Photo caption: Austin can expect a return visit in late summer.
May 20, 2025 – State administrative law judges yesterday recommended that a wastewater permit for the proposed controversial Guajolote Ranch development of Florida-based Lennar Corp. in northwest Bexar County be approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. But the matter remains far from over.
It now goes to the three-member TCEQ commission for review and a decision, an additional process that could extend into August. A district court battle could follow, if necessary. The development would include 2,900 homes on about 1,100 acres west of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads, and release an average of 1 million gallons per day of treated sewage into the Helotes Creek watershed, which recharges up to 15% of the Edwards Aquifer.
The two judges ruling for the State Office of Administrative Hearings made their recommendation from a contested-case hearing Feb. 18-20 brought by the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, the city of Grey Forest and landowner Ann Toepperwein who were granted standing to challenge the permit for Municipal Operations LLC, Lennar’s proposed wastewater operator for the development.
The 133-page “proposal for decision” backs a determination by the TCEQ executive director for approval of the permit and rejects a conclusion by TCEQ independent counsel that it would not adequately protect water quality, including surface water, groundwater and drinking water wells, and wildlife including endangered species.
“While disappointing, it is only a recommendation and not entirely unexpected,” said Randy Neumann, chair of the steering committee of the nonprofit Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance, a neighborhood group supporting the permit challenge. “From the outset, we recognized that the process disproportionately favors the permit applicants.
“As we approach final consideration before the TCEQ, we remain hopeful that the agency’s new commission chair, a committed advocate for water protection, will shift its approach,” he said. “This is a pivotal moment for the TCEQ, an agency long criticized for its leniency in permitting pollution. But it has an opportunity to chart a new course. Science – not politics – must guide decisions that safeguard the state’s water future.”
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 13 counties in South and Central Texas.
A study by Southwest Research Institute, funded through the city of San Antonio’s Edwards Aquifer Protection Plan, found that any wastewater treatment type from high-density residential development in the Helotes Creek watershed would “significantly degrade the watershed and the quality of water recharging the Edwards Aquifer.”
“Our attorneys presented the only scientific study assessing the impact of this sort of unsustainable development in this watershed on the Edwards Aquifer,” Neumann said. “In contrast, TCEQ representatives introduced no new scientific evidence – only outdated policies that have contributed to Texas becoming the nation’s top discharger of toxic substances into its own waterways. Historically, TCEQ has enabled environmental degradation rather than prevented it.
“Despite presenting clear, rational arguments,” he said, “our concerns were dismissed in a system where TCEQ sets the rules yet shifts responsibility onto the Texas Legislature.”
What happens now?
Parties now have until June 9 to file “exceptions” to the administrative law judges’ proposal in which opponents will explain why the commission should not adopt the recommendations. A June 18 deadline follows for replies to the exceptions. The commissioners’ office will review the proposal for decision, exceptions and the replies to exceptions.
The administrative law judges still could take several weeks to consider those exceptions before sending a letter to the commissioners informing them of their position on the exceptions. Finally, the matter will be ready for the commissioners to consider at an open meeting in which oral arguments will be accepted.
Depending on how long the judges take to issue their letter responding to the exceptions, a final decision might not come until August.
“As the contested-case phase continues, we remain committed to presenting rebuttals before the three-member TCEQ commissioners panel, which will hear oral arguments and issue its final ruling later this summer,” Neumann said.
While still hopeful of the outcome, he said, “We would be fully prepared and eager for a district court phase, where we’d expect to prevail,” noting that the contested-case hearing process is deliberately burdensome – expensive, prolonged and designed to deter individuals from challenging the agency’s rulings.
“We urge San Antonians and Central Texans across the 13 affected counties to make their voices heard. Our water is irreplaceable – no individual, business or developer should be allowed to pollute or degrade this critical resource. With droughts and shrinking aquifers, protecting the Edwards Aquifer has never been more urgent.”
Broad bipartisan opposition
About 80 neighbors and other individuals and entities originally filed with the TCEQ to contest the wastewater permit application, fearing 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.
The fight enjoys broad bipartisan support. Among those opposing the permit have been San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, State Rep. Mark Dorazio, the Bexar County legislative delegation including also State Rep. Josey Garcia who sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources, and the mayors of Helotes and Grey Forest.
Dorazio, R-San Antonio, whose district includes Guajolote Ranch, filed a concurrent resolution for the legislature to urge TCEQ to “take immediate and decisive action” to protect the Edwards Aquifer from such discharges. Specifically, it calls for safeguards to the aquifer’s “recharge zones and contributing zones from irreversible contamination from treated effluents discharged by any wastewater systems or toxic substances released through construction or other activities.”
The threat is clear, Neumann says. Analysis of a longstanding Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer monitoring well just downstream of the Guajolote property has indicated dramatic rises in water levels after rainfall, indicating that what falls on the surface in the area is quickly transferred to groundwater, just as scientists say.
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.
Just two months ago, similar circumstances in Johnson County, Texas, led to groundwater contamination with so-called “forever chemicals” or PFAS, including livestock deaths and PFAS found in animal tissues.
Likewise, here, Neumann said, “Many people could get extremely sick from E. coli poisoning, and some of those could die. Others could suffer long-term effects from forever chemicals and pharmaceuticals that wouldn’t be removed in the wastewater treatment process. We’re not willing to risk that.”
And he noted there still would be an issue with stormwater runoff down Helotes Creek. Pesticides, herbicides, automotive waste, household chemicals, pet waste, lawn waste and other pollution that would wash down the creek from the upgradient development would add to well pollution, flooding and the ruination of recreational spaces.
If the permit is approved, Neumann said, it could open the door wide for other unsustainable high-density developments across the most sensitive parts of northern Bexar County and the Hill Country that have been at the heart of conservation efforts for decades.
And essentially, he said, the more than $50 million in San Antonio taxpayer money spent to protect the aquifer in this area would have been wasted.
The Scenic Loop – Helotes Creek Alliance represents the largest neighborhood by square mile recognized by the San Antonio Neighborhood & Housing Services Department, a wide corridor along Scenic Loop Road from Bandera Road to north of Babcock Road.
CONTACT:
Scenic Loop – Helotes Creek Alliance
Randy Neumann, 210-867-2826, uhit@aol.com
Stuart Birnbaum, 210-355-9974, stuart.birnbaum@sbcglobal.net
Michael Wm. Schick, 571-296-9601, mschick@aol.com
Lynette Munson (daughter of Ann Toepperwein, with property abutting Guajolote Ranch), 210-317-8415, aniton2000@aol.com
Steve Lee, 210-415-2402, slee_78023@yahoo.com
Grey Forest
Mayor Paul Garro, 210-710-0742, mayor@greyforest-tx.gov
Councilman Michael Phillips, 301-910-9235, mphillips@greyforest-tx.gov
OTHER RECENT PRESS RELEASES:
5/6/25 — Judge rules that Metro Health, after caving to Lennar, must release secret settlement:
https://www.scenicloop.org/post/1531/judge-rules-that-metro-health-after-caving-to-lennar-must-release-secret-settlement/
3/24/25 — Legislative resolution urges TCEQ to take ‘immediate and decisive action’ to protect the Edwards Aquifer from development: https://www.scenicloop.org/legislative-resolution-to-protect-the-edwards-aquifer-from-development/
3/14/25 — TCEQ’s Office of Public Interest Counsel recommends denying a permit for Guajolote Ranch: https://www.scenicloop.org/OPIC-Recommends-Denying-Guajolote-Permit/
2/2/25 — Million Gallon March draws about 300, Nirenberg urges residents to fight on: https://www.scenicloop.org/post/1483/million-gallon-march/