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HAMILTON -- Around 75 crowded the Lee
Conference Center in Hamilton on Wednesday afternoon, October 10, to
learn about the status of state efforts to clean up the Leon River
below Proctor Dam.
One of the more significant bits of
information disclosed at the meeting seemed to indicate that the
cities of Comanche, Dublin and Gustine will be under more intense
scrutiny and guidelines in their wastewater plants, and perhaps in
other areas as well.
Landowners, ranchers, dairymen and public
officials joined a host of employees representing the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the Brazos River Authority (BRA) and
the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) at the
meeting. The gathering was officially billed as a Stakeholder Meeting
for the Leon River Bacterial Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Project.
Approximately 25 individuals, agencies
and municipalities have been designated as stakeholders.
Stakeholders have a defined interest in
the outcome of TCEQ's federally-mandated effort to lower bacterial
contamination on a segment of the Leon River that runs between the
Highway 67/377 bridge and Lake Belton below Gatesville. In that
segment of the river, total bacterial contamination, as measured over
a multi-year period of time and in varying weather conditions, has
averaged higher than the federal Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) allowable standards.
The TCEQ conducted a series of meetings
in the past two years to inform the public about the problem and to
form a stakeholders group that has been serving as their public
sounding board in devising a river cleanup, or TMDL program. There has
been a high level of interest in the TMDL effort, because once it is
finally adopted by the TCEQ and approved by the EPA, its mandates have
the force of law.
The meeting opened with a rapid-fire
series of projected slides to give an overview of the TMDL process and
progress to date. Unfortunately, both the slides and the narrative
provided by Kerry Niemann, the TCEQ's TMDL Project Manager for the
Leon River, was laced with scientific nomenclature and abbreviations,
much of which was never explained nor readily apparent as to meaning.
Your reporter will readily admit to a less than complete understanding
of all ideas expressed, despite having attended several such meetings.
Niemann told how that the TCEQ was
working to refine their means of tracking wildlife sources of
bacterial contamination and also to obtain EPA approval for more types
of water use classification that will give the agency greater
flexibility in applying federal bacterial contamination standards.
Wildlife bacterial contamination
currently accounts for more than 40% of the total current bacterial
load in the river, but after the 25% planned reduction in total
allowable bacterial load, will account for approximately 55% of the
remaining total. Niemann noted that stakeholders will be accountable
only for non-wildlife sources, and that is where the initial phases of
the implementation must occur, as there is no planned reduction in
wildlife sources.
Niemann's presentation then focused on
the Dublin, Comanche and Gustine wastewater treatment facilities, and
noted that each would be required to meet its permitted waste load
allocation without any exceptions for overflow during heavy rain
conditions.
Niemann also commented that four
additional sub-segments of the Leon River watershed have been
identified as failing to meet recreational use water standards. Resley
Creek, the South Leon River, Indian Creek and Walnut Creek will likely
have TMDL plans developed for them as well as for the Leon River
segment. Of the four sub-segments, the Indian Creek watershed, which
flows through Comanche, has the highest bacterial contamination.
The TCEQ's map of the Leon River TMDL
project area also identified many CAFO's (concentrated animal feeding
operations), most of which are the dairies operating in the area.
Some, or all, of them are also likely to be affected by the TMDL
cleanup plan.
Although not discussed at the meeting, it
has been noted during previous TMDL meetings, and confirmed again in
private conversation with Jay Bragg with the BRA, that the discharge
water from Proctor Lake has never been found to have high levels of
bacterial contamination. The lake discharge water is tested daily.
Neither DeLeon nor Gorman nor other areas upstream of Proctor Lake are
included in the Leon River TMDL project.
State Representative Sid Miller was
present at the meeting, as he has been at most of the previous TMDL
meetings, and expressed concerns that the TCEQ was taking the easy way
out in solving the bacterial contamination problem. Miller insisted
that the state agency develop more varied and lenient water use
standards that can be applied to the Leon River.
Other county and city officials and
industry representatives also strongly voiced their concerns over the
TMDL process, the inflexible standards being applied, and the
potential for restrictions being applied to landowners, agricultural
interests and municipalities along the watershed.
Aaron Whitt with the TSSWCB reviewed a
variety of studies that the state and federal government is
sponsoring, some of which are being conducted along the Leon River
watershed, that may provide additional scientific data that can be
used in the TMDL implementation phase.
Jay Bragg with the BRA was introduced to
the meeting. His agency will be involved in managing the
implementation phase of the Leon River TMDL project.
One stakeholder questioned the TCEQ's
rush to develop a TMDL implementation plan while important studies are
being conducted, and suggested that the Leon River stakeholders did
not need to be saddled with a cleanup plan based on incomplete or
inaccurate data.
Kerry Niemann responded that a draft copy
of the TMDL plan will be published soon, perhaps in December or
January, and that there will then be a 30 day public comment period.
After public concerns has been addressed the TMDL plan will be
presented to the TCEQ Commissioners for adoption and then sent to the
EPA for approval.
The stakeholders then discussed holding
their own meeting after the draft TMDL report is released for public
comment.
More information on the TMDL project is
available at:
www.tceq.state.tx.us/implementation/water/tmdl/34-leonbacteria.html. |
