HUTTO — As the number of residents and businesses coming to central Texas continues to swell, cities face ever-growing demands for increased water supply. And with increased water use comes the issue of wastewater and sewage plants.
“As you know nobody wants these. You know what it’s going to do to our property values,” Hutto resident Brian Cobb told City Council at its Thursday meeting.
Cobb was recently informed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that a developer has applied to build a wastewater plant adjacent to his west Hutto neighborhood.
“I’d just like to encourage y’all to help us fight this because if we don’t figure how to stop it, it seems these developers are going to try to save money any way they can and the next one may be in a neighborhood near you,” Cobb said.
The plant permit Cobb referenced is by a company called Limmer Holdings LLC. It would be one-half mile south-southwest of the intersection of Limmer Loop and State Highway 130, in Hutto’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The location near a busy residential area that has schools and established neighborhoods is a concern for the community. Cobb said the plant would be less than 1000 feet from where a new high school is planned.
Steve Parker, another resident of the potentially affected community, said the proposed 150,000 gallons per day flowing from the plant amounts to over 100 gallons a minute of treated sewage running through the backyards of his neighborhood.
“Me and my wife bought our forever house here, we thought, nine years ago. That’s not what we bargained for when we bought that place,” Parker said.
The Limmer Holdings permit is the second application for a wastewater plant in that area. In 2022, a company known as 705 Limmerloop JV LLC applied for a 50,000 gallons per day plant that would be situated in front of Veterans’ Hill Elementary School, approximately 650 feet northeast of the intersection of Etna Way and Limmer Loop.
Hutto Independent School District, the city and a host of concerned residents filed comments against the plant with TCEQ.
“There is a general concern for the safety and health of our students and staff due to the proximity of this particular plant,” Henry Gideon, assistant superintendent of operations, said in a 2023 interview. “If there’s mismanagement or a leak, what are the potential harms that could occur with that type of treatment system? The treated affluent will still contain E-coli, Escherichia coli, and ammonia nitrogen, among other things.”
School district officials said the wastewater system represents odor nuisance, noise nuisance, and general concerns to the health and safety of students and staff at Veterans’ Hill Elementary, as well as to residents in the immediate vicinity, not the least of which concerned the discharge of effluent into open ditches along Limmer Loop.
TCEQ has scheduled a public meeting to discuss the community’s concerns about the 705 Limmerloop JV LLC project. Concerned residents are invited to attend on Tuesday, April 9, at 7:00 p.m. in the Hutto High School Gymnasium, 101 Farm to Market 685.
As more developers in the city’s ETJ opt to build their own wastewater treatment facilities rather than pay to connect to city services, Hutto has started to fight back.
Hutto is part of a group contesting the TCEQ’s approval of a wastewater plant near the Star Ranch neighborhood and was recently granted a hearing by the agency. The city has also hired an attorney to help contest some of the applications.
