City Responds to Questions About Unauthorized Release of Effluent

The City of Dripping Springs Tuesday night released a statement regarding the severe weather impacts on the South Regional Water Reclamation Facility and need for an unauthorized release of highly treated effluent. The statement reads:

Due to unprecedented power outages and weather events, we have highly treated effluent that is being released from the South Regional Water Reclamation Plant. The City is and has been working diligently with the plant operator and Pedernales Electric Cooperative to resume normal operations given the current weather conditions. To be clear, this is not untreated sewage, but highly treated effluent that was to be used for irrigation on publicly accessible property. 

Residents throughout town were concerned about the quality of their drinking water and the possibility of this water flowing to Onion Creek. On the Century News' Facebook post about the City's unauthorized release, residents brought up concerns about the City's discharge permits, one of which was revoked last fall by a District Judge. Residents also submitted questions about how much water was released and exactly where. 

In a Wednesday afternoon phone conversation with Ginger Faught, Deputy City Administrator, she answered those questions saying: "We are working with the operator to determine the volume of the unauthorized, treated effluent release. To be clear, the effluent has gone through the full treatment cycle. This is not raw or partially treated effluent. What makes this "unauthorized" is that instead of irrigating the fields at the plant site where it is supposed to go, the treated effluent has left the site and migrated on to a neighboring property. So, what has happened is not a direct discharge into Onion Creek."

The City's treatment facility is located off FM 150 near the Howard Ranch Subdivision, and the ranch property to the east of the site is the location of the effluent release, according to Faught. She continued by saying, "We don't know if it made it to Onion Creek yet. We've got operators that are in route today, and we'll see what they can find. We don't anticipate that it reached the creek based on timing of when we think it [effluent release] started, but we're working to figure that out. Also, we don't think that this will adversely affect anybody's private drinking water." The City hasn't yet determined when the release began but was able to confirm that at approximately 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, the operator was able to redirect flow to the plant site and the irrigation fields. Information on the timeline will be updated as it becomes available. 

When asked about the City's authorization to release the effluent, Faught said that the Land Application Permit allows the City to irrigate an area at the treatment site and in the Caliterra Subdivision, but not the property where the effluent went over to Tuesday. Because the state is under a Disaster Declaration, cities have some leeway. "We will certainly report this to TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality)," Faught said. "The state has suspended the reporting requirements for this type of unauthorized treated effluent release or discharge because of the emergency declaration. Utilities and districts are dealing with the immediate issue at hand. This is not just a problem in Dripping Springs. This is happening all over the state."

For further questions, the City's Communications Director, Lisa Sullivan, has provided her email [email protected].