HK Development has submitted a new application for a wastewater treatment plant.  They tried this 2 years ago wanting the effluent from their facility to go down Sand Pit Creek which ultimately ended up on Mr. James Freasier’s property (by the signal light on 181).  Mr. Freasier fought this and eventually won – HK was denied their permit.  However, this time they want to infringe upon our neighborhood – Shannon Ridge —  to install a forced main pipe which will end at Kicaster Creek on Shannon Ridge Drive within our neighborhood and the effluent wastewater being dumped into that dry creek.  HK claims on their application that the effluent will traverse down Kicaster Creek and empty into the San Antonio River.  According to maps, Kicaster Creek flows through many properties!  (Click here for HK’s full complete application – 124 pages)

HK’s plan is to develop their 255 acres and have 1020 sewer hookups on 40’ x 120’ lots.  Minimum size for septic tanks is ¼ acre, thus their need for a wastewater treatment plant.

We have secured the Show Barn for a Town Hall meeting for any and all interested property owners to attend. 

            Place:  Wilson County Expo and Community Center (Show Barn), 435 TX-97, Floresville, TX 78114

            Date:    Tuesday, September 2^nd

            Time:   7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Please RSVP with the number in your party attending so we have a head count:  [email protected]

Special guest attendees:

• County Attorney, Theresa Nettles
• Property Owner/Business Owner, James Freasier
• County Judge Candidate, Mike Monreal
• Oak Hills Water Supply Corp., Brian Meyer
• Oak Hills Water Supply Corp, Jason James
• San Antonio River Authority, Derek Gaudlitz
• San Antonio River Authority, Dominic Carvajal
• Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District
• Emergency Services District 5 (ESD5)
• County Permitting and Development Office, Luz Serrato

**** PLEASE FILE FOR A CONTESTED HEARING CASE WITH TCEQ ****

(See template below)

Homeowners from Shannon Ridge, Bentwood, properties bordering HK’s 255 acre site, CR 320 and those neighboring Kicaster Creek all the way to the San Antonio River, have voiced concerns about this future development.  We need many concerned homeowners to contact TCEQ to request a Contested Case Hearing.  To request a contested case hearing you must include the following items:

• Your name, address, phone number
• Applicant’s name (HK Bella’s Ranch) and proposed permit number (WQ0016844001)
• The location and distance of your property/activities relative to the proposed facility
• A specific description of how you would be adversely affected by the facility in a way not common to the general public
• A list of all disputed issues of fact that you submit during the comment period and,
• IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE THIS STATEMENT: “I/we request a contested case hearing.”

Use this link to file electronically:   https://www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/

To make it easy to file a contested case hearing with TCEQ, you may use the template below.  Thank you to Shannon Ridge resident Paul Martin for composing the template.  Please modify the template to fit your situation and feel free to add any additional thoughts – use your own words.  Please don’t copy the template word-for-word because duplicates may get rejected.  There is a 10,000 character limit to the comment.  We could not find a time deadline to file, however please do so ASAP.  The TCEQ Executive Director will only call for a contested case hearing if they receive more than a handful of concerns.

Template:

“We request a contested case hearing.  My family and I live in the potential impact zone of this proposed project (your address, Floresville, TX 78114 – Shannon Ridge community) and our home is ~2.5 miles from the proposed wastewater treatment plant and ~1.5 miles from the proposed wastewater discharge site on Kicaster Creek.

The wastewater treatment plant and its infrastructure, requested in this permit, will introduce and continually convey a wide range of industrial chemicals into our neighborhood, none of which are currently native or in use in our very rural area.  Our homes have septic tanks.  

The worst part, though, is the easily foreseeable impact of the treated wastewater from this plant.  First, it will treat waste/sewage water from almost 1,000 planned homes.  As such, its impact would be significant and create a major and never-ending disaster to the natural area within and nearby our community and its many residents – human and wildlife.  Kicaster Creek is a perpetual dry creek for many miles, including within our neighborhood, and very easy to identify as such in Google Maps and other satellite imagery.  Shannon Ridge Dr is the only service road for the majority of our residents, including me and my family, and is traversed by many and built upon Kicaster Creek’s dry bed as a roadway crossing.  It is at this specific junction that is the proposed discharge site for all of that treated wastewater from nearly 1,000 planned homes.  Although I am not a hydrologist or engineer, it seems easy to foresee that the ultimate catastrophe would be the inevitable wastewater accumulation and stagnation that would happen at and near the proposed discharge site — the same site most of drive through daily.  Without any flowing water over and through this perpetually dry creek bed, and any obvious water table, the wastewater from hundreds and hundreds of homes will very likely stagnate, saturate the grounds of this vast natural site, and negatively impact the human residents that live near this site.  Not only that, many of us that routinely drive through this site and the commonly seen wildlife (deer, turkeys, hogs, squirrels, many bird types, etc.) that live and traverse this area, will be negatively impacted too.  The continual chemical exposure, eventual and large-scale water stagnation and ground penetration, and unending stench of treated wastewater come to mind.  The outcomes of this project will degrade the health and quality of life of the human residents living and commuting through this area; very likely erode the home and property values in our community; poison the natural environment it touches; and drive away or sicken the plentiful wildlife that call this area home.

This permit request, if approved, will allow a major wastewater project for nearly 1,000 planned homes to create major visual and olfactory nuisances for me, my family, and my community.  And even worse, the outcomes of this project – again, if approved – will pose health risks and an array of systemic damage to the nearby natural environment, the variety of wildlife in the area, the hundreds of humans that call this community home, and the quality of life for all of us.

It is so ironic that this permit requests to allow a large-scale waste/sewage water “solution” for many hundreds of planned homes and their new-to-the-area human occupants by pumping all of their wretched and unwanted wastewater to the middle of another community that has lived in ideal peace for decades, to deal with for generations to come.  We do not want their wastewater either!  I would bet this ill-conceived and selfish “solution” for which they are seeking your approval, would be personally unacceptable to each and every person behind this permit request if it were proposed near their homes.  And I am confident, you would not want it either.  Again, we request a contested case hearing on this matter.  Thank you!”

We all need to unite and fight this application for the wastewater treatment plant permit.  We look forward to seeing many property owners at the Town Hall meeting on September 2^nd!