Wastewater: Protect Bastrop's Water for real

Resident next to planned facility asked important questions

Piney Creek at Riverwood Drive, northern side of the city of Bastrop.

On Monday night, September 15, the room was full at the Kerr Community Center in the city of Bastrop. Participants struggled to talk to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality at its official public meeting on the pending Wastewater Permit application by Utilities, Inc. Of Texas (formerly Corix) / Permit No. WQ0013548001. The meeting was about water quality threats if there is a 10X increase in wastewater into the Colorado River in the county and city of Bastrop, if the Permit is granted.

It wasn't easy. Residents are just people, mostly not scientists or policy experts, though there were policy experts there, some positively surprisingly so. But “just people” are capable of speaking from their heart, and they did.

LIV was there, following water and land stewards at Environmental Stewardship, Simsboro Aquifer Water Defense Fund, Save Our Springs Alliance, farmer, land steward, and former reporter extraordinaire Skip Connett, and Chap Ambrose, community activist and BBQ King for us all at Keep Bastrop Boring.

We were able to capture testimony on short videos linked below.

Though we were glad to see three City of Bastrop Council Members -- Kerry Fossler, Kevin Plunkett, and John Kirkland -- in attendance, they said nothing, asked no questions during the open question agenda item, and in some cases, asked not to be recognized as such in TCEQ’s record of proceedings. Why?

New Bastrop Mayor Ishmael Harris, who has worked for the last 20 years in wastewater for the City of Austin’s Water Department, was not in attendance, nor was City Manager Sylvia Carrillo.

No County Commissioners attended.

CAUTION: Protecting Bastrop's water is not a slogan. It's a vital life aspiration for Bastrop residents, leading to a practice of policy, not politics.

Go here to watch the short videos.

Action: Share the videos and ask folks to get on the LIV email list. Policy, not politics, is what you do in a disaster. Texas politics is a disaster. Our water is headed in the same direction. That's why we must protect Bastrop's water for real.