At their inception, Camp OTX also requested a permit to dispose of treated wastewater into the clear-bottom pristine waters of Commissioner’s Creek (a tributary of Hondo Creek) – an act that would have caused algal blooms because the high phosphorus content in the effluent. Friends of Hondo Canyon was successful at negotiating the first ever TCEQ “Zero Discharge-Discharge Permit,” meaning no wastewater effluent can be discharged from Camp OTX into our creeks. The Camp agreed to either beneficially re-use the treated wastewater effluent for irrigation or pump and haul it off.
Friends of Hondo Canyon also works in coalition with others who advocate the protection of pristine streams at the state level. In 2020, Friends of Hondo Canyon helped sponsor the “Pristine Streams” bill which passed the House, but unfortunately stalled in the Senate. In 2021, Friends of Hondo Canyon petitioned the TCEQ for a rule change banning wastewater discharge into low phosphorus streams. The petition was unfortunately denied with a 2:1 vote. Friends of Hondo Canyon then reviewed the scientific literature implicating phosphorus concentration as the limiting step causing algal blooms, and presented an annotated bibliography of 20 years of science documenting this cause-effect relationship to the TCEQ Commissioners and TCEQ staff. Recently, the TCEQ Commissioners set the lowest ever effluent limit in a wastewater permit of 0.015 mg/L of total phosphorus in the South Fork San Gabriel River by the City of Liberty Hill, suggesting that the science was persuasive!.
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