SBCA News — Hays Growth Talk is next Sunday 12/3
nell penridge
Protecting Texas streams since 1979
Creek Chronicle
November 2023
Hays County Growth Talk — Next Sunday, December 3, at Vista Brewing
Workday with Ecology Action — Roy G. Guerrero Park, January 28
Judges’ opinion on Liberty Hill permit — A preliminary win for pristine streams
Hays County Growth Talk – Sunday, December 3
WHEN: 1-3pm, Sunday, December 3 (new date)
WHERE: Vista Brewing, 13551 RM 150, Driftwood, TX 78619
INFO: SBCA website, Facebook
Warning lights for overdevelopment are flashing red all over Hays County. Officials don’t have enough power to make sure that the two aquifers providing most of the county’s water supplies aren’t overpumped. Limited resources are hampering the preservation of Hays’ shrinking green space as parks or conservation easements. New highway proposals would bring even more growth into areas already overstressed by existing development. And several new and proposed subdivisions have been located in unincorporated areas where county officials have less authority to require sustainable development than city officials.
SBCA and our partners will take a big-picture look at these problems in the Hays County Growth Talk, a fun, free, and educational event for the public on December 3 at Vista Brewing just south of Driftwood. (The event was rescheduled from the original date because of bad weather.) You’ll be able to enjoy Vista’s food and beverages while listening to an expert panel discuss the growth issues facing Hays. You’ll also be able to ask your own questions during a Q&A with our experts.
Look for Vista Brewing’s sign on RM 150 just south of Driftwood
Our panel will include Dr. Robert Mace, the executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University, as well as Jenna Walker, director of watershed services at the center, and Douglas Wierman, a Meadows fellow. We’ll also be joined by Scott Way, former chair of the Hays County Parks and Open Space Advisory Commission (POSAC), and Jay Blazek Crossley, executive director of Farm&City. SBCA is co-sponsoring the Hays County Growth Talk with the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, San Marcos River Foundation, The Watershed Association, Save Our Springs Alliance, and Clean Water Action. You can find out more information on this event page.
Workday with Ecology Action – January 28
WHEN: January 28, Sunday, 9-11am
WHERE: Roy G. Guerrero Park — meet in the first parking lot next to the Montopolis Youth Sports Complex, located at 800 Grove Blvd, Austin, TX 78741
RSVP: MeetUp
Join SBCA for another collaboration workday with Ecology Action at Roy G. Guerrero Park. We will be planting and propagating native grasses, as well as watering them. Bring work gloves if you have them. Also wear comfortable clothing, closed-toed shoes, and bring plenty of water. We’ll meet at the first parking lot for the Montopolis Youth Sports Complex (the baseball fields). Please wear comfortable clothing and closed-toe shoes, bring work gloves if you have them, and bring plenty of water.
SBCA helped Ecology Action plant native trees at Circle Acres for our November workday
Liberty Hill opinion – A win for pristine streams
We’ve told you many times before that the city of Liberty Hill has been causing the worst sewage pollution in all of Texas by discharging its wastewater into the South San Gabriel River. Even after treatment, the city’s wastewater still contains phosphorus, which has been fertilizing the growth of excess algae in the South San Gabriel, a pristine stream with a very low level of naturally occurring phosphorus. Liberty Hill is currently asking the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to renew its discharge permit, but local landowners have been opposing this renewal in a contested case challenge.
This summer, two administrative law judges conducted an extremely rare second contested case hearing on Liberty Hill’s application. They were instructed by TCEQ’s commissioners to examine only one question: What does the phosphorus limit need to be in the city’s new permit in order to prevent the growth of excess algae? The judges answered that question in an opinion released on November 10. In order to get rid of the blanket of algae that’s suffocated the South San Gabriel for the past seven years, the judges wrote that the amount of phosphorus remaining in Liberty Hill’s wastewater after treatment should be limited to 15 micrograms per liter (mcg/L).
The judges based their recommendation in part on testimony from Dr. Ryan King, one of the leading water quality scientists in the country and a professor at Baylor University. Dr. King was one of three expert witnesses hired to give testimony for Stephanie Ryder Morris, the lead protestant in the contested case challenge. He explained that 10 micrograms per liter is the highest level of naturally occurring phosphorus in pristine streams, and that 15 mcg/L of phosphorus is the tipping point at which excess algae begins to grow.
It’s hard to overstate how important this opinion is in our long fight to protect all pristine streams in Texas, including Barton Creek. The judges’ recommendation of 15 mcg/L is ten times lower than the 150 mcg/L limit that TCEQ proposed for Liberty Hill’s new permit. The commission previously included a 150 mcg/L limit in the permits that it issued to Dripping Springs and Belterra, and in a draft permit that it proposed for the Long Branch tributary of Barton Creek.
Lauren Ice, the attorney who successfully represented protestant Morris in the second hearing, was able to rehire Dr. King and two other expert witnesses because SBCA and our partners helped raise the money for this. SBCA especially wants to acknowledge the very generous contributions from Jeffrey Hershey and The Jacob & Terese Hershey Foundation, the Hill Country Alliance, the Llano River Watershed Alliance, and Chico Newman. SBCA also wants to thank you, our members, because your contributions enabled our board to make a substantial donation to rehire the expert witnesses. This donation turned out to be one of the most successful investments SBCA has ever made.
This case isn’t over yet. TCEQ is currently considering the judges’ opinion, and the agency’s commissioners are expected to vote early next year on approving Liberty Hill’s new permit. Will they side with their own staff, which has recommended a phosphorus limit of 150 micrograms per liter? Or will they accept the judges’ opinion that only a limit of 15 micrograms will get rid of the algae that has plagued the South San Gabriel almost constantly since Liberty Hill started operating under its current permit? SBCA will keep you posted on what happens next, and what this case could mean for other pristine streams like Barton Creek.
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