A citizens group fighting a permit application that would allow Miami-based Lennar Homes of Texas Land & Construction to discharge 600,000 gallons of treated wastewater daily (gpd) into Canyon Lake has scheduled a second town hall for 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25 at the Lobby Coffee Shop, 523 Seventh St., Comfort.
Speakers include Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA) Executive Director Annalisa Peace, Kendall County Pct. 4 Commissioner Chad Carpenter, and Nathan Glavy, GEAA’s technical director and permitting “watchdog.”
Laura and Jesse Wied also are listed on the permit application filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Comfort Neighbors opposes Lennar’s plans to build a 1,100-home development on 600 acres in nearby Kendall County. There are plans for an additional 1,300 units.
“The Lennar development growth pace destroys Comfort resources, town character and land stewardship,” the group said on its website. “We need to bring data to light so all of Comfort sees that this high-density subdivision is not in the best interest of Comfort and the Texas Hill Country.”
Water from the new subdivision’s wastewater plant would be discharged into North Creek, flowing into Cypress Creek, and then into the Guadalupe River before entering Canyon Lake.
If TCEQ approves the permit, Lennar could begin construction on the wastewater treatment plant as early as September.
A petition by Comal County resident Jeremy Able on change.org also opposes Permit WQ0016660001.
“Not only does this jeopardize the pristine condition of the lake, but it also risks the contamination and pollution of local water wells that thousands of residents rely on for clean water,” he said. “Beyond this, there’s also the potential to degrade property values in the surrounding area due to environmental harm, as well as negative impacts on tourism.”
As of Sunday, 1,024 people had signed the petition.
Comal County Pct. 4 Commissioner Jen Crownover said she has been inundated with phone calls and emails from constituents who don’t want to see more wastewater flowing into Canyon Lake.
Nothing has been filed with Commissioners Court, which has limited land-use authority.
Crownover represents the north side of Canyon Lake. She said she reached out to Lennar for more information about the scope of the project and is awaiting a response.
“But to answer some of the general questions I’ve been asked, this should have no bearing on well-water quality or any change in flood plain lines,” Crownover said. “The number in the permit is certainly alarming, especially as we tend to think in terms of cfs, which is cubic feet-per-second, associated with how we measure the river flow. To put the gpd number into perspective, it’s approximately the equivalent of one cfs.”
Sunday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was releasing water from Canyon Reservoir into the Guadalupe River at a rate of 58 cfs.
Treated water coming out of wastewater facilities is manned and monitored daily, she said.
Also, standards for any eventual discharge are much higher than they are for water coming out of sprinklers from tens of thousands of household septic systems.
(The chart at the right was provided by Crownover.)
Septic systems are not monitored or held to higher standards.
Comfort Neighbors is a community group formed by landowners whose property borders the proposed development. For more information, visit comfortneighbors.com.
Like Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry, a citizens’ group fighting to keep Vulcan Quarry out of Comal County, Comfort Neighbors cites environmental and water issues as reasons for precluding further commercial development.
“We are subject to Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District and have been under Stage 4 water restrictions since July 2023, classified as Drought Emergency,” the group said on its website.
Comfort Neighbors says it isn’t opposed to growth but believes growth initiatives should be “implemented responsibly, with ample consideration of both infrastructure and our scarce natural resources.
“…Most importantly, we must retain the historical architectural character of Comfort and the vast Hill Country landscapes achieved with 170 years of focus on land stewardship.
“This is what makes Comfort special and valued.”
The proposed subdivision would sit across the street from The Reserve, a 625-acre development with 35 homes, and a mile north of the 900-acre Falling Waters subdivision with 125 homes.
Comfort, like Canyon Lake, is unincorporated.
MyCanyonLake.com has reached out to Lennar for comment.
