City decides to purchase wastewater facility

Kyle's wastewater facility

The relationship between the City of Kyle and Aqua Operations, the company that maintains and operates its one wastewater treatment plant, is about as sweet as the sewage flowing into the plant on a daily basis. It has resulted in a lawsuit that was filed April 25, 2013, by Aqua in the 428^th District Court of Hays County that is scheduled for a jury trial beginning Aug. 24. Between the original filing date and now, the two sides have been going back and forth over such matters as evidence, summary judgments and all the other matters attorneys haggle over in cases such as this. My personal favorite came last Oct. 30 when Kyle filed its "reply to Aqua's response to Kyle's objections and motion to strike Aqua's summary judgment evidence." The attorneys for both sides are earning their keep with this one.

Speaking of the attorneys, the Kyle City Council decided it wanted to huddle with their attorney Tuesday night and thus went into executive session to discuss the status of the suit. When they emerged Mayor Pro Tem Diane Hervol announced no action was taken while they were in executive session but now that they were back in public view "I’d like to move to purchase the wastewater treatment plant based on the terms discussed in executive session and bring back the final agreement to council to be approved and executed by July 1, 2015." Council member David Wilson seconded the motion, and the council approved it 6-0 (outgoing council member Samantha Bellows excused herself about an hour earlier to handle some lane closings in I-35).

Whether this brings an end to the acrimonious relationship between the city and Aqua remains to be seen. I guess we’ll know the answer to that by July 1, which falls on a Wednesday, not your typical council meeting day. In fact, the last regularly scheduled council meeting before July 1 would fall on June 16, more than two weeks before the deadline date.

The city first asked Aqua to build and operate a wastewater treatment plant near the end of the last century. Things appeared to be OK for about a dozen years but then in November 2012 more than 100,000 gallons of partially treated sewage spilled into Plum Creek. That spill occurred the day after former Kyle City Manager Lanny Lambert sent Aqua Operations a letter claiming the company had breached their contract. He offered three examples, the first being that more than half of the water quality tests over the past four years showed E. coli levels "seriously above the acceptable levels," proving that Aqua wasn’t maintaining the minimum amount of chlorine in the water required by law." Lambert further alleged in the letter that solids that should be removed during the wastewater treatment process were not, and that if not for filters created by the Plum Creek Golf Course, the solids would be illegally discharged.

Aqua’s lawsuit countered that E. coli levels in a stream have many causes, such as feces from livestock and wildlife, and that the tests don’t accurately represent how much chlorine is in the water that’s discharged from the plant.

And it’s gone round and round from there.

From the limited amount of research I’ve been able to do, the California-based Aqua Operations appears to have a fairly reputable reputation. And since its clients include the City of Los Angeles, IBM, and the U.S. Army, I’m thinking they’re not going to lose much sleep over having to shed themselves of their responsibilities here, especially if this deal means an end to all the litigation. I’m also hoping the city isn’t biting off more than it can chew by trying to purchase and operate the plant itself. We’ll find out soon enough.