Some of you may have received a ton of paper from TCEQ this past week. You are receiving it because you made comments concerning The Village at Fredericksburg’s (used to be Grape Creek) permit to dump 20,000 gallons of Type 1 effluent into Beckmann Branch.
The Branch is actually a recharge zone for the Hensel Aquifer. The Ellenburber lies just below the Hensel. Dumping Type 1 into the Branch is not a good idea if we want to preserve and protect our aquifers. But the Village does not really care about that. They think they should be allowed to dump into the Branch regardless of what we want. Because we have asked for this permit to go before a Contested Case Hearing, a lot of paper has been generated.
Read it all. You need to know what we are up against. Our opponents are high powered attorneys from Houston who do not care at all about our aquifers. We also know that there are some legitmate disposal methods for Type 1 effluent which is what The Village will be producing. With a little purple piping they could send their effluent over to water the lawns at some of the facilities around them. They do plan to use some for their own irrigation. Why not install storage tanks for fire fighting? There are lots of ways to use Type 1 effluent that we do not need to go into here. Just be aware that the Village refuses to entertain any of those ideas.
Anyway, back to all that paper. No one needs to attend the Feb 27 meeting. The Commission will not take oral argument or comments on the hearing requests. One of the Commissioners will likely walk through a prepared analysis and make a recommendation. The other two will likely agree with that analysis. They will make a motion, vote, and it will probably be over in about 5 minutes. That being said, if people want to attend, they are certainly welcome, though I think because the ED has recommended granting PRA and GEAA’s hearing requests, it is less important that people attend but Pedernales River Alliance members Will be present along with our lawyers.
It is what happens after the Feb 27 hearing when we will need your help. We know that we will need help identifying locations where there are Fatmuckets (fresh water mussel that are endangered). We will likely have to hire a biologist for this effort. We will likely have to hire others who can provide expert testimony about other issues. How can you help?
Tell your friends and neighbors about the Village and their plans to dump effluent into your drinking water. Tell your friends that the Pedernales River Alliance is fighting back. Donate to help us continue the fight — no donation is too large! https://www.pedernalesriveralliance.org/donate-to-the-pedernales-river-alliance-gillespie-county/