BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Local leaders and northwest Bexar County residents met on Sunday ahead of a legal proceeding over whether or not a company should get a wastewater permit for a project just outside Helotes.
Guajolote Ranch is the name of a developer’s plan for 2,900 homes in northwest Bexar County.
However, the developer would need to put a wastewater plant in the area, and the homes that would follow could also pose a risk to the community’s drinking water.
The Florida-based company’s plan involves building thousands of homes and a wastewater plant.
Neighbors in and around Helotes said the plan would dump about one million gallons of treated sewage into the Helotes Creek Watershed daily.
“The various household chemicals that would wash into the stream, we’re very concerned about,” northwest Bexar County neighbor Steve Lee said.
The Helotes Creek Watershed is in the recharge zone for two dominant aquifers, the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer and the Edwards Aquifer. Millions of people get drinking water from these two.
Lee is one of the people who gets the drinking water for his property from a well in the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer. His property has been in his family for 160 years.
“Even though it’s treated wastewater, we’re concerned that certainly some E. coli might make it down,” Lee said. “And directly underneath us is the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer, which is the primary source of drinking water for this whole area.”
The Helotes Creek Watershed’s contribution to the Edwards Aquifer provides more than 50 percent of the San Antonio Water System’s water supply. The possibility of contamination of so many residents' drinking water even brought Mayor Ron Nirenberg to the site.
“In reality, it’s millions of people that depend on this part of the hill country to protect their water,” Nirenberg said.
The Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance neighborhood group committee had its meeting with Nirenberg just days before a hearing was set to begin on whether the developer should be granted the wastewater permit.
“The SOAH (State Office of Administrative Hearings), that body is expected to send its decision to TCEQ for consideration by late May,” Lee said.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality can either accept or reject the proposal; after that, there is still an appeals process.
“Common sense dictates that we shouldn’t be putting that development on the headwaters of what is one of the most sensitive parts of our watershed,” Nirenberg said.
Lee also mentioned the likelihood of traffic in the area becoming a problem since nearly 3,000 new homes could be added to the neighborhood.
Neighbors who showed Nirenberg the impact told KSAT the developers involved have not communicated with them at all. This is a potentially uphill battle for the community near where this build could begin.
The walk-through with the mayor took place on a Sunday afternoon.
KSAT reached out to Lennar Corporation on Sunday and will follow up with Lennar for a comment on Monday.
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