Helotes mulch fire update

Google has my earlier post on the Helotes mulch fire coming up on top for searches for "Helotes mulch fire," which has driven up my blog's normally slow traffic by a sizeable fraction. Given this reponsibility, I feel I should provide an update.  (For a full rundown of this six-week old story, see the collection of news links compiled by Dig Deeper Texas.)

I actually saw the scene first-hand last weekend while driving down to Government Canyon State Park for an afternoon hike. White smoke poured out of the expansive pile to the extent that, from a distance, I wondered if the pile had been encased in a light-colored tarp. A portable road sign flashed notice of a town hall meeting for last Monday.  The pile itself looked significantly smaller than I remembered—perhaps due to the aborted fire-fighting work last month.

The fire continues to smolder while officials debate: unhealthy air pollution for a relatively small area for a few months versus water pollution for a large area for an indefinite period.

The San Antonio Water System weighed those choices and decided in favor of the air pollution, as the Express-News reported yesterday:

On Tuesday, citing environmental concerns, the San Antonio Water System said it would not allow its water to be used to fight the fire. They're concerned runoff will pollute the Edwards Aquifer.

Today, the Express-News reports that SAWS will even go to court to prevent anyone else from supplying water to fight the fire.

Officials with SAWS, as well as the Edwards Aquifer Authority, are trying to get the state agency [TCEQ, Texas Council on Environmental Quaility] to consider methods to extinguish the fire that wouldn't involve putting large amounts of water on the pile, which sits atop the aquifer's recharge zone.

As usual, Carlos Guerra has the best round-up. From yesterday's column:

The danger warnings came early. Dumping 4.1 million gallons on the mound over four days [in January] was enough to foul two wells more than a half-mile away with smoky residue — and firefighting efforts halted.

A new strategy — to haul burning wood into clay lined ponds for dousing — was adopted. But it also required hosing down the equipment taking material from the burning pile with about 300,000 gallons of water a day. And some of it would flow into the aquifer.

The choice was clear, said SAWS chairman Alex Briseño: "We know for a fact that contamination is happening; it doesn't make sense to continue putting water there. We can't afford to have this contaminated water go into our facilities. To fix that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars."

SAWS has no drinking water treatment plants or a centralized water-distribution system.

Instead, it has several systems that draw Edwards water that until now has exceeded federal drinking water standards.

Of six SAWS wells eight miles downstream from the fire, one pumping station produces 117 million gallons of water a day. If they are compromised, said Steve Clouse of SAWS, the consequences would be drastic.

"If our largest system in that area, the Wurzbach pumping station, were affected, the impacts are very significant, to include the city of Helotes and the Medical Center."

Guerra concludes with a quote from the Edwards Aquifer Authority's Robert Potts: "The only way to win in this type of situation is with good planning and by avoiding these things before they happen. I am hopeful that the silver lining in this dark cloud will be that people realize that what happens over the recharge zone will directly and immediately impact our drinking water."

Will our state legislature wake up and finally give counties and the TCEQ the power to regulate land use before something like this happens somewhere else in the state?

Comments

[Stephen Colley]

Assuming that the mulch pile, which also supposedly contains whole or un-mulched trees, comes from sites where once were great tree cover, it's a tragic irony that if the trees were not removed and piled up in such an enormous pile, they would be available to filter out many of the toxic gases found in the smoke. But of course, if the trees were not removed to perform this valuable service, there wouldn't be a burning mulch pile in the first place. Are there still those out there who do not realize the importance of a Tree Protection Ordinance? Oh, and add into the mix the danger of contamination of our water supply, and tree protection becomes even more urgent.

[Ramon Smitherman]

I am upset about the lousy way Helotes is responding to the mulch fire. While everyone has to tolerate their pollution and suffer from related respiratory issues, the residents of Helotes act defensive and controlling. Today I drove by the fire to see if any progress is being made. I was pulled over and had my way blocked by a woman in a small car. She told me that I was not welcome there and that if an accident occurred she didn't want to be bothered my blaming her.
I was on a public road. I asked had I missed a sign which said the road was a private road. She said no but there are businesses on it and if I was not conducting business there I should not be there.

This seemed very callus. Everyone has to live with their mess, everyone is supporting the clean up, the road was build with public monies and yet this person wants to control and drive away people. If not for the support and residents of San Antonio, Helotes would be nothing more than a one horse cow town with dirt roads.