Lennar: Guajolote Ranch helps meet San Antonio’s critical need for more attainable housing.
Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance: There currently is a six-month supply of housing in San Antonio and home sales have declined each month this year except for one, Texas Public Radio reports. And Lennar’s own third-quarter report says, “… we believe that now is a good time to moderate our volume and allow the market to catch up.” But we’re not anti-growth. What we don’t need is development in the wrong place that threatens our primary water source. We’re pro-water, pro-science and pro-accountability. Lennar’s solution is to saddle unsuspecting first-time homebuyers with taxes higher than what other county residents pay in order to pay for its wastewater plant that will pollute our drinking water, under a Public Improvement District (PID) scheme before the county. That is neither “attainable” nor accountable.
Lennar: Lennar is taking extraordinary steps to protect water quality in the aquifer contributing zone with a wastewater treatment plan that meets all the requirements in the water service agreement with SAWS (San Antonio Water System) who will provide water to the community.
SL-HCA: Claiming to be taking “extraordinary” steps to protect water quality by wanting to release an average of 1 million gallons a day of treated sewage on top of the most environmentally vulnerable aquifer watershed in the state is laughable on its face, if it weren’t so serious. And we wouldn’t brag about meeting minimum requirements of SAWS, which has operated under a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since 2013 due to frequent sewer spills, main breaks and other failures. Clearly, meeting minimums doesn’t always protect against maximum vulnerability. The conditions agreed to with SAWS are not backed by a shred of peer-reviewed science, and would not protect the public. It’s also notable that SAWS CEO Robert Puente said in an Oct. 1 San Antonio City Council B Session that he offered Lennar the ability to tie into the SAWS wastewater system at a cost of approximately $20 million to $40 million, but that Lennar rejected it for a least costly option: building a plant and dumping into Helotes Creek. From the PID, we learn what that cost would be to Lennar: zero, as they’d have future homebuyers in Guajolote Ranch pay for it with taxes higher than what other county residents face.
Lennar: Our facility will be among the most advanced of the area’s dozen or so treatment plants already operating over the contributing zone. We will be using membrane bioreactor technology operated by Class A-certified professionals so water is treated to the highest Type 1 standards and exceeds TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) requirements.
SL-HCA: Even the most advanced plants are vulnerable to mechanical failures, power outages, operator errors, poor maintenance and extreme weather. Three out of the four most advanced plants currently operating in the area Edwards Aquifer contributing zone treating for drinking-water status have been out of compliance during the past three years, with one of them fined for non-compliance, EPA ECHO reports reveal. And half of 14 plants in the area contributing zone had non-compliance quarters over the last three reporting years, with two of them fined a total of $52,672. The non-compliant findings included pollutants such as E. coli, ammonia, nitrogen, phosphorus and total suspended solids.
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 exceedance periods averaging 188 days per plant – 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 E. coli bacteria (which can harm people), and oxygen depletion and excess suspended solids (both of which can harm aquatic life), the report noted. These exceedances are self-reported; sometimes all it takes is one to cause irreversible damage.
And Lennar’s wastewater plant would not be able to treat for persistent and dangerous compounds such as PFOS and PFAS “forever” chemicals, pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, over-the-counter medications, cosmetics, microplastics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria – 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. In fact, EPA has made it clear: No wastewater treatment plant can fully remove all harmful constituents from the waste stream.
The SAWS Clouse/Dos Rios plant, which discharges into the San Antonio River south of the city, has experienced spills in four of the last five years. If one of the most well-funded and technologically advanced utilities in the country cannot prevent accidental discharges, why should we believe that a smaller company from Spring, Texas – Lennar’s contractor Municipal Operations LLC – will fare any better?
Moreover, Lennar’s own compliance record is troubling. 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. Why should they be trusted now?
Lennar: That treated water will be safely reused on-site for irrigating community landscaping to reduce demand on freshwater and ensure a cleaner, safer system for the community.
SL-HCA: There is nothing safe about this “reuse.” Faults, sinkholes, caves and other porous karst limestone features here allow rapid recharge, making pollution on the surface an immediate threat to groundwater. One million gallons a day of treated sewage applied to the ground still would go into the Trinity Glen Rose Aquifer directly beneath – the drinking water source for immediate neighbors – and the contributing zone leading to the recharge zone a short distance away for the Edwards Aquifer, principal water source for 2.5 million residents across multiple counties.
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.” That watershed accounts for up to 15% of the aquifer’s recharge. In contrast, Lennar offers only corporate assurances.
A study of a similar karst formation in Canada recounted by renowned geoscientist George Veni to Alamo Area Master Naturalists and KSAT 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. Said Dr. Veni, “We can die, and people have died, because of groundwater contamination in karst. We don’t want this to happen again.”
Closer to home in Johnson County, Texas, in February 2025, sewer treatment byproducts known to contain PFAS were spread on a field. Soon, cattle and horses began dying. County officials eventually traced the cause to widespread groundwater contamination, with pollutant levels hundreds of times above EPA safety thresholds, triggering a countywide emergency.
Statement from the SL-HCA:
The threat is real. The facts are inconvenient. The geology is immutable. While many developers and residents are drawn to the beauty of the Hill Country, our expanding scientific understanding makes one thing clear: Building in these sensitive contributing and recharge zones endangers our water supply.
At a time when water scarcity looms large and development pressures intensify, there is only one responsible path forward: Build elsewhere – where the aquifer is not at risk.
The Edwards Aquifer is not just a geological feature; it is a lifeline for millions. To gamble with its integrity for the sake of unchecked development is to risk the future of our communities, our ecosystems and our children.
Therefore, the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance demands more than empty corporate-speak. We demand ecological integrity, transparency and respect for the land’s complexity.
We call for:
- A halt to development until independent hydrogeological studies including tracer-dye studies confirm no risk to the aquifer or Helotes Creek.
- Full public disclosure of wastewater treatment protocols and monitoring plans including acknowledgement of treatment plant failure rates.
- A community-led review of the long-term impacts on water quality, recharge zones and native ecosystems.
The Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) group representing 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.