YFZ Ranch drops application for wastewater treatment plant
 New permit application will allow for 'no discharge'
 
The Eldorado Success
YFZ Ranch wastewater treatment plant

Work on the YFZ Ranch wastewater treatment plant stopped abruptly on March 2 of this year when TCEQ inspectors served ranch officials with a shut down order. Since that time, the ranch’s request for a state permit for the facility has met with opposition from neighboring landowners as well as the local underground water district, the City of San Angelo and Tom Green County. Now comes word that ranch officials have agreed to drop the permit request and resubmit a new one that prohibits treated wastewater from being discharged onto neighboring landowners.

YFZ Ranch officials agreed this week to drop their application for a permit to build and operate a wastewater treatment plant and to resubmit the application with one notable change — the new permit application will not contain a provision for treated effluent to be discharged from the YFZ property.

Instead, the new application asks the state for permission to build and operate a sewer plant in such a way as to prevent effluent from leaving the ranch. One possibility would be to use the treated waste to irrigate crop land.

A coalition of public groups and private citizens, including the Upper Colorado River Authority, Plateau Underground Water District, Tom Green County and the City of San Angelo, raised several objections to the original permit application, leading to several meetings between coalition members YFZ Ranch officials and representatives of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The meetings, which took place in San Angelo and Austin, reportedly led to an agreement whereby the coalition would end its opposition to the YFZ permit application if ranch officials would drop the current application and seek a new permit excluding the discharge option.

A memorandum of agreement, signed on August 30, 2005 by Fred R. Campbell, president of the Upper Colorado River Authority and Merrill Jessop, manager of the YFZ Ranch, outlines the provisions of the agreement including the right for representatives of the Upper Colorado River Authority to inspect any wastewater system that might be built and the YFZ Ranch, both during construction and during operation.

Copies of the memorandum of agreement were distributed this week to coalition members, including the Plateau Underground Water District.

TCEQ Region 8 Director Ricky Anderson said he knew the two sides had been talking but was unaware that an agreement had been reached about the YFZ permit application. Anderson said that his office deals more with inspections and enforcement and less with permit issues.

TCEQ inspectors from the San Angelo office halted construction of the wastewater plat on March 2 of this year after they found YFZ personnel working on the facility before a permit had been issued.
 
MyEldorado.net
Originally published September 8, 2005
 
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