Public health agency ‘caved to Lennar, abdicated its responsibility’

April 24, 2025 – A state district court in Austin set a hearing for May 6 on a temporary restraining order to keep secret a settlement the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District negotiated with Lennar Corp.’s proposed wastewater operator for the controversial Guajolote Ranch development in northwest Bexar County.

The development would include 2,900 homes on about 1,100 acres west of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads, and release an average of 1 million gallons per day of treated sewage into the Helotes Creek watershed, which recharges up to 15% of the Edwards Aquifer.

Just last year, Metro Health, the city’s public health agency, was granted standing by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to contest a permit for the wastewater operator, Municipal Operations LLC, arguing it had statutory authority to prohibit potential pollution of San Antonio’s water supply. It was to have joined the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA), the city of Grey Forest and landowner Ann Toepperwein in a contested-case hearing before the state on Feb. 18-20.

Instead, Metro Health quietly settled with Municipal Operations in December, without the knowledge of San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and city council, and it refused to make details public. Both GEAA and the San Antonio Express-News filed open records requests, and on March 21, the state attorney general’s office ruled for the settlement’s release.

The city let six days go by before Municipal Operations filed for the temporary restraining order on March 27, with the attorney general’s office and, ironically, Metro Health as defendants. GEAA filed a plea for intervention in the case. A hearing on the order was set for April 17, but the court postponed it after an attorney for Municipal Operations reported a death in her immediate family.

If the court rules to sustain the order on May 6, a trial on a permanent injunction would be set for Oct. 27 – well after the TCEQ is expected to decide on the permit by late summer, which would render the issue moot. Meanwhile, the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which heard the contested case, is expected to rule by May 20, and send its decision to TCEQ for consideration.

“We were outraged that Metro Health abdicated its responsibility to protect the health, safety and welfare of water users throughout this region – and then, kept it secret,” said Randy Neumann, chair of the steering committee of nonprofit Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance, a neighborhood group supporting and raising funds for the fight. “By caving to Lennar, they imperiled water quality for 1.7 million residents of San Antonio and multiple counties that depend upon the Edwards Aquifer, and in so doing forfeited the city of San Antonio’s right to standing in the case.”
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According to Nirenberg, who opposes the development and also expressed displeasure with the settlement, the agreement extracts some protective relief, though he said he was prohibited from disclosing details.

Whatever was agreed upon, the contested-case hearing proceeded with Municipal Operations’ application to discharge effluent directly into Helotes Creek, which recharges the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer, the primary water source for the immediate area. The creek also flows across the contributing zone leading to the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer.

However, during the hearing, an attorney for Municipal Operations said at various times that once the discharge permit is approved, the operator would file to “reuse” the effluent. Typically, that involves applying the effluent to the land’s surface. Approval of the discharge permit still would be required first.

Neumann said that land application of 1 million gallons per day of treated sewage would still degrade groundwater in the Trinity and Edwards Aquifers, as it would seep through the porous karst limestone formation and into the aquifers below, and likely still collect in Helotes Creek.

He pointed to a study by Southwest Research Institute, funded through the city of San Antonio’s own Edwards Aquifer Protection Plan, finding that any wastewater treatment type from residential development in the Helotes Creek watershed, including land application, would “significantly degrade the watershed and the quality of water recharging the Edwards Aquifer.”

Analysis of a longstanding Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer monitoring well just downstream of the Guajolote property has indicated dramatic rises in water levels after rainfall, indicating that what falls on the surface in the area is quickly transferred to groundwater, just as scientists say.

A study of a similar karst limestone formation in Canada – recounted in a presentation to Alamo Area Master Naturalists by geoscientist George Veni and mentioned prominently in an editorial by the Express-News editorial board – showed how contaminants from effluent applied to the surface of a farm reached area wells in a matter of days, killing seven people and making 2,300 others gravely ill.

Just two months ago, similar circumstances in Johnson County, Texas, led to groundwater contamination with so-called “forever chemicals” or PFAS, including livestock deaths and PFAS found in animal tissues.

Likewise, here, Neumann said, “Many people could get extremely sick from E. coli poisoning, and some of those could die. Others could suffer long-term effects from forever chemicals and pharmaceuticals that wouldn’t be removed in the wastewater treatment process. We’re not willing to risk that.”

And he noted there still would be an issue with stormwater runoff down Helotes Creek. Pesticides, herbicides, automotive waste, household chemicals, pet waste, lawn waste and other pollution that would wash down the creek from the upgradient development would add to well pollution, flooding and the ruination of recreational spaces.

The secret Metro Health settlement has prompted calls for greater transparency at San Antonio City Hall during the current mayoral campaign.

City Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Adriana Rocha Garcia, who toured the Guajolote Ranch area on April 6 along with fellow candidates Councilman John Courage and tech entrepreneur Beto Altamirano as guests of the SL-HCA, took to task City Manager Erik Walsh and Metro Health’s reliance on a SAWS’ attorney for the lapse, during an April 14 appearance on Texas Public Radio’s The Source program.

”That is kind of like the third thing that has happened in just the last few weeks that we hadn’t known about,” Rocha Garcia said. “To me, it’s embarrassing to learn about it in the media or to learn about it from others. We do annual evaluations on the city manager, but I think that definitely in light of the raise he just got from the residents of San Antonio, that we need to be able to expect more. Give us different heads up about certain things.

“When the city council doesn’t know something, they can’t fix it,” she said. “Immediately when we came back from the tour, I started asking questions. I asked why Metro Health had not released that information. And I learned in the process that it was actually one of the SAWS attorneys that is working the case with Metro Health directly. That needs to change. With something especially as critical as water – and literally the lifeblood of our community is water – we absolutely have to be aware about it before any further decisions are taken.”

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

OTHER RECENT PRESS RELEASES: 

3/24 — Legislative resolution urges TCEQ to take ‘immediate and decisive action’ to protect the Edwards Aquifer from development: https://www.scenicloop.org/legislative-resolution-to-protect-the-edwards-aquifer-from-development/

3/14 — TCEQ’s Office of Public Interest Counsel recommends denying a permit for Guajolote Ranch: https://www.scenicloop.org/OPIC-Recommends-Denying-Guajolote-Permit/

2/2 — Million Gallon March draws about 300, Nirenberg urges residents to fight on: https://www.scenicloop.org/post/1483/million-gallon-march/