SAN ANTONIO – The safety of drinking water for San Antonio residents is in question if the Guajolote Ranch development, which includes a wastewater treatment plant, is built in northwest Bexar County, according to a local professor.
Dr. Saugata Datta, a professor of hydrology and geochemistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio, has said that the water would not be safe to drink.
Datta, who is also the chair of UTSA’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has been following the Guajolote Ranch development, planned for northwest Bexar County, which would sit on the Helotes Creek watershed that feeds into the Edwards Aquifer.
If the development occurs, it would bring 2,900 homes on approximately 1,100 acres west of Scenic Loop and Babcock roads, requiring a wastewater treatment plant for San Antonio’s drinking water.
Neighbors have been fighting this development due to its environmental and water quality impacts on 1.6 million people.
Datta said residents are rightfully concerned about drinking treated sewage water.
He said drinking treated sewage water needs to be thoroughly cleaned.
Datta explains that household sewage can contain a variety of substances, including emerging contaminants, metals, organic compounds, pathogens such as E. coli, and “forever chemicals” that do not degrade or produce dangerous byproducts. Over time, these contaminants can accumulate and require proper treatment by wastewater treatment plants, which may not sometimes operate flawlessly.
Even if the water is perfectly clean, the chemicals used to treat it are even more harmful to the human body, Datta said.
“The terminal part of it, which we don’t want to see for sure, is the developing of the carcinogens or cancerous chemicals,” Datta said. “These are almost all these chemicals have a potential for going in that direction.”
Additionally, the treated water may not completely eliminate forever chemicals from wastewater, which can also lead to health issues, such as cancer.
“They will actually start corroding some of the organs that we have, and that leads to some of the cancerous diseases that we see,” Datta explained.
That water would also be used to irrigate local farms, spraying those forever chemicals onto our food.
He said as a whole, this also impacts the entire watershed and aquifer system, disrupting the ecosystem.
“The whole ecosystem will be affected,” Datta said. “And in that ecosystem stays indicates human health that would be affected,” Datta said.
He said an unhealthy ecosystem means unhealthy humans in the long run.
Next steps in the approval process
In May, state administrative law judges recommended that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) approve a wastewater permit for the Guajolote Ranch development, a controversial project by Florida-based Lennar Corp. in northwest Bexar County. However, the decision is not final and could lead to further legal battles.
The matter will now be reviewed by the TCEQ commission, a process that may extend into August, according to a news release from the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance. If necessary, a district court battle could follow.
It is projected to release an average of 1 million gallons per day of treated sewage into the Helotes Creek watershed, which recharges up to 15% of the Edwards Aquifer.
Parties involved had until June 9 to file exceptions to the proposal from the administrative law judges. They have until June 18 to reply to the exceptions.
The commissioners will review the proposal, exceptions and replies before making a decision.
Live oak trees already being cut down for development
A northwest Bexar County neighborhood group claims the developer of the contentious Guajolote Ranch development is illegally cutting legacy live oak trees on private property.
The project has been at a legal standstill between the Lennar Corporation, a Florida-based construction company, the TCEQ and the Scenic Loop-Helotes Creek Alliance, with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office now involved.
Michael Phillips, a Scenic Loop resident, said construction crews don’t have the legal permits required to continue construction despite crews cutting down irreplaceable decades-old trees on private property.
The sheriff’s office previously said it was working with all parties to figure out the legal parameters.
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