Tuesday, April 23, 2024
An aerial view of the city's existing wastewater treatment plant.
TCEQ commissioners on Wednesday agreed with the recommendation of two administrative law judges with the State Office of Administrative hearings and voted unanimously to issue a permit to the city of Granbury for a second wastewater treatment plant that city officials say is desperately needed.
The approval from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality comes three years after the city filed its application.
The delay was due to area residents and business owners who opposed the location of 3121 Old Granbury Road, where up to two million gallons of treated domestic wastewater per day will be discharged into a tributary of Rucker Creek, which feeds into Lake Granbury.
The setback resulted in a citywide development moratorium that, according to City Manager Chris Coffman, affected about $250 million in economic development and increased costs to the city by millions due to materials shortages and labor costs in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Some of the WWTP opponents, or protestants as they are called by the TCEQ, were present for the meeting in Austin. Coffman was there as well.
Attorneys for both sides were allowed to speak for five minutes. The city’s attorney, Jason Hill, was also allowed time for rebuttal.
Comments were also made by representatives of the Office of Public Interest Counsel (OPIC) and TCEQ’s executive director, Toby Baker.
The comments and the panel’s vote took just under 20 minutes.
In his rebuttal just prior to the vote, Hill told TCEQ commissioners Jon Niermann, Emily Lindley and Bobby Janecka, “It’s indisputable that this permit, this facility is necessary for important economic and social issues in the city of Granbury and the region, and without it, the economic consequences of the inability to have this additional treatment capacity are dramatic — and perhaps that’s an understatement.”
Niermann, who serves as chair, stated, “The arguments are very familiar that we heard this morning. I do not see a reason to second-guess the ALJs’ evaluation of the evidence.”
Lindley and Janecka agreed.
Lindley made a motion to adopt the ALJs’ proposed order with revisions that were suggested by the judges in a letter to the TCEQ dated July 26.
THE HISTORY
According to city officials, the city adhered to TCEQ rules by moving toward construction of a second WWTP once its existing plant on Water’s Edge Drive reached a certain capacity level.
The agency issued a draft permit in 2019, but then halted the approval process and extended the public comment period when opposition was raised. Opponents cited, among other things, possible harm to public health and the environment.
In September 2021, TCEQ commissioners sent the matter to SOAH for a contested case hearing.
SOAH administrative law judges Sarah Starnes and Pratibha Shenoy heard three days of testimony in March, with both sides presenting data and testimony from expert witnesses.
Three months later, in June, the judges issued their recommendation that the permit be granted.
The development bans began in December 2020, when the City Council imposed a building moratorium on the eastern side of the city and portions of the extraterritorial jurisdiction.
In October 2021, the council imposed a similar ban for the western and central parts of town and portions of the ETJ because the existing plant was nearing capacity.
At its Sept. 27 meeting, council members voted to extend both moratoriums to October 2023.
The new WWTP, which will operate with Membrane Bioreactor technology, will take 18-24 months to build, according to the city.
