Liberty Hill wastewater plant ordered to lower level of phosphorus discharged into river

State environmental officials ordered the Liberty Hill Wastewater Treatment Plant to lower the amount of phosphorus it discharges into the San Gabriel River.

The decision Thursday came years after residents along the river launched a legal fight, saying the phosphorus dumped into the river from the plant is causing excessive algae growth. They said the algae violated state water quality standards by preventing recreational uses of the river such as fishing and swimming.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's three commissioners voted Thursday to lower the phosphorus limit that the Liberty Hill Wastewater Treatment Plant discharges into the river from the current level of 0.15 milligrams per liter to 0.02 milligrams per liter.

The city of Liberty Hill will review the ruling with its attorneys and "will likely appeal this horrendous decision," said one of its lawyers, Rudy Metayer.

More:Downstream residents fighting Liberty Hill wastewater treatment plant over algae

"We are absolutely shocked and dismayed that the TCEQ has decided to blow up its own rules and procedures, not follow the facts, data and science to demand an unprecedented standard that has no basis in reality," said Metayer. "Every Texas city is now on notice that even if it follows the rules governing wastewater management, you can still be found to be wrong and punished."

Lauren Ice, the attorney for Stephanie Ryder Morris, one of the residents, said she was pleased with the order.

"The decision feels like a vindication on behalf of the science and on behalf of the downstream neighbors," she said. "The limit set today of 0.02 milligrams per liter total phosphorus is an enormous step in the right direction, and we are prepared to see that the city complies with this new standard."  

The residents had asked that the limit be placed even lower at 0.015 milligrams per liter based on testimony from scientists they had hired. One of the homeowners who lives by the river, Dave Bunnell, said the commissioners' decision on Thursday was what he expected.

"The key question going forward is if the TCEQ is going to enforce these regulations. … It's seven times less than what is currently allowed," he said.

More:Another wastewater spill hits river

Another one of the city's lawyers, Natasha Martin, had argued at the TCEQ meeting Thursday before the decision that the requested phosphorus limit would be the lowest set in the state for wastewater treatment plants. She also said the limit requested was too low for any acceptable laboratories approved by the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program to measure.

Ice told commissioners the city could comply with the proposed limit of 0.015 milligrams per liter limit on phosphorus by trucking some of its treated wastewater away and reusing it for irrigation.

Jon Niermann, chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, said the city of Liberty Hill had not proved that the phosphorus limit it had requested of 0.15 milligrams per liter would protect the water quality of the river. "The evidence supports a much lower limit," he said.

Before Thursday's meeting, there were two hearings with evidence presented by both sides to administrative law judges from the State Office of Administrative Hearings. The state office resolves disputes between Texas agencies, other governmental entities and citizens. The judges issued a proposal after the hearings that included lowering the level of phosphorus the treatment plant could dump into the river.

Some of the scientists who had spoken at the hearings said that a 0.02 milligrams per liter limit on phosphorus would curb the excessive growth of algae and allow recreational uses of the river, Niermann said Thursday.

He said he knew it would be challenging for the city of Liberty Hill to reach the new limit set on phosphorus by TCEQ commissioners.

"The city is very likely to have significant periods of noncompliance," he said. "We expect the city to pursue compliance with all due speed and the TCEQ staff is here to assist."

The Liberty Hill Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility is about 8,800 feet southeast of the intersection of Texas 29 and U.S. 183 in Williamson County. Liberty Hill is one of the fastest-growing cities in Texas. Its population has jumped from 967 in 2010 to 9,099 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

State law allows treatment plants to dump treated wastewater into rivers. The fight about the phosphorus level in the South San Gabriel River began after the Liberty Hill plant submitted a renewal application to the TCEQ in 2018. The application sought to continue dumping treated wastewater in the river at a daily average flow not to exceed 2 million gallons in the interim phase and a daily average flow not to exceed 4 million gallons in the final phase.

The proposed renewal permit would have allowed the phosphorus to remain at the current level of 0.15 milligrams per liter. Phosphorus is produced by several sources in the wastewater the plant treats, including human waste.

Morris, who lives in Leander near the outfall of the treatment plant and has been fighting for years against degradation of the river, filed a request for a contested case hearing after a public hearing in 2020 about the proposed renewal permit. Bunnell and a group of his neighbors who entered the fight after Morris also filed a request for a hearing about their permit objections.

The Save Barton Creek Association got involved in the case by helping raise $25,000 to help Morris pay for previous testimony from scientists, the group's advocacy director, Brian Zabcik, said Thursday. He said the decision made by commissioners on Thursday was "the best practical outcome that could have happened." He said the TCEQ can only accept testing results from laboratories approved by the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, and those labs cannot measure limits of phosphorus lower than 0.02 milligrams per liter.

Morris said she was grateful for the commissioners' decision. "The city has had ample notice and more than 10 years to deal with this problem," Morris said. "We now expect real action from the city to return the river to its previous glory so it is healthy again for the community who depend on it."

Andrew Engelke, another Williamson County resident who lives along the South San Gabriel River, said he didn't agree with the commissioners' decision.

"Right now, my concern is what happens if they move to a compliance of 0.02 (milligrams per liter) and two years down the road we still have a lot of algae," he said. "What's our recourse? Are we back at square one?"