Feb. 28, 2025 – A three-day contested case hearing before the state on a permit that would allow an average of 1 million gallons a day of treated sewage to be released into the Helotes Creek watershed, threatening the region’s water quality, closed Feb. 20 with attorneys challenging the adequacy of state modeling used for permitting, among other issues of legal strength.
Attorneys from both sides now have until the end of March 11 to file closing briefs. The State Office of Administrative Hearings 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.
The Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, the city of Grey Forest and landowner Ann Toepperwein are contesting the permit for Municipal Operations LLC, which would be the wastewater operator for Florida-based Lennar Corp.’s proposed 2,900-home development on about 1,100 acres called Guajolote Ranch, west of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads in northwest Bexar County.
“Our attorneys landed several knockout punches over the three-day hearing,” said Randy Neumann, chair of the steering committee of the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance, a neighborhood group supporting the protestants.
“This fight is ultimately about the sanctity of the drinking water source of 1.7 million Texans in an eight-county area of Central Texas,” he said. “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.”
See Neumann’s full statement here: https://www.scenicloop.org/post/1495/statement-from-randy-neumann-feb-28-2025/
The Helotes Creek watershed 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 multiple counties. Up to 15% of the entire recharge of the Edwards Aquifer comes from that watershed.
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 would 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.
During the hearing, resembling a civil trial but with two administrative law judges, Ronald Green, the lead author of the Southwest Research Institute study who holds a doctorate in hydrology, testified for the permit opponents about how the karst aquifer features beneath and downstream of Guajolote Ranch differ from more typical “coarse media” of sandstone and gravel that provides ample filtration elsewhere in the state.
Limestone karst has fractures that make it more porous. Pollutants seep directly into groundwater and travel much faster.
Green told of a study showing how effluent that was spread on the surface of a farm atop a karst aquifer at Walkerton, Ontario, in Canada, contaminated a public well in a matter of days – killing “six or seven people” and making “several thousand” sick.
Those were the same findings recounted in a presentation to Alamo Area Master Naturalists by geoscientist George Veni, an internationally recognized expert on underground karst formations who wrote the book, “The Caves of Bexar County.” It was the subject of a commentary in the San Antonio Express-News posted on Feb. 3, and mentioned prominently in an editorial by the paper’s editorial board in Feb. 16 print editions, titled, “Standards to safeguard water too low.”
Green testified that, likewise, contaminants could make their way from Guajolote Ranch to wells in the area of Toepperwein’s land along the southeast border of the development in just one or two days. When the permit applicant’s counsel suggested that what happened in Canada isn’t relevant to the geology of Helotes Creek, Green replied, “Yes it is.”
Like at Walkerton, he said, potential pollutants would be discharged in an area of “enhanced preferential flow” on Guajolote Ranch where a prominent fault and fractures could provide conduits for contamination to pass from the surface to the subsurface rapidly. He said “all the accepted science” suggests that will happen, backed by dozens of studies documenting the impact of faulting in the Balcones Escarpment fault zone that separates the Edwards Plateau from the Coastal Plains.
Later, Eric Allmon, attorney for GEAA, Grey Forest and Toepperwein, pressed a TCEQ engineer on the accuracy of modeling and variances developed from median data elsewhere in the state to predict dissolved oxygen in the receiving effluent stream at Guajolote Ranch, in determining that the draft permit should be approved. (Dissolved oxygen is an important indicator of water quality and a water body’s ability to support aquatic life.)
The engineer said that she relied upon that statewide median data as default values, because of a lack of site-specific data – though she didn’t make a site visit and couldn’t confirm whether a previous modeler had made one.
Allmon asked what data was used to develop the default parameters, what streams elsewhere were looked at, and whether the agency had ever done before-and-after evaluations to see how accurate the models had been. She said she didn’t know.
Other witnesses for the permit applicant or agency acknowledged they really wouldn’t know those answers until after the plant is in operation – when the operator would be relied upon to self-report any exceedances of the permit.
Earlier, environmental engineer Lauren Ross, Ph.D, an expert witness for the permit opponents, testified that the dissolved oxygen concentrations indicated in the model used by TCEQ for Guajolote Ranch are “unreliable” and underestimated. She noted that the agency used standard hydraulic parameters from across the state to calculate stream widths, depths and velocity that are at odds with visual observation at the site.
Others for the applicant and TCEQ seemed not to know where the proposed discharge point would be on Guajolote Ranch. An aquatic biologist testifying for TCEQ said she agreed with two applicant witnesses that sensitive cave features with karst invertebrate species would be uphill from the discharge point, and therefore not a concern. Allmon presented maps showing those features along the route downstream from the discharge point, and continuing off the ranch.
Asked if those sensitive features were in the creek bed, would it be her opinion that wastewater could potentially impact species there, she replied, “Hypothetically, that could be an option, if that’s where the water went.”
Allmon and co-counsel also challenged the lack of a requirement in the permit application to monitor nitrogen and nitrates, in addition to phosphorus. Nitrate levels in drinking water above accepted standards have been tied to “blue baby syndrome,” marked by low oxygen levels in the blood. And they questioned how the phosphorus limits were determined.
High nutrient levels of nitrogen and phosphorus cause rapid algae growth that can produce toxins harmful to people and wildlife. Testimony cited large algae blooms that developed in the South San Gabriel River downstream of wastewater discharge from the city of Liberty Hill, in Central Texas, raising concerns for safety and recreation.
Asked if he would take his grandchildren to wade in that water, a witness for the permit applicants replied, “My grandchildren? Probably not.”
Other testimony focused on PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals” linked to cancer and other health effects – that could come from various household uses and wouldn’t be treated – as well as protection of endangered species and other issues.
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.
“We call on every member of our community to join us in opposing this dangerous development,” Neumann said. “Stand with us to protect our environment, our health and our future. Nothing is more essential to a healthy life than clean water. Together, we can ensure that San Antonio and Central Texas remain a safe and thriving place for generations to come.”
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