SAN ANTONIO – Some San Antonio council members are skeptical whether a north Bexar County subdivision’s attempt to ditch its failing septic system is the city’s concern.
But at least one councilwoman says it could end up as everybody’s mess if it doesn’t get sorted out.
The Villas at Timberwood Homeowners Association has had numerous problems with its communal septic system, which even prompted it to sue the original developer and a homebuilder. The lawsuit was settled in 2024 for an undisclosed amount.
For the past few years, the HOA has been trying to get its 75 homes onto the San Antonio Water System’s wastewater system with a $2.8 million project. Beyond the settlement money, which is also being used to maintain the septic system in the meantime, Bexar County has already agreed to kick in $2 million of federal relief.
But the HOA is also hoping to get a pass on $415,575 in SAWS impact fees — $5,541 per home— something the utility says is up to the City Council.
Impact fees are used to cover the cost of adding new properties onto the SAWS system so current rate payers don’t bear the cost.
SAWS provides the city $3 million a year for fee waivers, but projects outside the city limits typically aren’t eligible. City staff said fee waivers for the neighborhood would not come from that pot of money.
The subdivision could be annexed into the city in late 2033 under an existing non-annexation agreement with the larger Timberwood Park area but is currently more than three-quarters of a mile past the city limits.
During a Wednesday council discussion at which they also discussed raising SAWS rates, several members voiced doubts about helping out.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones asked whether it was possible for the county to pay for the entire project, an idea with which Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) said she agreed.
“To me, our council should not be fixing the mistakes of the county,” Alderete Gavito said. “We have a lot of our own problems, and I’d hate to see SAWS kind of soak up those fees especially right now, as we’re asking for a rate increase.”
Edward Mungia (D4) said his main concern was the project not being in the city limits and was hopeful they could “continue to work with the county on something with that.”
“We’ve got folks in my district, right, that are not going to be connected,” he said. “And so it’s going to be hard for me to tell folks why this neighborhood not in the city limits is going to get connected and not folks over here.”
Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) said he might be more willing to consider waiving fees if the neighborhood was “down” to be annexed into the city early.
“But to go several years without paying any property taxes, but then to seek essentially 400-some-odd thousand dollars from, you know, the city and our partners... I don’t — that doesn’t jive well with me,” he said.
Misty Spears (D9) got involved with the issue when she worked in Commissioner Grant Moody’s office and has been the strongest council advocate for helping the subdivision. She says her concern is about the aquifer.
“I would just maintain that this is a 75-unit neighborhood that has been protecting our aquifer by three or four people maintaining this duct-taped system, and we are just one really bad thunderstorm away from it really affecting our drinking water,” she said.
SAWS CEO Robert Puente told council members the area is in the contributing zone for the aquifer, which is less of a problem than the recharge areas, and most of the problems happen during heavy rainfall when it would also cause “a lot of dilution of that problem.”
He also said the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has been “very active” on the issue, and that when they fine people, they allow the money to be used to fix the problem.
“They essentially give it back to you to fix the problem. So that was done in this circumstance, I believe,” Puente said.
“And so we feel that there’s not a big environmental issue that we have to be worried about regarding this development.”
HOA President Roy Block, though, said he doesn’t know what Puente was talking about with the TCEQ and said the HOA is on a three-year payment plan for at least one TCEQ fine.
Neighborhood members and Spears also point to the typically dry creek bed next to the septic system, which leads to Mustang Creek.
Edwards Aquifer Authority Senior Director of Aquifer Science and Modeling Paul Bertetti confirmed that creek flows into the recharge zone. He said the failing system getting into the water supply “certainly is a concern” but didn’t know how big of one.
“It’s likely that waste from overflows and waste from the septic system itself contribute to contaminants getting into the Edwards Aquifer system, and it would be prudent to hook that system up to SAWS’ wastewater treatment system to prevent that from happening,” he told KSAT.
Puente said a five-year payment plan for the fees was also an option, which he estimated would be about $92 a month, per home.
A city spokesman on Thursday was unable to say when the fee waiver issue might come up for a council vote.
Read also:
