It’s Summertime, and the Algae Are Blooming: State Should Review the Wastewater Permit of ‘Repeat Violator’ Liberty Hill
Contact:
Robert Elder, Communications Director, TRLA | relder@trla.org (512) 374-2764
It’s Summertime, and the Algae Are Blooming: State Should Review the Wastewater Permit of ‘Repeat Violator’ Liberty Hill
Aug. 19, 2020
LIBERTY HILL, Texas – A Williamson County woman who lives on the South San Gabriel River wants a state administrative law court to examine the wastewater treatment plant permit of Liberty Hill, the small city whose discharge is inflicting a big environmental toll.
Citing wastewater discharge that chokes the river with algae and at times makes it smell like sewage, Stephanie Morris asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Aug.14 to grant a contested case hearing on the city’s permit. Amy Johnson and Loraine Hoane, attorneys for TRLA, filed the request for a contested hearing on behalf of Morris, who lives just downstream of the wastewater discharge point.
If the TCEQ approves Morris’ request, a state administrative law judge would hear expert witnesses and evidence concerning the impact Liberty Hill’s wastewater is having on the river under its current permit. The hearing would also consider whether the terms of the existing permit are stringent enough.
In 2015, the TCEQ granted Liberty Hill an amended permit that allows the city to eventually increase its discharge to 4 million gallons a day of treated wastewater. The city is currently allowed to discharge up to 1.2 million gallons a day.
Above the wastewater discharge point, the river is a clear, slow-flowing Hill County stream. Below the discharge point, where Morris lives with her family on five acres and practices beekeeping, the river is anything but pristine.
The river along her property is thick with algae, even when Liberty Hill complies with certain conditions of the permit granted by the TCEQ. Morris took the photo below on Dec. 10, 2019, during a month when the city complied with the nutrient limits for its treatment plant.
The South Fork San Gabriel downstream of the Liberty Hill wastewater discharge point on Dec. 10, 2019. (Photo by Stephanie Morris)
“Liberty Hill is reducing property values by degrading the river,” Johnson said, “and the city can do it because of the TCEQ’s lax permitting and enforcement.”
During an Aug. 17 public meeting, parents and children told TCEQ staff that they can no longer swim in the stream and asked the environmental regulator to do its job.
“This issue is not just happening in one part of the Hill County,” Johnson said. “The TCEQ is not taking seriously its responsibility to protect Texas streams in their pristine and often-fragile state.”
In its hearing request, TRLA said the TCEQ cannot deny a contested case hearing unless it determines Liberty Hill’s compliance history “raises no issues” with the city’s ability to comply with the permit.
“Clearly, that is not the case,” Johnson said.
Liberty Hill is doing more than degrading the river while in compliance, however. The city is a “repeat violator” of its discharge permit, according to the request for a contested case hearing.
▪ 1,070 days for ammonia nitrogen
▪ 997 days for phosphorus
▪ 321 days for suspended solids
▪ 20 days for E. coli
In March 2019, Morris reported solids clumped near the limestone river bed at the wastewater discharge point near her property. The TCEQ found 18 inches of wastewater solids. Nine days later, the city of Liberty Hill told the TCEQ that it had spilled 3,000 gallons of treated wastewater containing solids into the river.
Two months earlier, the Liberty Hill wastewater plant released chlorine into the river. The TCEQ permit does not authorize the discharge of chlorine.
“Liberty Hill’s compliance history is abysmal, with hundreds of significant permit violations,” said Hoane, the TRLA attorney. “The TCEQ is obligated to protect the property rights of downstream landowners, as well as the water quality of the South Fork San Gabriel.”
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