Doug Harrison filed an application with the state to build a wastewater treatment plant on his ranch, raising environmental concerns. - via TexasTribune
A truck drives by Doug Harrison’s property in Comal County. Harrison’s application for a wastewater treatment plant on his 500-plus-acre ranch in Comal County stirred controversy as residents have raised environmental concerns.Facing a two-lane highway about 13 miles west of New Braunfels, a 546-acre ranch hugging the west fork of Dry Comal Creek has caused a stir in the community.
The ranch also sits over the recharge zone for the Edwards Aquifer, a vast underground lake that’s the source of drinking water for more than 2 million people. And that has many local residents and Texas environmentalists concerned about wastewater and runoff from a potential subdivision on Harrison’s property — even though the couple hasn’t yet put the ranch up for sale.
Harrison said the sketch of the 1,400-lot subdivision he included with his permit application was just a way to show the maximum number of homes that could fit on the property and the kind of water treatment system that would be needed if a developer bought the ranch. Residents packed the Smithson Valley High School cafeteria on June 8 and told representatives from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that they were concerned about possible pollution, flooding and harm to local tourism if the Harrisons’ application was approved.
“We love it here, we built this house to grow old in. It would be a shame if we couldn’t age here,” said Guckian, 65.First came the quarry project. The same year that Guckian and her partner moved to Comal County, her neighbor sold his 1,500-acre ranch to a real estate investment group from Alabama. That summer, an 18-by-24-inch sign appeared on the fence announcing the land would be a quarry operated by Alabama-based Vulcan Material.
“This is something that everybody needs to take responsibility for,” Guckian added. “That includes developers, industry and citizens.” Ed Harris, a neighbor of Meyer Ranch who led the charge against the original subdivision plans and founded an organization called Friends of Dry Comal Creek, said the situation with the Harrisons’ ranch feels similar to the Meyer Ranch fight.
Jamie Miller, the wastewater engineer for Harrison’s project, said the technology to treat and reuse wastewater would be similar to what’s used at Meyer Ranch but would have even higher standards. Kuhn and others noted at the meeting that many of the caves and sinkholes in Comal County are connected to the same cave system as Honey Creek, the longest known cave in Texas, and Natural Bridge Caverns, the largest commercial cavern in Texas and a major New Braunfels tourist attraction.
“For that site, this is just way too dense,” Peace said as she paced around her San Antonio office with Hairpin, her scruffy 17-year-old terrier, following at her heels. “There are caves there, this is on the contributing zone, it’s very near the recharge zone. A lot of that [waste]water would be going directly into the aquifer through these recharge features with no filtration.”
Harrison’s neighbor Erin Bell lives with her family on Big Heart Ranch, where she breeds horses and offers clients lessons in dressage, a form of competitive horse riding. She’s also worried about how a subdivision would affect her business.
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