The city of Kyle is fixing to dump about three times as much wastewater into Plum Creek as it currently does. But the creek won’t be able to withstand that influx, advocates say, unless the state locks down stricter pollution regulations. At a March 30 meeting of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality at the Kyle Public Library, the city’s mayor, Travis Mitchell, explained their rationale for a permit amendment application that would allow that much discharge: “Kyle has experienced unprecedented growth over the course of the last 15 years. Our entire infrastructure – our roads, our water, our wastewater – they’ve all been stressed to the max.” In 2000, Kyle had a population of around 6,000; now it’s home to more than 50,000. “And now here we are 20 years later, trying to put the infrastructure together of a big city.”
It’s a common story as the Hill Country continues to boom, and its flip side is steadfast pushback from advocates attempting to safeguard the natural environment from the cumulative impacts of encroaching development. At the library, representatives from the San Marcos River Foundation, Hill Country Alliance, and Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance as well as residents of a subdivision near the city’s treatment plant voiced concerns that this permit’s standards are too lax for the already overburdened Plum Creek. It would allow a phased increase from the current limit of 4.5 million gallons of wastewater per day to 12 million, serving an estimated 90,363 people by 2040. The city currently discharges 3.6 million gallons and expects to hit 9 million by 2025. The permit also allows high levels of polluting nutrients in the discharged wastewater that could be filtered out, and does not include limits on toxic algae-producing phosphorous, though those regulations would kick in once the city crosses the 4.5 million gallon threshold.
“The question I think all of us have is, why is the current permit so lax?” – Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance’s Mike Clifford
“The question I think all of us have is, why is the current permit so lax?” asked Mike Clifford, technical director for the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance. “Every single other wastewater treatment plant we deal with in Texas has phosphorus testing. The current state of Plum Creek is a disaster,” he continued, noting that 18 wastewater plants already discharge into it. Plum Creek has violated state surface water quality standards in the past and suffers from high levels of E. coli, nitrates, and algae-producing nitrogen and phosphorus, explained SMRF’s Virginia Parker, who noted that SMRF has recently settled with large developers in the region, such as Cherryville, HK Real Estate Development, and the city of San Marcos, for more stringent pollutant controls. After Clifford’s comments, TCEQ reps expressed willingness to implement more stringent requirements, admitting that 15 mg/L total suspended solids is too high a limit for the size of the creek. Five mg/L total suspended solids “is a really normal standard in the area,” said Parker. “I don’t think we’re being unreasonable with this request.”
“The sooner we get the permit, the sooner we can start doing a good job so we can continue to protect the environment,” urged Kyle’s consulting engineer on the project, Raj Bhattarai. “Without the capacity, we cannot do maintenance on the existing plant.” And the city plans to offset the amount of water it needs to discharge by building out its purple pipes – infrastructure that would reuse treated wastewater on city-owned land for things like irrigation and toilet flushing. Currently, the Plum Creek Golf Course reuses about 900,000 gallons of treated wastewater a day, but thanks to a $2 million federal grant secured by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, by 2025 the city plans to expand that infrastructure to commercial buildings, schools, and parks. How much wastewater can be diverted will depend on demand.
Though Plum Creek is experiencing more frequent flooding as a result of increased effluent discharge, Clifford told the Chronicle that should TCEQ implement tighter pollutant controls, GEAA is overall “encouraged by [Kyle’s] beneficial reuse plan … we think they can come up with an overall plan that will improve the quality of water in Plum Creek” using the federal grant. “Normally municipalities are just starting to get to that or aren’t that serious about it.”
The mayor spoke in favor of the amended permit, but two Kyle council members, Miguel Zuniga and Yvonne Flores-Cale, joined the advocates in urging caution. “I appreciate growth. I embrace growth, I embrace technology,” said Zuniga. “But I also want to do my part to preserve our natural resources, and leave something for future generations.”
This article appears in April 14 • 2023.