News
SGVA asks county to join fight against SAWS
expansion
By William Hoover
Anvil Herald
Correspondent
The San Antonio Water
System Board of Directors last Dec. 4 seemed to be proud of a unanimous
decision to deny a water and sewer service agreement with Baruch
Properties (BP) for its 1,766 acre Hills of Castle Rock subdivision. The
planned site is near State Highway 16 and Park Road 37, and the nearest
SAWS water main is 7.5 miles away. SAWS now, however, wants to provide
utility services to the area and is pursuing utility service permits from
the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
At the SAWS Board
meeting four months ago, San Antonio Mayor and Ex-officio Board Member
Phil Hardberger, offered the motion to deny the Utility Service Agreement
(USA) with BP to provide water and sewer service in the remote area
northwest of San Antonio, saying he wanted to protect the Edwards Aquifer
and those who rely on it.
“Density development
in a sensitive zone simply is not a good thing for the citizens of San
Antonio, for our city, for our neighbors or for our water,” Hardberger
told the SAWS Board according to Jerry Needham’s San Antonio
Express~News article on Dec. 5.
Hardberger
said the city’s “irreversible mistakes” in planning over the Edwards
Aquifer’s sensitive areas are on display for anyone driving out Loop 1604
North and U.S. 281. “I would like to keep this last watershed as pure as
we can,” said the mayor, as quoted by Needham.
Similarly, SAWS Board President Alex Breseño said he opposed the leapfrog
type development which would occur if SAWS extended utilities almost eight
miles from its nearest water main.
On March
10, San Geronimo Valley Alliance President Randy Johnson asked Medina
County Commissioners for their support in opposing SAWS’ application for
CCN permits to provide sewer and water service in northeast Medina County.
He said SAWS was circumventing its unanimous decision not to provide the
HoCR with sewer or water by applying for CCN permits for both services in
northeast Medina County, northwest Bexar County and 40 acres inside
Bandera County. The CCN neatly captures the entire HoCR subdivision, which
occupies parts of all three counties.
Johnson,
a Medina County resident, told commissioners they should be as interested
in protecting the environmental health of ecosystems in its jurisdictional
territory as are cities in Bexar County.
He
said SAWS had applied for an expansion of its CCN area for both water and
sewer services, which will include all of northwest Bexar County and a
large part of northeast Medina County. “This application includes an area
that is outside of the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) of San
Antonio,” said the SGVA President.
“A number
of organizations are opposed to this application, including the SGVA, the
Helotes Heritage Association (HHA), the Hill Country Planning Association
(HCPA) and the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA). These
organizations are opposed to the enlargement of SAWS CCN because they fear
that, if allowed over this area, there will be unbridled growth similar to
what occurred on FM 1957,” Johnson told the
court.
“The San Geronimo watershed accounts
for seven to ten percent of the total recharge of the Edwards Aquifer,” he
said. “This kind of growth will have a negative impact on the quality of
water available for a large number of Medina County citizens. It will also
affect the storm water runoff along the San Geronimo Creek and cause
possible flooding in the City of Castroville.”
According to Johnson, on Feb. 26, the City of Grey Forest (near Helotes in
northwest Bexar County), pop. 418, passed a motion to retain the law firm
of Lowerre, Frederick, Perales and Allmon for the purpose of representing
Grey Forest in contesting SAWS sewer
application.
Johnson wanted commissioners to
put an item on the agenda to discuss the possibility of Medina County
retaining the same law firm to contest SAWS application for the water CCN.
He told commissioners the law firm is currently working on this CCN for
both the GEAA and the SGVA.
“If Grey Forest
can make a commitment such as this, then Medina County, whose citizens
will be more directly impacted than the citizens of Grey Forest, should be
willing to make a similar commitment,” he
said.
According to Johnson, Grey Forest and
the surrounding communities wish Medina County would show leadership on
the issue because home-owners living in the area where SAWS wants to
extend its CCN use Trinity Aquifer water and are surrounded by over 1,600
acres of land purchased with taxpayer’s money. The land is held in
conservation by the City of San Antonio to protect the Edwards
Aquifer.
“The Helotes, Lee and Chimnea Creeks
and their tributaries converge in Grey Forest and its ETJ,” he said. “They
are critical to aquifer recharge. The initial sewer construction and
potential leakage are threats to these creeks and the aquifer. Grey Forest
will be working closely with the law firm, the GEAA, and other
organizations in this matter.”
If the item
could be put on an upcoming agenda, John-son requested to be notified as
soon as the decision is made so the he could arrange for expert witnesses
to attend.
County Judge Jim Barden asked a
couple of questions, but the SGVA President was not aware he had gained
support from the court. Last weekend, however, Precinct 1 Commissioner
Ronnie Ulbrich responded to Johnson’s comments. The portion of Medina
County in question is in Pct. 1.
“Certainly, I
don’t blame them for opposing the SAWS CCN,” said Ulbrich. “They want to
prevent high-density development. Personally, I am not in favor of
high-density development, other than what is allowed in our subdivision
rules and regulations for garden apartments or condominiums. I know how
they feel because that is a very sensitive area. There are only four
recharge streams for the Ed-wards Aquifer, the Seco, the Parker, the
Middle Verde and the San Geronimo Creeks. If you start getting
high-density development in that watershed there won’t be enough
filtration for the fertilizers and pesticides people will put on their
lawns. The runoff will flow straight into the San Geronimo Creek and they
are very concerned about that.”
The Precinct 1
Commissioner said he would be willing to put an item on the county’s
agenda to discuss the possibility of adopting a resolution opposing the
SAWS water and sewer CCN permits in northeast Medina County, after he
researches the issue a bit more. “I would not be adverse to discussing it,
even if all we could do is say we disapprove of it,” Ulbrich
said.
The SGVA does not object to all
development in far northeast Medina County, says Ulbrich. The group knows
development is coming, but they want a more environmentally friendly
development which will not pollute the San Geronimo Creek, their wells or
the aquifer.
“SAWS is so powerful and,
once they get up in that area, high-density development will follow,” said
Ulbrich. “I’ve always told (the SGVA) as far as my vote goes I’m for
enforcing our subdivision rules and regulations. I do not advocate
high-density development, especially in areas like the SGVA is concerned
about. Mr. Johnson did say he’d appreciate a letter from the court
opposing SAWS CCN in northeast Medina County. I don’t know whether we have
any authority, but it could be an agenda item and Judge Barden could be
very open to it as well.”
Barden, contacted
Tuesday, said he was open to supporting the SGVA in opposing the water and
sewer applications, especially if they circumvented the unanimous decision
made by the SAWS Board on Dec. 4.
“I don’t
have enough information yet to put it on the agenda,” said Barden. “But if
SAWS is seeking to extend their CCN into the area, I’d have some serious
problems with them trying to do that. It would be like SAWS was coming in
the back door. I’d probably want to protest that on my own even if it
wasn’t a commissioners court item.”
Barden
said he had not been able to pin down exactly where SAWS is seeking to
extend its CCN. “If SAWS comes into Medina County, to me they are like any
other water purveyor,” said the judge. “I have no problem with that. But I
do have a problem if they act like big heroes and now they want to sneak
in the back door. If Mayor Hardberger was sincere about what he did, I’m
not sure he would appreciate the SAWS staff trying to do this to
him.”
If SAWS does not provide sewer and
water, the development in the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone (EARZ) would
be along the lines of Dancing Bear Subdivision, according to Barden, with
people using private wells for water and septic tanks for sewage. Johnson
says the SGVA has no objection to people living on lots in the EARZ up to
the point of the land’s carrying capacity—where there is still ample water
and room for sewage to be naturally cleaned by infiltration into the
ground.
Johnson, Tuesday evening, said he was
happy to hear Barden and Ulbrich were prepared to support the SGVA. He
said he would provide maps to the county judge because what SAWS is
proposing is suspicious, according to Johnson.
“I think it is wonderful that Medina County officials are incensed about
what SAWS is trying to do,” said the SGVA President. “If SAWS denied (the
HoCR service agreement) only making themselves look good, getting
headlines, and then they circumvent the denial by going around their
decision, I don’t know who would approve
that.”
Johnson said the county could not hire
a lawyer, as he initially requested, because they are not a party in
standing regarding the SAWS CCN opposition. “The county could help fund
the attorneys because (the SGVA) have a standing,” said Johnson. “We’d be
happy if they would support the resolution we are preparing. The way it
stands right now, SAWS is reviewing the whole thing and trying to get out
of the mess they are in. Like I told commissioners, if we could show a
united front, SAWS will be willing to take the area out of their CCN
application. That is what Alex Breseño told Annalisa Peace of the GEAA.
(Breseño) said they are looking at removing the whole northwest quadrant
from their CCN. If I had my druthers, I would like the county to send SAWS
a letter saying they are opposed to the CCN going so far into Medina
County. It goes all the way from Hwy 16 and Park Road 37 down to FM
471.”
Johnson said TCEQ is set to consider
SAWS water and sewer CCNs at a different meeting. “The SAWS water CCN is
due to come up for review by TCEQ in June, but SAWS wants a three-month
abatement to figure out what they are going to do,” he said. “The
extension of SAWS CCN makes SAWS’ prior action to deny utilities to HoCR
totally useless because, if granted, SAWS would be required to serve
HoCR.”
