City agrees to TCEQ proposal on water issue

The Clarendon City Council approved a proposed settlement with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) regarding water quality issues and discussed future options during its called meeting last Thursday, September 3.

Interim City Administrator Floyd Hartman reviewed the Proposed Agreed Order which follows TCEQ findings that the level of trihalomethanes (THMS) in Clarendon’s drinking water had exceeded the maximum contaminant level of 0.080 milligrams per liter (mg/L) for two quarters. Hartman also reported that the city had just failed a third testing.

As previously reported in the Enterprise on July 30, THMS is a byproduct of disinfecting water which contains organic matter and is not an easy problem to fix and is exacerbated by the low level of Greenbelt Lake. The state has said people do not need to use an alternative water supply but that exposure to high levels of THMS over many years may cause health problems. 

Hartman reiterated last week that treatment with ammonia can help the THMS levels, but Greenbelt has been dealing with other issues down the pipeline and temperatures need to be lower for ammonia treatment to be most effective. Adding activated carbon to the system might also help, Hartman said. Heavy rainfall bringing the lake level up, cooler weather, or, ultimately, Greenbelt getting its new well field online will also likely resolve the issue.

The TCEQ violation still has to be addressed, Hartman said, but the agency was working with the city. The maximum fine for the violation could have been over $12,000. TCEQ proposed a fine of $2,675 and is willing to defer that amount to zero if the city creates a plan to get back into compliance. 

Hartman said he had talked with Greenbelt Water Authority and still had several questions about the treatment process. He had ideas for ways to get into compliance, but he said he could not recommend a course of action until he knew more about the situation at Greenbelt. 

Hartman said one option would be to stop selling city groundwater to Greenbelt and put that into the city’s system, but he said that would require a treatment facility and other permitting and engineering work. Also, he said the city’s contract for groundwater sales won’t be up for negotiation until June 2027. 

Hartman said a treatment facility could cost the city $5 million and said the city could not raise its water rates high enough to service that debt.

There was discussion about other possible TCEQ violations experienced by other Greenbelt members. 

Alderman Ashlee Estlack recommended Clarendon’s Greenbelt board representative Cameron Word attend the next city meeting to try to work with Greenbelt to address the problems.

Hartman recommended the city accept TCEQ’s agreed order and consider hiring an engineer and possibly an attorney to evaluate Greenbelt’s water treatment. The board voted unanimously to accept the TCEQ agreed order.