TCEQ recently approved a plan by the Johnson Ranch subdivision in Comal County to dump approximately 350,000 gallons per day of treated sewage effluent on their neighbors’ land. Neighboring families have spent the last year and hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting to keep their land from being taken for use as sewage infrastructure for a neighboring housing development. A petition is being circulated to support these landowners. Read more from GEAA:
How would you feel if your neighbor was legally entitled to dump trash in your yard? Well, the Commissioners in charge of Texas’ environmental quality have decided that that’s just fine by them.
That’s right, the TCEQ Commissioners recently approved a plan by the Johnson Ranch subdivision in Comal County to dump approximately 350,000 gallons per day of treated sewage effluent on their neighbors’ land. Owners of the neighboring ranch, the Lux and Graham families, have spent the last year and hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting to keep their land from being taken for use as sewage infrastructure for a neighboring housing development. Chief among their concerns is that their cattle would be drinking treated sewage and grazing on grass and brush that grows in a creek bed that would be contaminated by sewage effluent. You can read more here and here.
On March 9, 2015, a State Administrative Law Judge found “that if the permit is issued, the effluent discharge will negatively impact Protestants’ use and enjoyment of their property.” TCEQ Commissioners chose to ignore this ruling and issue the permit anyway.
This permit is just one of many plans to discharge sewage effluent onto land, dry creeks, and waterways that recharge the Edwards Aquifer. Concerns about water quality prompted the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance to join the Lux and Graham families in contesting the permit.
“We started to fight back to protect our property.” said rancher, Terrell Graham, “But, now, we are determined to keep on fighting because what the Johnson Ranch and other MUD’s are doing is just not right.”
GEAA will be going before the TCEQ Commissioners this coming Wednesday to ask them to deny the permit amendment for direct discharge of sewage on to the Lux Graham Ranch, where it will ultimately flow into the Cibolo – a major Edwards Aquifer recharge feature. Wish us luck and add your voice to ours by signing our Change.org petition.
Please tell the TCEQ Commissioners that all Texans have property rights – and the right to clean water. Ask them to reconsider their approval of the Johnson Ranch TPDES Permit No. WQ0014975001.
You can sign the petition here. Please sign on, post on Face Book, and share with all of your friends.
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