My interest in this group is that our City is re-writing our water
quality rules, and are in the midst of the battle raging between the
preservationist/environmentalists and the developers. It is my opinion
that development can still happen with good environmental quality
rules. The balance comes from economic viability and sound
environmental protection rules.

The rules though that the City adopted almost two years ago calls for
"no net increase" or as strictly defined is a 95% pollution load
removal rate of TSS, TP, and O&G regardless of the size of the lot, or
without any specifics on any particular water drainage basin.

These are things that I am trying to convince our decision makers to
consider revising the rules to adopt rules that are more in line with
the rules that govern (adopted) by the State agencies (TCEQ, LCRA,
etc.) that are typically 80% TSS only, or some slight modification of
that. Our rules with the 95% removal rate creates the situation that
some tracts are completely undevelopable due to the cost of
remediation/treatment or in some cases there just isn't enough room to
achieve a structure with the accompanying structures (parking, etc.)
plus the area required for the necessary technology to POSSIBLY
achieve the 95% removal rate (which in itself is questioned by many of
the local design engineers).

I would like to see if there is anyone in this forum that might can
offer suggestions or solutions that they experienced with their
communities, or offer scientific, engineering ideas as to the
probability of the 95% pollution removal being a justifiable or
achievable goal while maintaining a level of economic viability. I can
make a copy of our proposed and existing rules available if anyone is
interested. Any assistance provided would be greatly appreciated, and
all comments are welcome.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Jon Thompson
Development Coordinator
City of Dripping Springs

tel: 512.858.4699
fax: 512.858.5646
jonthompson@...