Bill Whitaker: Texas legislators threaten Waco water – Waco Tribune-Herald

BILL WHITAKERBoard of Contributors

A few weeks ago I attended a sun-lit memorial service honoring 15 people, 12 of them first responders, killed in the ammonium nitrate explosion that destroyed or damaged infrastructure in much of the city of West in 2013. Two points were made by speakers: The town of 2,500 had concluded its marathon rebuilding effort over the decade and all were grateful for the sacrifice, courage and public service shown by the first responders who perished in the blast.

Yet in surveying the dark slabs laid in tribute to the dead of April 17, 2013 in West Memorial City Park, I was cognizant of what was left unsaid: When time came to make sure such a tragedy never befell the families of other first responders, state leaders couldnt quite muster similar courage. They passed on an unusually strong recommendation by the state fire marshal to mandate sprinkler systems in businesses like the West Fertilizer Company to prevent similar loss of life.

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In doing so, political leadership and society in general bet that reforms short of what the fire marshal proposed would be good enough and all to save agribusinesses the cost and hassle of installing sprinklers. And if the reforms implemented are not good enough well, thats a calculated risk many of us have decided to assume: Memorialize our dead, comfort the families, rebuild infrastructure with millions of state and federal taxpayer dollars and get on with life in Texas.

That thought came to mind when the Texas House of Representatives this month recklessly passed a bill to unravel safeguards set by wiser lawmakers in 2001 to protect Wacos drinking water from pollution stemming from upstream dairy operations in the North Bosque watershed that feeds Lake Waco. For more than two decades, that legislation has reduced though not eliminated the problem Wacoans and others face from phosphorus-rich dairy cattle manure fouling our water supply.

Even though Republican state Rep. Charles Doc Anderson has dutifully supported agricultural and rural priorities galore throughout his long career representing the Waco area in the Texas House, his protests against Republican state Rep. DeWayne Burns bill to stifle community voices in the crucial permitting process for watershed dairy operations went unheeded by many. Anderson reminded colleagues that dismantling the regulatory framework puts at risk the drinking water of 220,000 Wacoans downstream.

The Texas House response to anxieties about contaminating our water supply: Let them drink milk.

For his part, Burns insists changes in the state law through House Bill 2827 everything from loosening permitting-process rigors to scrapping certain soil tests instrumental in gauging phosphorus levels left behind by nutrient-profuse cattle waste (which spurs putrid algal growth in water) can be reversed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality if the agency recognizes total maximum daily loads (TMDL) of contaminants are worsening water quality in the long-troubled watershed.

The point is this is a success story, Burns said in floor debate about the regulatory system protecting Wacos drinking water. This TMDL program has been in place 20 years and weve met the goals of the TMDL program all along the lines, all along the watershed. We simply want to change the permitting process but leave these regulations in place and the remedies in place to TCEQ should something ever happen.

Waco alliance on alert

City of Waco officials are more than skeptical. In a statement, Waco Mayor Dillon Meek, an attorney, said Burns reassuring words veer widely from his legislations actual wording: There are significant consequences which may be unintended by the bills author but nevertheless remove regulatory authority from the TCEQ in this watershed and will necessitate alterations to the existing general permit [process] and to the implementation plan for the North Bosque River TMDL.

Concerns? Well, three of the five monitoring stations in the watershed have never met the goal set two long decades ago, city officials say. At the 2021 meeting of North Bosque stakeholders, all agreed the implementation plan had not been met and with no dispute from the Texas Association of Dairymen and the Texas Farm Bureau. TCEQ compliance data show that multiple dairies within the watershed have been cited for operating out of compliance with their permits since at least 2012.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality reports indicate that even now, with state regulations in force, striving for water quality in the North Bosque watershed with some 40 dairies upstream remains a constant struggle. Any relaxing of regulations regarding permit requirements may negatively affect water quality in Lake Waco and cause increased drinking water treatment costs for the City of Waco, a TCEQ analysis in March concluded. These potential costs would be very difficult to estimate.

City taxpayers have already spent tens of millions to construct groundbreaking treatment facilities at Lake Waco to help remove algal microorganisms from the water. And while the nearby 200-acre Lake Waco Wetlands is celebrated for its wildlife diversity, city officials also count on it to filter out at least some contaminants from the North Bosque before the water reaches Lake Waco. Yet all of this means little without tight regulations lessening overall pollution from dairy cattle waste washing into the river.

The bill was likely filed in good faith to try to bring solutions to bear for the dairy industry, Mayor Dillon Meek said in an interview this week. The unintended consequence of that would be, I think, losing the opportunity for the public to comment, and thus increase the risk of greater pollution in the North Bosque River, the waterway that feeds Lake Waco and supplies the city's drinking water.

Local officials led by Meek with mayoral predecessors such as Malcolm Duncan Jr. as well as business leaders in the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and Waco Restaurant Association fear undoing the state regulations will make the daily challenge of fighting North Bosque pollution all the more difficult. When I dared to suggest many Wacoans may be oblivious to what looms if the state of Texas relaxes current TCEQ regulations, Meek suggested otherwise.

Wacoans are aware, concerned and will do anything they can, the mayor told me. From [prominent Texas Medical Association official and McLennan County Republican Party Chairman] Brad Holland, to [Waco-area rock star and Second Amendment activist] Ted Nugent, to [McLennan County Judge] Scott Felton, to [Democratic] Ambassador Lyndon Olson, to [local restaurateur] Sammy Citrano, to nearly every member of the business community, all leaders in philanthropy, to Baylor Universitys president and regents, some of whom made personal calls to their respective elected leaders, our community knows what is at stake. I cant go to an event, meeting or kids birthday party without folks of all ages volunteering support. We presented a letter with dozens of community leaders signatures to our representatives including state Rep. Angelia Orr (who represents part of the Waco area as well as pollution-impacted constituents in Clifton and Meridian) and the entire House urging opposition.

Given that Holland, Nugent, Olson, Felton and Citrano speak for and to very different audiences, their collective political weight should speak volumes to state leadership that till now has been tone-deaf. Another rallying to the local cause: McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara, sometimes dubbed Americas sheriff.

Festering memories

If you want to properly determine a longtime resident in Waco, ask about local water before state legislators in 2001 took steps to tightly regulate upstream dairies: If one winces, youre likely talking to someone who remembers the taste and smell. I recall years ago the proprietor of a Schlotzskys Deli on Valley Mills Drive who filtered city water, then noted on his marquee that his customers wouldnt have to endure the Waco water taste.

Some people unfamiliar with our city didnt really care what the cause was, he told me later of Wacos water problem. They just knew they didnt want to take a shower in it at a local hotel because of the stink and they didnt want to drink it at a local restaurant. As far as they were concerned, theyd stop in Temple next time.

Anderson stressed this point on the House floor, noting that a representative of the Waco Restaurant Association reminded him of how they had such a hard time back then with the cooking, with having drinks, iced tea, coffee, things like that, (that) had such a negative odor and taste. Its possibly relevant that Waco officials say the local food and beverage industry now accounts for more than 9,000 jobs and has a $1.28 billion impact on the Greater Waco economy.

Which raises the festering dilemma over regulations: Many Texas Republican lawmakers preach against the evils of regulation, especially if it threatens economic prosperity. Yet theyre quick to tightly regulate areas as they see fit, imposing tight rules on everything from reproductive rights to voting, presumably because (at least in the examples cited) they believe in the sanctity of unborn life and the importance of election integrity.

So what of a state regulatory framework that has clearly bolstered Wacos transformation into a mecca for tourism and a pivotal hub of business activity and homebuilding? During his plea to colleagues on the House floor, Anderson reminded Burns and others that loosening regulations involving upstream dairies and raising the prospect of a return to fouled drinking water threatened our areas hard-won economic prosperity: Even the hint of water problems is a burden to economic development.

Indeed, more water regulation, not less, may be necessary as Texas grapples with surging population growth and what more of us concede is climate change, to the extent state legislators are preparing to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to replace deteriorating water infrastructure that, to hear the Texas Water Development Board, results in the loss of more than 132 billion gallons of water every year. Surely relaxing regulations that ensure water quality runs counter to such expensive state strategies.

Nor does this city-dairy dustup fit neatly within the rural-versus-urban dynamic impacting so much state legislation: Waco officials note that private property owners in largely rural Erath and Hamilton counties have sued dairy operators under the Clean Water Act for damage to their livestock, properties and livelihoods. And among those in the alliance opposed to House Bill 2827 is the rural upstream town of Clifton, population 3,500, where North Bosque River pollution also remains a problem.

To this date the river is still endangered and not going to receive clean water awards, but it is significantly cleaner and the process of permitting a new CAFO (concentrated animal-feeding operation) is much more demanding, former Waco Mayor Duncan argued in a terse April 29 letter to the Tribune-Herald. That is what the backers of this bill hope to undo. If this bill becomes law, it will require the city and all downstream landowners to reactivate the war machine of attorneys and engineers.

Governments role

During debate over HB 2827 with Republican state Rep. Charlie Geren of Tarrant County, Burns insisted the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would still be permitted to demand testing and other safeguards if necessary to bring upstream dairies and the watershed into compliance spurring Geren to ask why the state would now leave such discretion to agency officials rather than state law. Gerens point was sound: Republicans are supposed to be against placing such discretion with agency executives.

And when 73-year-old Geren finally turned 50-year-old Burns loose after their exchange on the House floor, a seasoned observer might be forgiven for concluding Geren and other graying Texans such as Doc Anderson, 77, still cherished that age-old principle of safeguarding water above all else in a state long plagued by droughts and shortages. What was true a century ago remains so today for many grizzled Texans, no matter how significantly other principles left and right shift with the political winds.

I appreciate where youre coming from and I appreciate your representing the dairy farmers, Geren told the Cleburne lawmaker bluntly in concluding their exchange, but I want to help Doc Anderson with the people and their drinking water in Waco.

For all the dairy industrys reassurances through Burns, Waco business and civic leaders have reason to doubt: Even after the state law protecting Waco water was implemented, residents experienced not only recurring episodes of rancid-tasting water but legal battles between the city and the dairy industry. And for those who voice naive sentiments about mom-and-pop dairy farmers, city officials stress that the dairy operations in question represent significant-sized entities.

Regarding not all regulations being bad, a friend of mine who is a young attorney pulled me aside this week and told me he is very conservative and doesnt like big government but strongly believes governments role is to ensure there is safe, clean, drinkable water, Wacos mayor told me last week. It doesnt get more basic than that, which is why we have so many Republicans and Democrats alike standing with us on this.

A bill that would change permitting rules in the Bosque River watershed got a hearing April 13 in front of the Environmental Regulation Committee of the Texas House. The city of Waco and most local entities oppose the bill due to water quality concerns. Speaking in favor of the bill are its sponsor, DeWayne Burns, R-Cleburne, and Darren Turley of the Texas Association of Dairymen. // Source: Texas Legislature

While amazingly no concerns were raised by the House Committee on Environmental Regulation when the Burns bill unwinding regulations protecting Wacos drinking water was introduced in an April 13 hearing, city of Waco water utilities director Lisa Tyer smartly carried the ball in written comments, submitted as a longtime resident, lambasting HB 2827 as stripping community input in dairy permitting protocols with potential detrimental impacts to our water resources as well as our pocketbook.

This bill needs to consider the potential economic impact to McLennan County citizens and industries, she wrote of HB 2827. Millions were spent to arrive at our current permitting process. More millions were spent to remove the algal blooms from our water and to put in a state-of-the-art disinfection system to combat issues related to CAFO (concentrated animal-feeding operation) runoff creating excessive phosphorus, nutrient loading and e. coli loading in Lake Waco.

The safeguarding of water up and down the North Bosque watershed isnt lost yet. The dairy bill must clear the Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Economic Development and then the full Senate under Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (who earlier this year was in Waco touting our fair city) before gaining the signature of Gov. Greg Abbott.

Judging by the relatively close 77-61 vote in favor of HB 2827 including a vote by new Republican state Rep. Angelia Orr siding with upstream dairies over her Waco, Clifton and Meridian constituents locals should understand that if our drinking water again reeks of sewage to the point some restaurateurs must once more put up signs informing customers that they have filtered the water served within, then certain elected state leaders must stand as complicit with those among us who voted for them.

Bill Whitaker spent more than 45 years as a reporter, editor and columnist in daily Texas journalism, including a dozen years as Waco Tribune-Herald opinion editor. He is a member of the Tribune-Herald Board of Contributors.

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Bill Whitaker: Texas legislators threaten Waco water - Waco Tribune-Herald