The Belterra subdivision in Northern Hays County will soon go from about 300 homes to 2,000, which means many more toilets and a lot more wastewater.

Downstream, homeowners Charles O'Dell and Karen Ford worry about the growth and its potentially unpleasant developments.

"I have a well here and I don't want that contaminated. I have no access to water, other than groundwater," O'Dell said.

The state currently allows Belterra to release 150,000 gallons of treated wastewater into Bear Creek a day. Now, it wants the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to allow it to release five times that amount, which means 800,000 gallons of treated wastewater, also called effluent, could trickle down to homes and wells a day.

But Attorney Andy Barrett says Belterra's downstream neighbors have nothing to worry about. He represents Belterra and other developers under the Hays County Water Control and Improvement District No. 2.
 
Concerns are raised over a neighborhoods request to pump more effluent into Bear Creek.
 
"The district's plan is to reuse the wastewater to irrigate the open spaces," Barrett said, so any pollutants in the water could be absorbed and recycled by plants. "It couldn't quite be drinking water, but we think it's certainly cleaner than the storm water runoff you see from the normal areas."

Belterra doesn't actually plan to discharge 800,000 gallons a day worth of effluent down to its neighbors, but it could if the state approves the permit in question, Barrett said.

"Technically we could. We could do that."

Belterra just wants to save money, Barrett said.

"It makes no sense to buy treated surface water from the Lower Colorado River Authority and use that for irrigation, when we can use treated effluent. The cost, it's a big saving to use treated effluent."

Nonetheless, Barrett said there will be times when developers will have to discharge treated wastewater directly into Bear Creek.

"If it rains, you can't irrigate already saturated ground," Barrett said.

That's just some of what continues to bother homeowners like O'Dell and Ford as well environmentalists.

"This is not just a bunch of tree-hugging environmentalists coming to oppose a project. We recognize this as a threshold, a door," O'Dell said.

Depending on whom you ask, that could be a door to population growth harmony or a door to standards going down the drain.

The dispute also includes other entities, neighborhood associations and citizen activist groups, as well as the Barton Springs Conservation District.

The district's general manager says Belterra's application for a new discharge permit may impact the Edwards Aquifer, Barton Springs, and the city of Austin.