What will be fate of Granbury’s controversial sewage plant? Texas agency to decide
More than a year after Hood County residents first debated Granbury’s plans for a new sewage plant, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will decide the permit’s future later this month.
Commissioners will consider the city’s application for a wastewater treatment permit and all requests for a contested case hearing at their public meeting on Sept. 22, according to an Aug. 18 notice. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. in Austin, with a livestream available on the TCEQ’s YouTube channel.
City Manager Chris Coffman and a city spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on the upcoming meeting amid reports of Coffman’s ethics complaint against Mayor Jim Jarratt. That complaint was closed on Aug. 30 without further investigation of Coffman’s allegations.
In a statement to the Hood County News, Coffman said he was “cautiously optimistic” commissioners will approve Granbury’s application.
“TCEQ Executive Director Toby Baker has previously stated that every concern raised by local citizens has been addressed and that the city’s application adhered to the law,” Coffman said. “To be a good neighbor, the city has exceeded the regulations by addressing odor control, noise control and light pollution in our application.”
Last year, more than 400 households submitted comments to the TCEQ opposing Granbury’s request to build a sewage treatment plant discharging up to 2 million gallons of treated wastewater into a tributary of Rucker Creek, which flows into Lake Granbury and the Brazos River.
Dozens of residents also participated in a virtual public meeting with the TCEQ last September after learning of the plans from Granbury Fresh, a group of residents fighting for alternatives to the plant’s location at 3121 Old Granbury Road.
Their concerns range from drops in property values due to odor issues to potential environmental consequences, including harmful algae blooms and accidental discharges of raw sewage, known as sanitary sewer overflows, that can lead to fish kills and health risks. Granbury officials have said the treated water is safe and will be a beneficial stream flow to the creek.
In June, TCEQ officials released their official response to those concerns, finding that Granbury’s application met “the requirements of applicable law” but not yet authorizing the construction of any facilities.
That decision left the leaders of Granbury Fresh with one option left to oppose the plant: apply for a contested case hearing, which remains the sole pathway to challenge a permit request through the TCEQ. The hearings are similar to civil trials in state district court, and can take years of expensive legal proceedings on both sides.
In consultation with an attorney, Granbury Fresh members have filed three official contested case hearing requests, according to Anita Branch, a retired engineer living in Hood County who has been involved with the group since last summer.
“Talking with other people who have been through the process, we believe that we have a very, very good chance that we will be granted the contested case hearings,” Branch said. “We’ll invest as much time and money as we need to.”
One of their best chances at earning a hearing is through the owners of Bennett’s Camping Center and RV Ranch, Branch said.
To earn a contested case hearing, an applicant must prove that they are an “affected person” with a personal or economic interest in the permit and would stand to be impacted in a “manner not common to the general public,” according to TCEQ documents.
Stacy Rist, whose family has owned the park since 1972, was one of 14 landowners who received formal notification of Granbury’s plans to build a wastewater plant next door. She originally planned to expand the property until she fully understood the ramifications of Granbury’s permit application.
“It can be just one review that says, ‘You’re camping next to a sewer plant’ and it is going to destroy our RV park,” Rist told the Star-Telegram last year. “I feel like I’ve been taken at gunpoint and our family business has been taken at gunpoint, and we are along for the ride. If we don’t defeat this, our death is imminent.”
Victoria Calder, who formed Granbury Fresh last summer, expects the Sept. 22 decision to be gone in a flash. TCEQ’s three commissioners review all requests and formal comments before their meetings, and Calder’s attorney said the vote will likely be over within a few minutes.
If hearing requests are denied, residents opposed to the plant could apply for reconsideration from TCEQ commissioners. But Calder is confident a hearing will be granted, further stalling Granbury’s plans to build the plant at its proposed location.
The rapidly growing city has already implemented a moratorium on development in some areas of town due to rising pressure on its wastewater treatment capacity. That reality also concerns Granbury Fresh members who want elected officials to change course, Calder said.
“The reason we have this issue is that the past group of elected officials, some still there, did not plan for the infrastructure,” Calder said. “It shouldn’t have been a crisis … It’s not the doing of those of us who are concerned about this terrible location.”
