The City of Burnet has offered to significantly reduce the amount of treated wastewater it can discharge into Hamilton Creek in an attempt to win the support of the Lower Colorado River Authority.

The city plans to build a new wastewater and sewage treatment plant and has filed an application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to amend its discharge permit to increase its daily allowable amount from 700,000 to 1.7 million gallons.

The LCRA, the cities of Austin and Lakeway, the Protect Lake Travis Association and other entities are concerned about the effect the increased amount of discharge will have on Lake Travis and have filed a notice of intent with TCEQ to request a contested hearing.

Burnet Assistant City Manager David Vaughn said Thursday the city has sent LCRA a proposal that would reduce its daily allowable discharge of treated wastewater, or effluent, to about 1.1 million gallons per day, with some exceptions.

“We’ve sent them a proposal, but we haven’t heard back from them,” Vaughn said.

Exceptions would be days when a significant amount of water is flowing in the creek, when the ground is saturated and during instances
of procedural or operational problems at the plant, Vaughn said.

 

LCRA spokeswoman Lisa A. Hatzenbuehler did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, but Wednesday she told television
station KXAN in Austin that LCRA and the City of Burnet are working together to reach a settlement agreement.

 

LCRA will likely go ahead with its plans to request a contested case hearing,Vaughn said.
“LCRA and TCEQ have been very good to work with,” he said. “We expect them to request a contested case hearing in order to protect
their negotiating position, but we are hopeful of reaching an agreement with them.”

 

Vaughn said the city also is considering spending $1.5 to $2 million on a wastewater rehab project that would put wastewater
reuse lines, or purple pipe, into the ground along with water lines to the city owned Galloway-Hammond Recreation Center and soccer
fields at the new Haley- Nelson Park on SH 29 West.

 

Intensity of concern over the city’s wastewater disposal plans has picked up in recent days. Tuesday, Mayor Alan Smith sought to assure
property owners along Hamilton Creek, which flows into Lake Travis, the city has no intention of ever discharging large amounts of effluent
into the stream, but said it must protect itself against future worst case scenarios.
“We absolutely do not ever intend to do that,” Smith told members of the Concerned Citizens for Hamilton Creek who attended Tuesday’s city
council meeting. “But we have to follow the letter of the law and have to prepare for a worst case scenario”.

 

Concerned Citizens for Hamilton Creek wants more of a commitment than that. “We would like to see you
commit to no discharge of wastewater into the creek,” said Dennis Cornelius,who owns Creekside Camp and Cabins along Hamilton
Creek and whose front porch sits less than 100 yards from the stream. “What do towns do that don’t have a creek?”
City records indicate it has discharged effluent into Hamilton only six times in six years and plans are to continue to dispose of most
of its effluent through irrigation of city-owned Delaware Springs Golf Course, 200 acres of city-owned hayfields and other city-owned properties,
officials have said.

 

Several other members of the group spoke at the council meeting and one, Charlie Hackett, told the story of a “widow woman”
who cannot afford to pay the cost of hooking up to LCRA water lines and continues to use water from the creek for every day household need,
including drinking water.