District 3 gets into it… The gloves are off in the race for the District 3 City Council seat between siblings Susana Almanza and incumbent Pio Renteria. The long-combative candidates have taken their campaign charges to the digital and physical realms with charged attacks on each other’s level of community involvement and the contributions they’ve accepted from outside groups. In a recent Medium post, Almanza said Renteria’s campaign support from developers has shaped his push for density in fast-growing East Austin, with demolitions and displacement as a result. Another ad in support of Almanza goes so far as to depict Renteria as a literal marionette for local development interests. Meanwhile, in a recent mailer to D3 residents, Renteria’s campaign has linked Almanza as a political ally of the controversial Austin-based nonprofit group Southwest Key. That same mailer also aligned her with the activist group behind Prop K, the unsuccessful ballot question that called for a comprehensive efficiency audit of city finances.
Dripping Springs … to drip… After years of fighting against Dripping Springs implementing a discharge permit for the city’s effluent into Onion Creek, it looks like Austin will not win the fight. “If we think of this as a war for protecting Barton Springs … we certainly appear to have lost this battle. Thankfully we didn’t lose it entirely because of the provisions that were secured,” said Chris Herrington, the city’s environmental officer. One of the major provisions that was secured was that Dripping Springs agreed to lower its output from an initial 995,000 gallons per day to 825,000 gallons per day. He explained that one of the reasons the city of Dripping Springs chose the discharge pathway to dispose of its water is the lower cost for land development going forward. Herrington noted that with the passage of this discharge permit, Austin will not be able to provide the protection for lands that were purchased with voter-approved bond funding. However, he noted that there are other opportunities going forward with other municipalities to protect the sensitive Hill Country recharge zones. According to him, there are several discharge permits waiting in the wings for properties along the Blanco River and Long Branch Creek. “This is not going away. We need to think about the best ways to manage our water and wastewater,” he said. Commissioner Hank Smith noted that part of the city’s growth regulation strategy was not to provide water and sewer to these municipalities, “and this is the result,” he said.
This week’s Reporter’s Notebook comes from the notebooks of Chad Swiatecki and Jessi Devenyns.
Dripping Springs: The municipality centered on US290-West in Hays County.