Fight over sewage continues after deal

Save Our Springs battles Dripping Springs in dispute.

Easing the way for the construction of an expanded sewage plant that could release treated wastewater into a creek that feeds Barton Springs, the city of Dripping Springs this week agreed to a settlement with downriver property owners, an environmental group and groundwater districts.

But one holdout remains: the Save Our Springs Alliance, a group that has long opposed development in areas around Austin’s western fringe.

Under the terms of the settlement, Dripping Springs — the fast-growing small city west of Austin that bills itself as “the Gateway to the Hill Country” — will have the right to discharge up to 822,500 gallons of treated sewage water into a tributary of Onion Creek, down from 995,000 in the city’s original permit application.

Instead of discharging that treated water into the creek, however, city officials plan to use it to irrigate several hundred acres of parks, medians and other grassy areas. The city also plans to add ponds capable of storing 20 million gallons of treated wastewater.

The discharge permit is meant to provide another option in case treated sewer water outstrips the irrigation demand, officials said.

Under the settlement, the city also agreed to establish a utility commission that would include members nominated by one of the groundwater districts that had protested the treatment plant proposal.

“Dripping Springs has agreed to no discharge for the immediate future,” said Clark Hancock, president of the Save Barton Creek Association, one of the parties that agreed to the settlement. “They’ve also agreed to ... develop strategies for sustainable operations that will not rely