March 14, 2025 – The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Office of Public Interest Counsel (OPIC) is recommending that a wastewater permit be denied for Florida-based Lennar Corp.’s proposed Guajolote Ranch development in northwest Bexar County that could threaten water quality across a multi-county region.
The permit would allow an average of 1 million gallons a day of treated sewage to be released into the Helotes Creek watershed, which directly recharges the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer, the primary water source in the immediate area, and sits atop the contributing zone leading to the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer, the principal source of drinking water for San Antonio and 11 counties. Up to 15% of the entire recharge of the Edwards Aquifer comes from that watershed.
In a closing argument filed on March 11, from a contested-case hearing on the permit held before the State Office of Administrative Hearings Feb. 18-20, OPIC, an independent party to all TCEQ proceedings, concluded that the applicant has failed to show “that the draft permit’s total phosphorus limit would be protective of water quality or aquatic life.”
Therefore, the applicant hasn’t met its burden for the first two issues referred to SOAH – namely, whether the permit would adequately protect water quality, including surface water, groundwater and drinking water wells; and whether it would protect wildlife, including endangered species, in accordance with Texas Surface Water Quality Standards, according to OPIC.
Meanwhile, and also in March 11 filings, the attorney for the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, the city of Grey Forest and landowner Ann Toepperwein protesting the permit additionally argued that the applicant had failed to comply with siting requirements and satisfy consideration of need.
Attorneys for the permit applicant, Municipal Operations LLC, which would be the wastewater operator for Lennar’s proposed 2,900-home Guajolote Ranch development on about 1,100 acres west of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads, as well as counsel for the TCEQ executive director, argued the opposite on all issues in the March 11 filings.
Attorneys from both sides now have until the end of March 23 to file responses to the closing arguments. SOAH is expected to send its decision on the permit to the three-member board of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality by late May. That panel, then, can accept or reject the decision. If necessary, an appeals process would follow. A final TCEQ decision is expected by late summer.
“This fight is ultimately about the sanctity of the drinking water source of 1.7 million Texans across multiple counties of South Central Texas,” said Randy Neumann, chair of the steering committee of the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance, a neighborhood group supporting the protestants.
“The fact that the state agency designed to protect the environment of Texas, and the health, safety and welfare of its people, would even consider issuing a permit to allow 1 million gallons of sewage per day to be discharged on the Edwards Aquifer contributing zone, less than five miles upstream of the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, gambling with the water safety of such a large swathe of Texas citizens, is cause for alarm,” he said.
A landmark study by the Southwest Research Institute funded through the city of San Antonio’s Edwards Aquifer Protection Plan found that any type of wastewater system from residential developments releasing treated effluent in the Helotes Creek watershed would “significantly degrade the watershed and the quality of water recharging the Edwards Aquifer.”
Pollutants such as E. coli and toxins like harmful “forever chemicals” from this unprecedented development could seriously threaten the health, safety and welfare of those living in and around San Antonio. Notably, the San Antonio Water System does not pretreat its Edwards Aquifer water supplies prior to distribution within its service area.
Eric Allmon, attorney for the protestants, noted in his closing argument the extensive testimony of Ron Green, Ph.D, lead author of the Southwest Research Institute study, that groundwater in the area of the proposed discharge would be particularly sensitive to contamination, including pathogens. The location of receiving waters in the contributing zone of the Edwards Aquifer, which is hydraulically connected to the aquifer’s recharge zone, allows minimally diluted contaminants in the karst to travel at a rate of approximately one mile per day.
Helotes Creek crosses a fault shortly downstream of the discharge, which may serve as a conduit for contaminants to enter the groundwater, according to the filing.
Green also noted threats to nearby groundwater wells, like those of protestant Toepperwein and daughter Lynette Toepperwein Munson located within a half-mile of where Helotes Creek exits Guajolote Ranch, saying that discharge upstream of those wells could arrive within one to two days in the karst aquifer, posing “a significant risk to drinking water supplies.” His site inspection confirmed the presence of fractured bedrock and faults in the creek bed, which serve as conduits for contaminants to enter the aquifer, according to the filing.
Even somewhat deeper Grey Forest wells would be at risk of contamination, Allmon noted, also because of faults between those wells and the discharge point, and possibly within 24 hours. The wells are located within a quarter-mile of Helotes Creek, “meaning that the contaminants will not have far to travel in order to move from the creek bed to the wells,” in Green’s words.
Allmon, in his filing, also criticized the lack of nitrate limits in the draft permit. The discharged effluent would include nitrates, which even at concentrations lower than primary drinking water standards have been linked to increased risk of colorectal, bladder and breast cancer, as well as thyroid disease, diabetes and birth defects.
“Given the potential for contamination in the discharge to quickly reach the nearby groundwater wells with little dilution, the draft permit fails to adequately protect groundwater from potential contamination …” Almon concluded, in the brief.
Here’s a link to the full filing from Allmon, for the protestants: https://www.scenicloop.org/wp-content/uploads/2025.03.11-Protestants-Closing-Brief.pdf
And here’s a map showing the location of Guajolote Ranch, with the discharge point, Helotes Creek and neighboring communities: https://www.scenicloop.org/wp-content/uploads/Guajolote-Protection-Map.pdf
OPIC agreed with the protestants that the applicant failed to meet its burden to show that the draft permit sufficiently protects water quality. It focused on the draft permit’s limit of 0.15 milligrams per liter of phosphorus in the effluent, arguing that a lower limit needs to be evaluated, based on “ample evidence” that a lack of shade and the flat creek bed of Helotes Creek would be conducive to algae blooms, fed by phosphorus.
Allmon’s filing noted that excessive algae growth, like that observed at the Lower San Gabriel River and East Lick Creek downstream of wastewater discharge from the city of Liberty Hill in Central Texas, leads to decreased species diversity and would affect the aquatic life uses and primary contact recreation uses of the receiving waters. OPIC recommended that the permit be denied, or remanded to further evaluate the total phosphorus limit.
Who is behind the development?
Guajolote Ranch is owned by the Huntress family of Terrell Hills, with Lennar holding an option to purchase it. On behalf of the family, Richard H. “Rick” LePere, treasurer of for-profit Guajolote Ranch Inc. and son-in-law of company director Diana Huntress, filed with the county to create a Public Improvement District (PID) for the development that would authorize $138 million in infrastructure at taxpayer expense.
It is not known why the family opted for a development of this sort, and whether they considered conservation – an alternative exercised by hundreds of landowners receiving tens of millions of public dollars for decades to preserve nearly 200,000 acres across the most sensitive land across the Hill Country.
Those interested in donating to support the fight can go to: https://aquiferalliance.org/donate-to-geaa/guajolote-ranch-fund/.
The Scenic Loop – Helotes Creek Alliance represents the largest neighborhood by square mile recognized by the San Antonio Neighborhood & Housing Services Department, a wide corridor along Scenic Loop Road from Bandera Road to north of Babcock Road.
CONTACT:
Scenic Loop – Helotes Creek Alliance
Randy Neumann, 210-867-2826, uhit@aol.com
Stuart Birnbaum, 210-355-9974, stuart.birnbaum@sbcglobal.net
Michael Wm. Schick, 571-296-9601, mschick@aol.com
Lynette Munson (daughter of Ann Toepperwein, with property abutting Guajolote Ranch), 210-317-8415, aniton2000@aol.com
Steve Lee, 210-415-2402, slee_78023@yahoo.com
Grey Forest
Mayor Paul Garro, 210-710-0742, mayor@greyforest-tx.gov
Councilman Michael Phillips, 301-910-9235, mphillips@greyforest-tx.gov