gonna result in significant increase in growth of algae and the degradation of surface water.” Brian Dudley, environmental engineer, area resident “I was asked to come speak on behalf of the owner who has recently hired us to sell this property. First of all the Burns family is probably one of the most influential families of Dripping Springs. They donated the property for the current sewer facility that Dripping Springs utilizes, they donated the land for Charro Park, which is north of FM 150. Mr. Burns his reputation has been dragged through the dirt over this particular incident. He is not for this development... This property does not support this density of homes. It also will not support discharge into Onion Creek. Those are non-negotiable items. That will not happen. Discharge into Onion Creek is dead in the water. Thank you.” -Jeff Coffman, broker/ owner of Coffman Real Estate
History of the Permit The TCEQ has performed a Tier 1 antidegradation review which determined that existing water quality uses will not be impaired by this permit action. The TCEQ’s Tier 2 review has preliminarily determined that no significant degradation of water quality is expected in Onion Creek.
The TCEQ Executive Director has completed the technical review of the application and prepared a draft permit. The draft permit, if approved, would establish the conditions under which the facility must operate. The Executive Director has made a preliminary decision that this permit, if issued, meets all statutory and regulatory re-quirements.
The permit application, Executive Director’s preliminary decision, and draft permit are available for viewing and copying at Dripping Springs Community Library, 501 Sportsplex Drive, Dripping Springs, Texas. The application, including any updates, and associated notices are available electronically at the following webpage: https://www.tceq.texas .gov/permitting/wastewater/ pendingpermits/ tpdes-applications.
