Courtesy of Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance
Opponents of a permit to discharge wastewater into Helotes Creek display their signs during a hearing in Austin on Wednesday.
Texas environmental regulators handed residents of northwest Bexar County a victory Wednesday in their fight against a controversial wastewater permit sought by the company behind a proposed 1,100-acre residential development.
The three-member Texas Commission on Environmental Quality decided that the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), an independent state agency, should decide the merits of the permit.
SOAH has up to six months to schedule a hearing, according to representatives of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA), one of about 80 groups and individuals challenging the permit. The hearing will most likely be presided over by an administrative law judge.
“Just having a hearing in a contentious case is a victory,” Randy Neumann of the Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance, another group opposing the permit, said in an emailed statement. “It’s a great day.”
About 30 residents of Grey Forest and other communities near the proposed development showed up for the hearing in Austin, most carrying signs urging commissioners not to greenlight the permit.
The dispute arose after Florida-based developer Lennar Corp. announced plans to build the 2,900-home Guajolote Ranch residential complex near Grey Forest and the intersection of Scenic Loop and Babcock Road.
As part of the project, Lennar’s wastewater company, Municipal Operations LLC, applied to TCEQ for a permit to discharge an average of 1 million gallons of wastewater daily into Helotes Creek. Opponents of the plan said this would jeopardize local water supplies because the creek recharges the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer and flows into the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer, San Antonio’s main source of drinking water.
In addition to GEAA and Grey Forest, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, San Antonio Metro Health, the San Antonio Water System and the City of Helotes filed statements protesting the treatment plant on health and safety grounds.
While the TCEQ denied the San Antonio Water System and the cities of Helotes and Grey Forest interested party status in the case, the panel allowed Metro Health to remain a party in the case pending a hearing.
Annalisa Peace, executive director of GEAA, said she welcomes the data, expertise and legal resources that Metro Health is expected to bring to the court case.
“It helps tremendously,” she said.
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