Welcome to San Geronimo Valley Alliance, Inc. (SGVA)
serving the San Geronimo Valley NW of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country
Misson: To preserve and protect the rural quality of life and natural resources in northwestern Bexar and northeastern Medina counties, including San Geronimo Creek and Valley and the Edwards and Trinity Aquifers of Texas.
TCEQ's Sunset Review:
Now that the questionnaire deadline has passed, there will be a lull during which the Sunset Commission, consisting of 10 state legislators and two private citizens, will review all of the submissions -- questionnaires and letters -- that have been sent in, and a report will be prepared.
In November the commission will issue the report, which it will post on its website, http://www.sunset.state.tx.us/.
After public review of the report, there's a second chance to submit written comment. Then, on Wednesday and Thursday, December 15 and 16, public testimony will be given at the Sunset Commission headquarters in Austin. The general public is invited to give testimony. After that, there's a third opportunity for written comment. Upon review of all the written and verbal comment and testimony, the commission will give its decision on Wednesday, January 12, 2011. No testimony will be given at that hearing, and the decision will be final.
If you have questions, please check out the Sunset Commission web site,
sunset@sunset.state.tx.us, or call the commission at 512.463.1300. A real person, Julie, answers the phone (no automation), and she's very nice and very helpful!
For further info about SGVA's experience with TCEQ, click on "TCEQ Sunset Review" above.
Finances:
Of the $100,000 in legal fees SGVA incurred to fight water and sewer battles, officers are thrilled to say there is only $1,500 of debt left to pay. So if you can see your way to sending $100 or any other amount, please help for the last time in our successful three-and-a-half-year journey. Use PayPal or send check to Madelyn Schott, SGVA Treasurer, 19903 Bandera Road, Helotes, Texas 78023. Thank you so much!
Phasing out the web site, but not SGVA...
By December 1, when the annual subscription for this web site is due, the need for it will have expired. So we will be phasing it out over the next few months in order to not just disappear without a word of explanation. SGVA itself will continue in order to fulfill our mission as stated above. And who knows? Maybe if the need arises some other coordinator will develop a new web site!
The Blue Hole
at San Geronimo Creek
Indians would stop at the spring-fed Blue Hole for a swim, as chronicled in Dr. Rudolph Menger's Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscences, published in 1913. Today neighbors and friends swim in the blue hole.
Should sewer effluent from more than 10,000 residents, a 14-story hotel and a business district be discharged into this pristine creek? SGVA members don't think so.
Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead
the opposite of "progress?" Paul Harvey
Background
The San Geronimo Valley of the Hill Country of Texas is a scenic, historical corridor along Bandera Road (SH 16) eight to ten miles northwest of San Antonio. Its greatest significance is that it is a recharge area for the Edwards Aquifer, the source of drinking water for 1.7 million people in the greater San Antonio area.
When rain falls on a recharge area, that area needs to be as free from structures and other impervious cover as possible, so moisture can seep through the soil and down through the limestone cracks and crevices into the caves of the aquifer. The Edwards is reputed to be one of the purest and best aquifers in the nation.
In August 2006 an affiliate of Baruch Properties (BP) of Dallas applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for a permit to build a sewer plant for a 1,766-acre tract of Hill Country 10 miles northwest of San Antonio, which it named "Hills of Castle Rock," planning to build 3,500 uits on its 1,766 acres for a population of 10,000. In its first phase the plant would discharge 225,000 gallons, and later one million gallons, of treated effluent a day into pristine San Geronimo Creek. That October BP got around to closing the purchase of the property.
SGVA opposed the permit for many reasons, not the least of which is the likelihood that raw sewage will accidentally spill into the creek, endangering the health, safety and welfare of residents who drink the water, eat fish caught in the creek, and swim and tube there.
Among other concerns were potential pollution of the Edwards Aquifer, source of drinking water for 1.7 million people, by emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, which can't be detected or scrubbed by operation of a treatment facility and by algae, which can proliferate due to residual phosphorus in the treatment process.
In early December 2007, in a highly unusual but welcome move, SAWS unanimously denied Baruch's request to pipe Edwards Aquifer water a distance of 7.5 miles up Bandera Road to the development, citing protection of the aquifer recharge zone and undesirable leapfrogging over undeveloped areas as reasons for the decision.
In April, 2008, SGVA attended a meeting of the San Antonio City Council and supported its denial of a BP request for up to three MUDs (Municipal Utility Districts).
SGVA requested and was granted a contested case hearing by TCEQ. The preliminary hearing was held in July, 2008. Parties opposing the sewer plant included several individual members of SGVA and the group as a whole, plus the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) and the City of San Antonio.
At about the same time BP applied for a permit for 1,724 acre feet of Trinity water from the Medina County Groundwater Conservation District (MCGCD). Click on "Water" page.
The evidentiary portion of the TCEQ contested case hearing took place in late January, 2009. It lasted three days instead of five and consisted mostly of cross-examination of folks who had given pre-trial testimony. After post-trial details like attorneys' briefs on the issues, the judge would have made his recommendation to the three-member TCEQ Board of Commissioners, but settlement negotiations began between SGVA and the developer. The settlement is now final! Click on "Settlement" page above.