There is little doubt that the rural parts of eastern Williamson County and western Milam County will soon see substantial residential and industrial development.
Over the last two years in particular, signs of that growth are apparent in the number of times the Lower Brushy Creek Water Control & Improvement District has been asked about easement and inundation information for land near one of the 23 dams the WCID maintains.
This growth will bring something else: wastewater- treatment plants.
We are already aware of at least four plants upstream of the dams we maintain.
Wastewater-treatment plants are necessary to this sort of rural development, but they don’t have to discharge noxious effluent into our streams.
That’s why your WCID will be active in making sure the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality knows how we feel about the quality of the wastewater these plants put into the waterways upstream of our dams.
In particular, we have deep concerns about the amount of phosphorous these plants may be permitted to discharge.
While it’s not particularly dangerous to human life, too much phosphorus makes the water unsafe for human consumption, often spoils the creeks for fishing, promotes algae and turns the water our dams retain green.
Just take a look at Brushy Creek below the Round Rock and Hutto treatment plants.
I know it’s unrealistic, but our opinion is that the water these plants discharge should be safe enough to drink.
That’s an impossible standard to meet, of course, but it’s how we feel about wastewater discharged into the creeks and streams which flow into the water behind our dams.
The Lower Brushy Creek WCID will look for opportunities to go work with the TECQ and plant operators to minimize the impact these operations have on the surface water upstream of any of the dams we maintain.
Komandosky is president of the Lower Brushy Creek WCID. He has served on the board 20 years, the last six as president.
