Hundreds of residents gathered in Grey Forest, Texas earlier this month to decry plans for 2,900 homes on the outskirts of San Antonio—expected to discharge a million gallons of treated wastewater daily into the Helotes Creek watershed. Those who have studied the project said contamination could reach local water wells in less than a day after discharge. And, they warned, with San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg amplifying the point, that contamination would inevitably reach the Edwards Aquifer, which is relied upon by nearly 2 million area residents.
Mayors from Grey Forest, Helotes, and San Antonio joined the Million Gallon March to call on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to intervene in Lennar’s plans for Guajolote Ranch. An administrative hearing is scheduled for this upcoming week.
“There is a saying in Texas that whisky is for drinking, water’s for fighting. This is why this fight is the time for every resident of this area to get involved,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “We are blessed, this region is blessed, by the largest single-source aquifer in the world, the Edwards Aquifer. … Otherwise we wouldn’t have a San Antonio. We wouldn’t have a Helotes and Boerne.”
Others decried plans to allow the developer to run its own wastewater treatment operations and self-report any problems.
“When will we even know that there’s a problem until it’s too late?” Helotes Mayor Rich Whitehead told a crowd of about 200. “It’s kind of like not finding out you have cancer until it’s Stage 4 and you can’t do anything about it.”
Members of the Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance told Deceleration that roughly 80 individuals and organizations have delivered objections to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to contest the wastewater permit application. While Lennar’s treatment process would remove some contaminants, it would do nothing to restrict pharmaceuticals or “forever chemicals” such as PFAS with known health risks, according to Randy Neumann of the Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance.
A contested case hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings is scheduled to open February 18, 2025, over Lennar’s application to operate a wastewater plant at Guajolote Ranch. While several residents complained to Deceleration that they were wrongfully denied standing in that case, landowner Ann Toepperwein, the City of Grey Forest, San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, and Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance were granted standing to address the case. A decision is expected by late May, according to members of the Scenic Loop Helotes Creek Alliance.
“The City of San Antonio years ago developed a Northwest Sector Plan. That Northwest Sector Plan recommended 10 acres per household, not 3,000. That’s a big difference,” Stuart Birnbaum told Deceleration. “If they want to follow the Northwest Sector Plan, we’d be happy with that. But they’re not going to do that. That’s not how they make their money.”
