9.21.25

What is being proposed?

• Florida-based Lennar Corp. wants to build 2,900 homes on about 1,160 acres in northwest Bexar County that would release an average of 1 million gallons a day of treated sewage into the Helotes Creek watershed, threatening the region’s water quality. Lennar holds an option to purchase the property known as Guajolote Ranch, west of the intersection of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads, north of Grey Forest.

Who is opposing it?

• About 80 neighbors and other individuals and entities originally filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to contest the wastewater permit application for Guajolote Ranch filed by Municipal Operations LLC, Lennar’s proposed wastewater plant operator. They fear illness or high costs of retrofits to safeguard their wells or water systems. Pollutants such as E. coli and toxins like harmful “forever chemicals” and pharmaceuticals would seriously threaten the health, safety and welfare of those living in and around San Antonio and across South Central Texas.

• This is not a “red” or “blue” issue, as our fight enjoys broad bipartisan support. Among those opposing the permit are former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, State Rep. Mark Dorazio, the mayors of Helotes and Grey Forest, and the entire bipartisan state House delegation from Bexar County – all 10 legislators. Dorazio additionally authored House Concurrent Resolution 121 to protect the Edwards Aquifer from this sort of development, citing Guajolote Ranch, and it was assigned to the House Committee on Natural Resources where time ran out.

• The Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA), city of Grey Forest and landowner Ann Toepperwein were granted a contested case hearing to challenge the permit for Municipal Operations. Even though TCEQ’s own Office of Public Interest Counsel recommended rejection of the permit in the contested case, the State Office of Administrative Hearings presiding in the case recommended on May 19 that TCEQ approve it. The challengers filed exceptions to the recommendation. TCEQ commissioners will meet on Oct. 22 to decide the permit, though parties could file for a rehearing, further prolonging a final decision.

• Because GEAA was granted a hearing, it is representing all of its members as affected parties, including those living in the vicinity of Guajolote Ranch and Grey Forest.

Why are we in this fight?

• We are in this fight with the aim of conserving the Guajolote Ranch property and preventing high-density development in our neighborhood. Our way of life, meaning safe water drawn from local wells and the recreational use of our creeks that we’ve used for more than a century, comprises a life in harmony with nature that we are unwilling to compromise.

• We believe, as do eminent scientists, that development can only degrade the water recharging the Edwards Aquifer.

What does the science say?

• A study by the highly respected Southwest Research Institute funded through the city of San Antonio’s Edwards Aquifer Protection Plan found that any type of wastewater system – including land application – from new large-scale residential developments that release treated effluent in the Helotes Creek watershed would “significantly degrade the watershed and the quality of water recharging the Edwards Aquifer.”
  
  
• The Helotes Creek watershed directly recharges the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer, the primary water source in the immediate area, and sits atop the contributing zone leading to the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer, the principal source of drinking water for about 1.7 million people across multiple counties.

• Up to 15% of the entire recharge of the Edwards Aquifer comes from that watershed.

• Faults, sinkholes, caves and other porous karst features here allow rapid recharge, making pollution on the surface an immediate threat to groundwater. A study of a similar karst limestone formation in Canada –recounted in a presentation to Alamo Area Master Naturalists by geoscientist George Veni and mentioned prominently in an editorial by the Express-News editorial board – showed how contaminants from effluent applied to the surface of a farm reached area wells in a matter of days, killing seven people and making 2,300 others gravely ill.
  

• Effluent from the development wouldn’t be clean. While it ostensibly would be treated for E. coli bacteria, Lennar has a questionable record of compliance, as detailed here. Notably, in 2019, it violated significant provisions of a settlement agreement as well as TCEQ-issued permits to meet Clean Water Act requirements for 4S Ranch in Bulverde. By then, it was too late to secure permanent protection of recharge features that were violated.

• Moreover, 81% of the 48 Texas Hill Country municipal sewer plants that discharge to streams, creeks and rivers exceeded at least one pollutant limit from January 2017 through mid-2020 – with plants averaging 188 days of exceedances – according to publicly available data from TCEQ and accessed by the Save Barton Creek Association for its report, “Pristine to Polluted: Sewage Problems & Solutions in the Texas Hill Country.” The most common failures were for oxygen depletion and excess suspended solids (both of which can harm aquatic life), and E. coli bacteria (which can harm people), the report noted.

• And Lennar’s wastewater plant would not be able to treat for PFAS “forever” chemicals, microplastics and pharmaceutical residues – serious pollutants that according to the U.S. Geological Survey and the EPA are present in effluent and nearly impossible to remove once they enter the aquifer’s karst system.

What is the big picture?

• The San Antonio Water System does not pretreat its Edwards Aquifer water supplies prior to distribution within its service area, and residents with individual wells would be highly vulnerable. People would get very sick, and lower-income families across the region would not be able to afford costs of filtration systems or higher water rates should SAWS need to spend billions to remediate pollution.

• If this project goes forward, it would open the door wide for other unsustainable high-density developments across the most sensitive parts of northern Bexar County and the Hill Country where approximately $50 million in tax money has been spent on conservation efforts in the Helotes Creek watershed alone. It also would set a precedent for such development statewide.

What can the county or city do?

• A measure is before Bexar County commissioners that would allow the wastewater plant and other infrastructure for Guajolote Ranch to be financed on the backs of new homebuyers in the development for $138 million. If approved, the San Antonio City Council then would have 30 days to object. Essentially, the county and city would be authorizing public dollars to finance pollution, and for private profit. They have a moral obligation to reject the measure.
   
• The scheme, called a Public Improvement District, or PID, would be allowed to issue bonds to pay for the plant, and impose new property taxes on those living in the development to pay it back. Unsuspecting homebuyers in Guajolote Ranch, many of them first-time, would pay higher property tax rates than others in the county – as much as city of San Antonio property tax rates but without the city’s level of police, fire and other municipal services.
  
  
• As of this writing, Guajolote Ranch is still owned by the Huntress family of Terrell Hills, with Lennar holding an option to buy it. Family member Richard H. “Rick” LePere, treasurer of for-profit Guajolote Ranch Inc., filed for the PID with the county in March 2023, along with Sidney E. and Marcie A. Edwards, who own 63 acres that would provide access to the development off of Scenic Loop Road.
  

• Importantly, the county and city would relinquish all powers and duties of Chapter 382 (Improvement Projects) of the Texas Local Government Code, which would eliminate public oversight.