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Texas Agriculture Archive

May 3, 2002

North Bosque municipalities challenge TNRCC regs

The seven cities and towns on the North Bosque River—which include Waco and Stephenville—have issued a joint invitation to federal and state regulators to a meeting in which the mayors of those cities say they will publicly challenge proposed limits on phosphorous discharge from city sewer plants.

In a letter mailed recently to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission and U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the acting secretary of the newly-formed North Bosque Coalition of Mayors, W. Leon Smith of Clifton, said the meeting was to be held April 24 in Clifton. The invitation was jointly issued by Mayor Linda Ethridge of Waco, Mayor John Moser of Stephenville, and mayors of the five communities in between, including Stan Bundy (Hico), A. D. Woody (Iredell), Jess Taylor (Meridian), W. Leon Smith (Clifton), and Bill Lancaster (Valley Mills). The meeting was taking place at press time.

At issue is a draft proposal by TNRCC, under the supervision of EPA, that would set strict daily limits—known as TMDL, for Total Maximum Daily Load—on phosphorous for each city sewer system. Clifton Mayor Smith says that Clifton is the only city in the area that has already been permitted by TNRCC for phosphorous discharge, and has experienced difficulty meeting even current standards.

Smith says that the new draft TMDL would further limit Clifton's discharge and effectively cap the growth of his city, which had a 2000 Census of 3,500, while costing an additional $500,000 or more to comply. "We just finished a new $2 million sewer plant, built precisely to TNRCC standards, and they're already demanding more," he said.

Smith writes in the letter that "…we all fear that irreparable economic damage could result for the seven cities and our nearly one-quarter million residents if TNRCC proceeds with TMDL implementation as it is described in preliminary drafts."

The City of Waco and TNRCC have engaged in an often-contentious battle over control of the North Bosque river phosphorous content, which Waco blames for severe algae blooms that have led to odor and taste problems. Waco says it currently spends up to $30,000 monthly to mitigate the problem, and that amount is still growing.

Waco has often blamed the dairy industry, centered in Erath County, for the majority of the problem. The City of Stephenville, in the heart of the dairy center, has joined forces with the other watershed communities to fight the TMDL approach, as it is being applied to cities.

"We find it implausible," the invitation letter continues, "that regulators believe even the most aggressive phosphorous limits on city sewer discharge will result in definitive improvement of the Bosque River and Lake Waco." Smith says he doesn't want to damage the dairy industry, but wants TNRCC to focus on identifying and curing the core causes of the phosphorous problem.

Smith continued, "What amazes me is that even if TNRCC achieves its stated goal of reducing our (combined city phosphorous) discharge by 50 percent, a reduction of half of our 10 percent means we still have 95 percent of the problem unresolved after our citizens have been forced to shell out millions and millions of dollars."