Tarrant Regional Water may change its authority. Here’s why Fort Worth is concerned.
The Tarrant Regional Water District has proposed revisions to its authority that city of Fort Worth officials say appear to greatly expand the district’s influence over development in North Texas.
The water district maintains that changes to its general ordinance, which spells how the district regulates land and water in its jurisdiction, are focused on water quality and bring the ordinance in line with current policy. Fort Worth officials say they were caught off guard by the changes as the district didn’t directly notify them.
City Manager David Cooke said his staff has requested changes.
Cooke questioned why the city, which buys raw water from the Tarrant Regional Water District, had not been notified, but said he’s hopeful issues can be worked out before the water district board approves the revisions.
“It’s better to know who’s going to oppose it on the front end than on the back end,” Cooke said. “It may take longer but it helps facilitate the process.”
The water district board may vote on the revisions Sept. 15, according to the district’s website, though it’s possible the item will be delayed. It was unclear Monday if the water district planned to notify cities and other stakeholders.
Woody Frossard, the water district’s environmental director, said the changes update the ordinance to include requirements the district established in 2018. The geographic footprint of the district’s authority over land use, about 2,500 acres, was not going to change, he said. The state water code gives the water district authority over the water quality at its reservoirs and in the Trinity River.
“There’s nothing in here that we haven’t already been doing,” Frossard said.
He said the water district would work with the city to address concerns. The Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth, in a letter, asked for a 90-day extension.
During a Fort Worth City Council work session Tuesday, multiple council members, including Mayor Betsy Price, voiced frustration with how the water district rolled out the revisions. It was poor form to not notify partners like the city and the developer community, they said, while questioning the legality of the water district’s revised ordinance.
Councilman Dennis Shingleton called the water district’s proposal “significant overreach” and argued Tarrant Regional Water should stick to water supply and stay out of real estate development. Shingleton said there were “aspect of ... this smells a little funny” with developments possibly overstepping the city.
“I’m looking forward to the bell ringing and stepping into the ring on this one,” he said.
Language in the ordinance is vague and appears to give the district authority over any land adjacent to water that runs into the Trinity River, which would include Mary’s Creek and other watersheds. Fort Worth has long planned to build a water treatment plant off Chapin Road that would drain into Mary’s Creek. The water district in April filed a protest with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Revisions further define the district’s service area as anywhere where it delivers raw water, an 11-county area that includes Tarrant, Denton and Parker counties.
The new ordinance adds a paragraph granting the water district authority to “regulate privileges on any land, easement or property interest adjoining a reservoir, stream, creek, tributary, river or other property owned or controlled by or subject to the jurisdiction of the District, including prevention of activities on adjoining land, easements, watercourses or property interests that could adversely affect the purity of water in this state.”
The language is unclear about exactly where the district’s authority stops and ends, Cooke said. He and city staff, which included City Attorney Sarah Fullenwider and city Water Director Chris Harder, asked the district to clarify the boundary during a meeting Monday afternoon, he said.
The city also wants to clarify whether municipalities and developers would have to follow the district’s development guidelines. Assistant city manager Dana Burghdoff said Tuesday water district staff had agreed to remove this provision for municipalities.
Since the district did not directly notify Fort Worth or other water customers, Cooke said his staff has also asked for clarification about the public process. Frossard said the state water code does not require them to make notifications.
“I think there’s two tests,” Cooke said. “There’s a test of what you’re required to do and test of what you should do.”
Revisions also expand the role of the general manager, Jim Oliver, to set and collect fees for licenses and permits.
Though the district has not publicized the revisions, it is seeking public comment via mail to the district office or email to PublicComments@trwd.com. The board could have approved the changes at its Aug. 18 meeting without notifying the public, but at least one board member objected to not taking comments first.
City staff said they became of aware of the planned revisions late last week, shortly before the Star-Telegram inquired about it. The water district did not communicate with the city until Monday’s meeting was scheduled.
Development and Mary’s Creek
Several years ago water district staff decided it needed to do more to beef up water quality requirements for properties that dump stormwater runoff directly into the river, Frossard said. The district approved a stormwater quality guide in 2018 that walks anyone through how to handle water that runs directly into the river.
The guidelines are meant to reduce how many pollutants, such as fertilizers, oil and some metals, reach the river. They include the use of wetlands, permeable surfaces and other landscaping to help capture trash and pollutants.
The district had awarded just nine permits based off the guidelines since 2018, Frossard said Friday. The criteria applies only to properties that drain directly into the river, though Frossard said the district could expand the program to property adjacent to reservoirs.
The district felt comfortable revising its ordinance now that policy has been in place a few years, he said.
“Telling everybody, you got to do it without having something under your belt to say this is how you do it — we felt that would be a mistake,” Frossard said.
The changes are not related to the dispute over the Mary’s Creek water plant, Frossard said. Though the plant would treat water to the state’s standards, the water district is concerned discharges will impact the water quality of the creek and the Trinity River. Last month, the TCEQ approved a $13,125 fine on Fort Worth for an October 2019 incident that led to the discharge of 3,500 gallons of untreated wastewater into a tributary feeding French Lake.
TCEQ will decide if the district’s protest meets muster, he said.
The district has proposed an alternative that would involve piping water from the plant to reservoirs where it would be significantly more diluted than in the river.
Following the meeting between city and water district staff, Cooke said he was hopeful differences would be worked out.
“If it’s like they say it is, it’ll be easy to resolve,” he said.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 7:24 PM.
