HAYS COUNTY, Texas — The steady stream of people moving to Central Texas means a constant need for housing. But some Hays County homeowners and environmental groups are fighting a proposed wastewater treatment facility that would service a new housing development over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone, or where water enters the aquifer.
Their concern was heightened by a new extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, law that releases the builder from stricter aquifer protection measures.
Milestone Community Builders, an Austin developer, plans to build a wastewater treatment plant near FM 1626 and State Highway 45. The plant would serve the builder's proposed Hays Commons Development, a residential and commercial proposal that sits on 500-plus acres of land.
Nearby homeowners said that the plant will negatively impact their water quality, the Edwards Aquifer and even Barton Springs Pool. They worry it could also affect the air quality.
Homeowner Keith Whittington moved to Manchaca in 1995.
“We love it out here … It's been a very quiet area," Whittington said.
But his way of life in rural Hays County may be changing.
“The proposed development for Milestone would bring a minimum of 1,500 to 2,000 people into this area," Whittington said.
It would also bring a new wastewater treatment plant.
Mike Clifford is with the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance. He said the proposed plant will pollute hundreds of private and community wells.
"They're going to be irrigating treated sewage over the recharge zone where we are here. And when you do that … if the soils aren't thick enough, it will just leach down into the aquifer," Clifford said.
Water for the entire city of Hays would also be affected. Hays is a community with 249 residents in the county with the same name.
Lydia Bryan-Valdez is mayor pro tem. She declined an interview but sent KVUE this statement:
"The City of Hays has significant concerns about the wastewater treatment plant proposed by Hays Commons Development, which includes the land application of treated effluent [known as a 'TLAP'] in an environmentally sensitive recharge area of the Edwards Aquifer. The area where the effluent would be applied is directly behind our homes, our city hall and, importantly, our water wells. The city uses those wells to provide safe drinking water to its residents as well as other customers. In fact, TCEQ already approved a new groundwater well that, if Hays Commons’ wastewater treatment facility is approved, will be located only 20 feet from the boundary of the effluent field. For these reasons, the city of Hays will request a contested case hearing on Hays Commons Development’s TLAP application. The City hopes TCEQ will give serious consideration to the environmental and public health issues raised by the proposed TLAP."
Clifford said the proposed wastewater treatment plant would even affect the water at Barton Springs Pool because it draws from the Edwards Aquifer.
"All the sudden, Barton Springs, instead of being this clear flowing pool, would turn into a cloudy, polluted pool," Clifford said.
On Whittington’s property, he showed us a karst, or faults and fractures that allow rain or runoff to seep easier into the Edwards Aquifer. Clifford said an environmental study shows the land where Milestone wants to develop has more than 40 karsts.
“And the worst of all, the TCEQ has said that Milestone can have a more lax wastewater permit than what even Milestone proposed,” Clifford said.
That doesn’t sit well with Darlene Starr, who lives nearby in Manchaca. She said the proposed plant frightens her.
"If my well were to be contaminated, I would have to buy water," Starr said.
Senate Bill 2038, which went into effect on Sept. 1, 2023, allows property owners like Milestone to disannex from a city's ETJ. That means the developer no longer needs to follow city environmental regulations but laxer county and state ones.
"A wastewater treatment plant … has not ever been approved for the recharge zone,” Starr said.
Starr said she hopes it never will.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality held a meeting on Tuesday night regarding Milestone's permit for a wastewater plant.
We reached out to Milestone and have not heard back. A TCEQ spokesperson said commissioners will consider public feedback during a future commission agenda. July 25 is the last day for public comment.