FIRST FLUSH

The long-awaited Wimberley sewer system is expected to be officially operational August 1 after testing this week confirmed the system is working appropriately.

“The need for the sewer, environmentally and as a community, is great,” Wimberley Mayor Gina Fulkerson said. “This is something that people have been working on, discussing and raising funds for in this community for years. Multiple mayors and councils have worked on it, and even before there was a city. Finally coming to this point – to tell people they can tie in – it is amazing. It is a moment to be celebrated for sure.”

The work for a sewer system for the Wimberley Square has been going on for at least 50 years. The Wimberley Water Supply Corporation was founded in 1964 and the original intent was to create the water supply corporation and the sewer system at the same time.

Almost as quickly as the process began, obstacles began to emerge in what was the first inclination of the proverbial sewer wars that would be waged for decades to come.

“The government was going to pay something like 95% of the water and sewer system that was going to go in,” Wimberley Fire Chief Carroll Czichos, whose father Raymond was on the original water supply corporation board, said. “The water system was put in, but there were some citizens that went to one of the hearings and said they didn’t want the smell down on Flite Acres (where the plant was to be built.) All that got the sewer part canceled. We kept trying to push for it and never really got it going since then.”

In the third issue of the Wimberley View on April 1, 1976, the headline story “Wastewater System Funding Authorized for Wimberley” reported that the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority approved $28,000 for an environmental study of the district as the “first step in the process of funding, constructing, and maintaining a wastewater system.”

But as with many future iterations, the process was halted once again.

“Wimberley’s proposed sewage treatment plant on the banks of the Blanco River may have gone down the drain this week,” Patrick Cox reported in the Wimberley View in 1977. The state did not grant what was then called the Hays County Wimberley Wastewater Treatment Plant a discharge permit due to opposition.

While the discussion is complex and nuanced, the start of the argument remained the same for nearly the entire process. One side felt a sewer system was necessary to keep sewage out of the creek and river. The other side felt the plan at the time would result in a treatment facility that would pollute the creek and river through discharge. In the final iteration of the sewer wars, the conversation was no longer centered on if a sewer system was necessary but rather evolved into a disagreement over who and how the effluent should be treated. The decision was between the city government or Aqua Texas, a private corporation with a treatment facility servicing the areas north of Cypress Creek, with the latter winning out – at least for now.

“This is a real positive for all of Wimberley,” City Administrator Mike Boese said. “I know many people did a lot of work on this before I got here… There are people who have been doing different things on this project for years. It is on the backs of all those people, and no matter what side of the sewer wars you were on, this is a big accomplishment for the community.”

The growth of Wimberley and the tourism market have increased the need for some form of organized wastewater treatment. Czichos was also on one of the first city councils following incorporation in 2000.

“We were talking about this in 2001 when I got on city council, and you see how long it has taken to get it going,” he said. “Everybody had their own ideas… But I’m all for it downtown. You’ve got to get that portable restroom off the Square, and the restaurants need it. It’s not good for business when you come through and smell the sewer trucks pumping… It turns your stomach during your breakfast in the morning when they are cleaning the porter cans. Really, it has been a long time coming. It should have been done in the 60s.”

The sewer system will have an immediate impact on businesses on the Wimberley Square. There are multiple businesses around downtown that are forced to have a company pump and haul away the sewage from their septic tanks in order to keep up with the current usage. There are also multiple businesses on temporary permits allowing such a use while the sewer system has been under construction the last few years.

“We’ve got to do everything we can to maintain our pristine creeks, and I think this is a big one,” Jay Bachman, owner of Wimberley Café, said. “With this many septic tanks here in such a small area being used in a commercial aspect, it is tough to maintain and watch. Everyone is doing a great job, but it is expensive. Most of the busy restaurants could spend over $100,000 a year just pumping septic, so we are looking forward to the sewer system for us.”

Without the restrictions in place from the physical realities of operating on a septic tank, some measures of growth are expected.

“That is a big part really of why we have waited,” Grady Burnette, who purchased Cypress Creek Café after the fire in 2017 and has waited to rebuild. “The definition of what we can do changes significantly when we go from septic to wastewater, so there really didn’t seem to be any hurry to try and do something just to have to do it twice.”

How much the sewer system impacts development is yet to be seen, but at least some involved with the project feel it will not be significant. Craig Fore is the project manager for the city of Wimberley overseeing the sewer system construction. He was also on the city council when much of the current plan was approved.

“I don’t know that we will see a whole lot of growth because of it,” he said. “But at (some restaurants) you may not see plastic forks and paper plates used... You’ll get rid of the porta potties. The city is going to put in restrooms. It will be more like a city. It will have public bathrooms. I think that is the big difference we will see. I don’t think it will create a lot of growth,”

This week, the city expects to hook up Blue Hole Regional Park, Deer Creek of Wimberley and Symphony of Wimberley up to the system, which will allow the current treatment plant in Blue Hole Regional Park to be shut down. Once that has taken place, businesses within the service area will begin hooking into the system.

The revenue created from the system will offset, and eventually is expected to completely take over, the amount the city pays monthly on the multi-million-dollar construction loan from the Texas Water Development Board. The city currently pays about $30,000 per month toward the loan.

And by August 1, more than 50 years worth of effort will finally come to fruition with the first flush. A celebration is tentatively scheduled for later in August to mark the occasion.