TEXAS — Neighbors in the quiet town of Grey Forest, tucked northwest of San Antonio, are fighting a water battle they say is sure to spread across Texas.
In their backyard sits Helotes Creek. It helps fill wells for their homes and eventually empties into the Edwards Aquifer, which supplies water to nearly 2.5 million people in San Antonio.
Protecting the watershed is the reason Stuart Birnbaum, Lisa Pack, and their group, Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance, have spent the last four years trying to stop a new housing development called Guajalote Ranch.
The subdivision’s Florida-based developer, Lennar, plans to build a wastewater treatment plant for the nearly 3,000 new homes along Helotes Creek. This practice would “significantly degrade the watershed,” according to a 2020 study paid for by the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program.
Birnbaum said the Guajalote Ranch project would ignore that science.
“There’s no good way of getting rid of waste by that many people,” Birnbaum said. “We prefer the land to be in conservation.”
Birnbaum explained that unlike other aquifers with sandstone, which can easily filter water, the one beneath Helotes Creek is made up of karst.
“Think of swiss cheese with all those holes in it,” Birnbaum said. “It [water] flows through immediately.”
The Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance’s efforts have gotten the backing of local leaders and several state representatives who have publicly opposed the project. Despite that, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) approved a wastewater permit for Lennar in October. Now, Lennar is hoping for another win: a MUD approval.
A municipal utility district, or MUD, is a district that supplies utilities to a subdivision and requires approval from the state. It’s funded through bonds, which homeowners later pay off.
Lisa Pack described it as “deceptive.”
“We felt it was very unfair for a developer to come in, make a bunch of money off of a subdivision and leave. And leave the problems behind,” Pack said.
MUDs are already causing tensions in other Texas cities. In May, Spectrum News Texas reported on one North Texas County Judge’s efforts to regulate them. Twin bills that would have required counties to be notified about MUDs died in the state legislature earlier this year.
“This is a statewide issue that is not going to go away anytime soon,” Pack said.
Pack also worries about safety. She said her town is not equipped to handle thousands more people.
“What if it floods? Our roads can’t handle it,” Pack said. “People won’t have anywhere to go.”
Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance plans to appeal the TCEQ’s wastewater permit approval next month.