West Travis County Public Utility Agency postpones vote on controversial pipeline for luxury resort

After years of speculation, Dallas billionaire Steve Winn is pursuing his dream of bringing luxury to the Hill Country, with plans to develop a sprawling upscale resort on 1,400 acres just south of Hamilton Pool. But given the backlash it met at last week’s West Travis County Public Utility Agency meeting, Winn’s road to success may prove bumpier than his coveted landscape.

Winn’s Mirasol Springs, which will boast a 71-room hotel, private cabins, residences, restaurants and a University of Texas field research lab, initially sought a permit to source water from both the Pedernales River and Middle Trinity Aquifer, raising eyebrows among neighbors who have seen their beloved creeks and springs ravaged by drought. Now, the developer has changed their tune, with a proposal to construct a pipeline that will instead funnel water from Lake Travis.

In addition to forfeiting their pumping rights, Mirasol says they intend to exceed benchmarks for “sustainable development” through methods such as rainwater harvesting, bans on pesticides and fertilizers, and a commitment to put 70 percent of the site into a conservation easement. Still, neighbors and conservationists remain concerned about ramifications for the area’s sensitive ecological systems, particularly for treasured refuges like Hamilton Pool and Roy Creek Canyon.

“The golden-cheeked warbler has habitat throughout this whole service area, and increased development and construction spurred by the water pipeline will further endanger a species whose habitat is already shrinking rapidly in Central Texas,” said speaker Victoria Rose. “I’m also concerned about impacts to the Texas fatmucket … an extension of service will spur additional development that will increase sedimentation in the Pedernales and the disposal of municipal sewage throughout the watershed. These are two sources of pollution that the mussel is especially susceptible to.”

While Mirasol claims the pipeline will be limited to serving the resort, many are skeptical that this restriction will hold in the face of future development pressures.

“Extending a pipeline with a capacity of 155,000 gallons per day would inevitably lead to expansions of that pipeline and possibly the extension of wastewater lines for future developments,” said Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance Technical Director Mike Clifford. “This would convert a natural area where the Pedernales flows through pristine canyonlands into yet another development corridor like the one on Hamilton Pool Road between Highway 71 and Rural Route 12. One need only drive that stretch of congested road to see the potential consequences.”

Critics are also questioning the development’s plans for wastewater, which currently include a treatment plant that would clean effluent waste with activated sludge and chlorine to be reintroduced via a drip dispersal irrigation system on-site.

“This proposed solution is still in the early stages of a contested case process, as there are multiple parties opposing Mirasol’s plan to irrigate insufficiently treated sewage over a large field which drains into the Pedernales River,” said Clifford. “There is also significant opposition to the current plan to pipe thousands of gallons per day of raw sewage across Roy Creek Canyon to their proposed wastewater treatment plant.”

Heeding to public pressure, board members of the West Travis County Public Utility Agency opted to postpone a ruling on the pipeline to their Nov. 18 meeting. In the meantime, readers can dig deeper into the concerns raised by the opposition here.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here.