DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — Editor's note: A previous version of this article stated that the Texas Supreme Court had decided that the Dripping Springs permit could not pass the review, but the court has not made a decision.
The Texas Supreme Court has announced plans to take up a Central Texas case regarding a state agency's approval of a wastewater permit.
The justices will decide if a the agency's approval of a wastewater permit for the city of Dripping Springs violates state and federal water quality standards.
The legal fight goes back to 2019. The environmental group Save Our Springs sued the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for granting the city of Dripping Springs a permit to discharge wastewater into Onion Creek, which is home to two endangered salamander species.
The creek is considered a "high quality" body of water, meaning that the quality of its waters exceeds the standards required to maintain its existing uses, including recreation, aquatic life and domestic water supply. For Dripping Springs to get the permit, the city has to pass two tiers of review to show the wastewater will not jeopardize the water quality.
According to a briefing from the Texas Supreme Court, "Under Tier 1 review, no discharge is allowed that would affect the maintenance of existing uses and water quality sufficient to protect those uses. Under Tier 2 review, no discharge is permitted that would degrade or lower the quality of high-quality waters without a showing that the degradation is necessary to accommodate an important economic or social development. And even if this showing is made, any permissible degradation must still not affect a waterbody’s existing uses."
After several back-and-forth appeals and rulings, the Texas Supreme Court granted Save Our Springs review of the case to determine if the permit can pass the two-tiered review, as required by state and federal law.
A spokesperson for the Texas Supreme Court said the court will set a date for a hearing in the fall.
You can read previous KVUE coverage of this issue below:
