{"id":51134,"date":"2025-11-15T19:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T19:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/51134\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T19:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T19:56:07","slug":"fight-over-guajolote-ranch-heats-up-as-texas-senator-urges-rejection-of-wastewater-permit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/51134\/","title":{"rendered":"Fight over Guajolote Ranch heats up as Texas Senator urges rejection of wastewater permit"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas \u2013 Texas State Sen. Donna Campbell is urging state environmental regulators to deny a wastewater discharge permit tied to the controversial Guajolote Ranch<\/a> development, a proposed 2,900-home Lennar project planned for northwest Bexar County.<\/p>\n

In a sharply worded letter addressed to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Brooke Paup, Campbell said the permit threatens groundwater quality, endangered species habitats and public health. She also questioned the agency\u2019s permitting process. <\/p>\n

Her letter, dated Oct. 30, surfaced Wednesday night when her district director read it aloud at a Scenic Loop\u2013Helotes Creek Alliance meeting in Grey Forest.<\/p>\n

Although the commission voted to approve the permit on Oct. 22, the decision is not final. Opponents, including the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance and the city of Grey Forest, have 25 days from Oct. 28 to request a rehearing, and their attorneys said that filing is underway.<\/p>\n

Campbell\u2019s district includes the area west of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads, where Lennar plans to build on 1,160 acres of Guajolote Ranch. The developer is seeking permission to discharge an average of one million gallons per day of treated wastewater into the Helotes Creek watershed. <\/p>\n

The watershed directly recharges the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer, the immediate water source for nearby communities. It provides up to 15% of the recharge for the Edwards Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to approximately 2.5 million people.<\/p>\n

Campbell also urged TCEQ to formally incorporate findings from a 2020 Southwest Research Institute study commissioned under San Antonio\u2019s Edwards Aquifer Protection Plan. <\/p>\n

The research concluded that any wastewater discharge in the Helotes Creek watershed would degrade the Edwards Aquifer\u2019s recharge quality, a conclusion that she said has never been scientifically refuted.<\/p>\n

The senator raised additional concerns about habitat for federally protected species, alleging that the agency had failed to evaluate the impacts required under the Endangered Species Act fully. Campbell also questioned procedural changes made to the permit record after public hearings, including the removal of a retention pond that had been a key part of the applicant\u2019s earlier modeling.<\/p>\n

Campbell joins a growing bipartisan block of lawmakers opposing the permit, including three other senators and all 10 state representatives from Bexar County, who issued their own letter earlier this fall.<\/p>\n

Her letter also presses TCEQ to clarify public statements that the discharged effluent would be \u201csafe to drink,\u201d noting the permit does not meet Texas\u2019 highest reclaimed water standards.<\/p>\n

TCEQ has not yet issued a response. The agency has 30 days to reply to Campbell\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEXAR COUNTY, Texas \u2013 Texas State Sen. Donna Campbell is urging state environmental regulators to deny a wastewater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[698,8084,12836,4701,27,29,28,410],"class_list":{"0":"post-51134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-bexar-county","9":"tag-edwards-aquifer","10":"tag-guajolote-ranch","11":"tag-tceq","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-water"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}