The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued a wastewater discharge permit to Dripping Springs on Wednesday, giving the city authority to expand its existing wastewater plant and discharge up to 822,500 gallons of effluent per day into Onion Creek. However, Dripping Springs has committed to beneficial reuse of the effluent in an effort to avoid […]
Dripping Springs
The municipality centered on US290-West in Hays County.
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s Notebook: Urgent plodding
District 3 gets into it… The gloves are off in the race for the District 3 City Council seat between siblings Susana Almanza and incumbent Pio Renteria. The long-combative candidates have taken their campaign charges to the digital and physical realms with charged attacks on each other’s level of community involvement and the contributions they’ve […]
Posted inEnvironment
Most groups, Dripping Springs reach settlement
More than two and a half years after the city of Dripping Springs filed a request for a wastewater discharge permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that alarmed environmentalists and nearby landowners about potential damage to Onion Creek, drinking water and Barton Springs, all of the environmental groups except one, as well as […]
Posted inEnvironment
City to continue protest of Dripping Springs permit
The city will continue its protest of a proposed permit that would allow Dripping Springs to discharge up to 995,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day to the Onion Creek watershed. City staff put a proposed settlement agreement on Thursday’s agenda, but Council declined to even consider it. The permit is pending at the Texas […]
Posted inEnvironment
Two districts now oppose sewage permit
The board of directors of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District voted Monday night to protest Dripping Springs’ draft permit to discharge 995,000 gallons of wastewater per day into a tributary of Onion Creek. The vote means that the district will request that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality hold a contested case hearing and […]
Posted inWater
EPA drops objection to Dripping Springs’ permit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn its interim objection to Dripping Springs’ application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to discharge 995,000 gallons of treated wastewater into a tributary of Onion Creek. Dripping Springs officials have always said that even with the permit they would initiate a beneficial reuse program for the wastewater […]
Posted inWater
Howard files bill to protect Barton Springs
State Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) has filed legislation to prevent the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality from issuing new permits to authorize discharge of sewage effluent into any creek or other body of water in the contributing or recharge zone of the Barton Springs or San Antonio segments of the Edwards Aquifer. Dripping Springs has […]
Posted inWater
Bill would stop Austin from protesting pollution
State Rep. Jason Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) has filed a bill that appears to threaten to punish the city of Austin for opposing Dripping Springs’ controversial wastewater discharge permit before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The city of Austin has been working with Dripping Springs to reach a settlement on issues related to Dripping Springs’ […]
Posted inWater
Austin has proposal for Dripping Springs permit
The city of Austin has released a draft proposal for Dripping Springs’ controversial permit to discharge 995,000 gallons of treated wastewater into Onion Creek. The Austin and Dripping Springs city councils must both agree to the terms of the proposal. But there are several other landowners and agencies that may request that the Texas Commission […]
Posted inResources
City defends stance on Dripping Springs discharge permit
Chris Herrington, an engineer with the city’s Watershed Protection Department, hopes to dispel the notion that the city of Austin is an “800-pound gorilla” that intimidates surrounding municipalities into submitting to its environmental policy. At the Dec. 7 meeting of the Environmental Commission, Herrington and other Watershed Protection staff presented a brief on the city […]
Posted inEnvironment
Citizens sound off on wastewater plan in Dripping Springs
Over 200 people packed the event center in Dripping Springs on Nov. 10 for what they said was their first real chance to get their questions answered about a proposal that would allow the city to discharge treated effluent into Onion Creek. As part of the Dripping Springs’ expansion of its wastewater treatment plant, it […]
Posted inEnvironment
Austin and Dripping Springs at odds over plan to dump wastewater in Onion Creek
Tonight, the public is invited to give its input at a hearing held by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) over a permit to allow Dripping Springs to dump almost a million gallons of treated wastewater into Onion Creek, about a day upstream of Austin. That idea has many people in Austin very worried. […]