Mayor’s Corner
My apology for no commentary last week, but with Monday being a holiday I missed the deadline.
As many of you have heard, the City of Blanco has applied for an amendment to its existing wastewater permit allowing it to discharge up to 1.6 million gallons of sewer effluent per day into the Blanco River upstream of Wimberley. Many of our citizens are justifiably outraged that this could actually be allowed. What is even more incredulous is that the Texas Environmental Quality Commission (“TCEQ”) prepared a draft permit with this preliminary determination: “existing water quality uses will not be impaired by this permit action” and “no significant degradation of water quality is expected in the Upper Blanco River, which has been identified as having exceptional aquatic life uses.”
Fortunately however, many in our community have recently become better educated about the effects of effluent discharge into our beautiful Hill Country waterways. Therefore, we know otherwise. No amount of discharge is ever safe and healthy for our rivers and creeks – nor our aquifers. In addition to higher nutrient levels that contribute to algae blooms, treatment plants are not effective at removing pharmaceuticals and toxic chemicals. Just look at publicized examples such as the Liberty Hill sewer plant on the San Gabriel River. Not only is this important to the environment, it is also economically important to our community – who wants to visit an area with polluted waterways?
That is why we should all be proud and thankful that our City Council took the action to stop Wimberley’s ability to discharge sewer effluent into the Blanco River. However, some think that the relatively small City plant at Blue Hole wouldn’t have been an environmental problem and that what is happening in the City of Blanco could never happen here. Well, think again. Did we really want to turn a blind eye to inevitable growth, the City’s obligation to provide sewer service, TCEQ rules that make no common sense, a City with limited financial resources, and unpredictable actions of future City leaders? It is best that no sewer plant with a discharge permit ever be built by the City – or anyone else for that matter. Please consider the following paragraphs when examining whether opening the door to the slippery slope of discharge was worth the chance.
Several years ago Wimberley obtained a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (“CCN”) to provide wastewater service. The CCN not only serves the downtown area, but also areas within the City limits south of the RR12 Blanco River bridge to the Junction, down Flite Acres Road, and other areas. The area north of the Creek is served by Aqua Texas. Along with the right to provide service to an area on an exclusive basis, a CCN carries a significant obligation. The CCN certificate states: “It is further ordered that the Village of Wimberley shall serve every customer and applicant for service within the area certified under CCN No. 20936 and that such service shall be continuous and adequate”. It requires a major financial commitment to fulfil and maintain.
When obtaining the CCN those several years ago, the City’s consultants prepared a Wastewater Master Plan for Wimberley to serve as a planning tool for development of a centralized wastewater system. This plan contemplated meeting the then current wastewater demands as well as future growth by building treatment facilities at Blue Hole Park. Under its “Moderate Participation” scenario, there were three phases – 50,000, then 150,000 and then 300,000 gallons per day of sewage treatment. Under the “Full Participation” scenario, the volume increased to over 1.3 million gallons per day.
Had the proposed new City plant gone forward, a condition of the TCEQ permit would include that once the plant reached 75% of its capacity that the City would have been required to initiate planning for expansion. This threshold is just 56,250 gallons per day. As described, the City still has an obligation under its CCN to serve the rest of its service area. That obligation can only be ignored for so long before the City will need to take action. And when the City has finished its own collection system downtown, like it or not, there will be a change in the small town character of that area with enhanced economic use of properties. Although the City can control growth through its ordinances, you can likely count on more bars, restaurants, inns, and maybe even a resort or two – and of course more sewage. And remember this has nothing to do with Aqua being the wholesale provider to the City with Aqua’s no discharge plant. All customers in the City CCN will continue to be the City’s responsibility.
Growth and its consequences are inevitable, but manageable to some extent. But one thing we can prevent now is the potentially catastrophic environmental effects to our pristine waterways associated with discharge of sewer effluent. My position is and will always be ZERO DISCHARGE into the Blanco River – not today, not tomorrow, not ever!