An Alert From Our Friends at the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance
We’ve informed you in the past about various Texas developments attempting to dump their treated sewage into our Hill Country waterways, but none of those developments rival Cherryville for sheer size. When completed in a few years, Cherryville will be an actual city of 25,000 – twice the size of neighboring Lockhart 8 miles to the east. Like many other Texas developments, Cherryville’s wastewater plan amounts to dumping treated sewage into the closest river, which in this case is the San Marcos River, just east of I-35.
Rather than responsibly setting a strict water quality standard for what will be a growing amount of treated sewage discharge, the TCEQ has agreed to a minimal standard that allows for high levels of Ammonia Nitrogen and no testing required for Phosphorous or total Nitrogen levels. Not only will this eventually clog the San Marcos River with algae, it will threaten the drinking water supply for the community of Fentress, which draws its water from several municipal wells located along the San Marcos River. As Cherryville gets built out and its treated sewage discharge increases, the negative effects on the river and area residents will also increase.
Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has agreed to hold a public meeting for Texas residents to voice your concerns.
When: 7p.m. on Tuesday, July 16
Where: Prairie Lea High School Auditorium, 6910 San Marcos Highway 80 in Prairie Lea, which is about 20 minutes southeast of San Marcos.
Please show up in force and let your feelings known about Cherryville’s attempts to sully the San Marco River and threaten the health of local residents.
We also encourage concerned residents to leave a comment with the TCEQ online by clicking here and then entering permit # WQ0015738001.
GEAA is specifically requesting that TCEQ require treatment standards of 5 mg/l CBOD, 5 mg/l Total Suspended Solids, 2 mg/l Ammonia Nitrogen, 1 mg/l Phosphorous, not the relatively lax 10-15-3 limits that are currently being proposed by Cherryville as part of their draft permit. You can read GEAA’s comments to TCEQ here.
You can see a map of the sprawling Cherryville development plan here and view the TCEQ wastewater permit notice on Cherryville here.To learn more about how sewage discharge impacts our Hill Country waterways, click here.
We look forward to seeing you on July 17th.