Legal battle between water district and Fort Worth could continue through end of summer

The Tarrant Regional Water District is one step closer to successfully challenging the city of Fort Worth’s proposed sewage treatment plant at Mary’s Creek near Aledo. After a lengthy hearing Feb. 28, Judge Christiaan Siano, who serves in the State Office of Administrative Hearings, said the water district was an “affected person” – a legal term meaning directly impacted – when it comes to Fort Worth’s application to discharge up to 15 million gallons of treated wastewater per day into a creek that feeds into the Trinity River. The water district “has demonstrated that it has a personal, justifiable interest which is not common to members of the public in general,” Siano told the attorneys and observers watching the hearing on Zoom.

That means the water district qualifies for a contested case hearing from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is similar to a civil trial in state district court and can take several months to resolve. The commission will ultimately decide whether to grant Fort Worth’s permit application, which was filed in 2018 with the mission of preparing for rapid population growth in the city’s western corridor. Water district officials and leaders of Fort Worth’s department have drafted a term sheet that would allow the issue to be settled outside of court, but the two sides have yet to approve a final agreement. Chad Lorance, a water district spokesperson, declined to comment beyond stating that the agency is committed to finding a resolution with Fort Worth. “While we disagree with the decision of the judge regarding the status of (the water district) as an affected party, the city welcomes the opportunity to continue working through the TCEQ permitting process and is open to all methods of resolution with all of the parties, including mediation,” said Mary Gugliuzza, spokesperson for the city’s water department. Even if Fort Worth and the water district are able to resolve their differences before the contested case hearing tentatively scheduled for early June, the city still will face a legal battle with water district board member Marty Leonard, who owns property on Mary’s Creek.