GRAFORD—The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will host a public hearing on an Abilene permit application for wastewater discharge into Possum Kingdom Lake on June 18.

The public is invited to comment during the meeting which starts at 7 p.m. in the Possum Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, located at 362 N. FM 2353 in Graford.

Abilene Director of Water Utilities Rodney Taylor said the city intends to put its Possum Kingdom Raw Water Roughing Facility into operation. The reverse osmosis unit was completed in Breckenridge in 2016 but never launched.

“To date the PKRWRF has sat idle and not been activated,” Taylor wrote in an email to the Palo Pinto Press. “The PKRWRF is designed to reduce the Total Dissolved Solids (salts) naturally occurring in the Possum Kingdom Lake water, making the product water similar to that of Hubbard Creek Reservoir. The product water can then be pumped into the existing raw water pipeline system, owned and operated by the West Central Texas Municipal Water District, for delivery to Abilene’s water treatment plants.”

To date, Abilene has not taken any water from Possum Kingdom Lake and has not operated the PKRWRF, “and therefore no reverse osmosis concentrate has been discharged into the Possum Kingdom Lake,” Taylor added.

He said Abilene considers the Possum Kingdom water as a reserve for periods of extreme drought, and extreme drought conditions have not occurred since the PKRWRF was constructed. Abilene’s three water purchase contracts with the Brazos River Authority total 19,418 acre-feet annually, which is roughly 6.3 trillion gallons of water per year.

The salty reverse osmosis concentrate is discharged back into the lake. The discharge permit allows a daily average flow of 1.51 million gallons per day of concentrate funneled into the lake, Taylor noted.

Possum Kingdom Lake Association Secretary Carolyn Land said the lake is already “salty enough” with three existing water discharge systems currently in place including the Possum Kingdom Water Supply Corporation, The Cliffs Resort and Sportsman’s World.

Furthermore, those systems are monitored. Land says Abilene’s permit application doesn’t stipulate monitoring.

“Possum Kingdom Lake is already salty,” Land said. “This is going to be saltier than the ocean. We think it’s going to sink to the bottom and sit there.”

The effluent (or “wastewater”) would be discharged in what’s known as the Bailey’s Camp/ Cedar Creek Cove area of the lake. Land added it is shallow and the current is insufficient.

“The problem is it’s not deep and the main current of the Brazos River is not over there,” she noted. “So they’re going to dump it in a part of the lake that doesn’t have a lot of flow through it.”

Land said the PKLA attempted to negotiate alternative options but had no luck in arranging a meeting.

“Abilene does not want to meet,” she said. “They do not want to sit down at the table.”

So the group turned to state Rep. Glenn Rogers (R-Graford) for some help in getting a public meeting on the calendar.

“Many of our constituents call Possum Kingdom Lake home, so it is important to make sure they have an opportunity to speak their minds and have their concern addressed,” Rogers said. “The best path forward in these instances is the public meeting process, so we were glad to lend our assistance.”

Following the public hearing, the city and TCEQ will respond to questions and concerns raised in the meeting and those submitted before the event. Next, the TCEQ will decide whether to issue the discharge permit.

If the decision is made to issue the permit, and the local impacted community still disagrees, the matter will enter into a contested case process where an administrative law judge will take additional evidence and testimony to make a ruling.

“It is reasonable and normal for Palo Pinto County residents to have a special interest in protecting and preserving the incredible resource Possum Kingdom Reservoir,” Taylor said. “The permitting and renewal processes provide for public transparency and feedback opportunities for concerned citizens to express their opinions before the agency issues the final permit.”

Rogers urged residents to attend the June meeting and have their voices heard regarding an important Palo Pinto County asset.

“Possum Kingdom Lake is a significant water source, recreational amenity and tax revenue generator for all the residents in this area,” the GOP legislator said. “While we recognize the need to develop additional drinking water resources, we must also recognize the need to protect what is a very important public asset.”

The June 18 meeting kicks off with an informal discussion for residents to ask state regulators about the permit. The agenda then moves to a formal portion where attendees can have their comments added to the official record.

Comments can also be submitted online at: tceq.texas.gov/goto/comment.

Those wishing to mail comments can address them to the Office of the Chief Clerk, TCEQ, Mail Code MC-105, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087.

In addition, the Possum Kingdom Lake Association’s Annual Meeting is set for Saturday, June 8, at the Possum Kingdom Lake Chamber of Commerce. There’s a community breakfast at 8:30 a.m., followed by a business meeting at 10 a.m. The public is invited.