MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — Waco's city council voted Tuesday to annex land near Chalk Bluff that the city purchased in 2023 with the potential for a wastewater treatment plant.
- Mayor Holmes said the vote was purely to bring the land within city limits and was not a step toward approving a wastewater treatment plant.
- Residents near Brazos Lake fear a treatment plant could discharge into the Brazos River upstream of parks, restaurants, and Baylor University facilities.
- City leaders confirmed no funding has been secured for a treatment plant and that further discussions would be required before any budget could be approved. Leaders also stated there would be many more meetings before deciding whether or not a wastewater treatment plant would go there.
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BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Waco's city council voted Tuesday to annex land near Chalk Bluff, a move city leaders say is purely administrative — but one that has neighbors worried about the future of the Brazos River.
The city purchased the land in 2023 with the potential for a wastewater treatment plant to be built on it. Mayor Holmes said Tuesday's vote was solely to bring the property within Waco city limits, not to advance any plans for a treatment plant.
"In the future it may not go there, who knows, but tonight we not voting on that, tonight we're voting on whether or not to annex it into the city, the city already owns it, and we think it's beneficial just for our planning purposes just to annex it into the city," Mayor Holmes said.
City leaders also noted that because the city already owns the land, annexation is not required for a wastewater treatment plant to be built there. No funding has been secured for a treatment plant, and city leaders said many further discussions would need to take place before a budget could be approved.
Still, residents in the Chalk Bluff community fear a treatment plant could be on the horizon — and they're concerned about what that could mean for the river.
Ed Butler spends time on Brazos Lake regularly with his family.
"We're in the water everyday this week with the grandchildren," Butler said.
But Butler said the prospect of a wastewater treatment plant near the river has him and his neighbors on edge.
"If we had a upset at the plant, sewage treatment plant, and they put raw sewage in the river, we wouldn't get in the water, it would just be, I don't know what it would be, but let's just say bad," Butler said.
Butler also raised concerns about where along the river any discharge point would be located.
"Why would you put your sewage discharge upstream of all your development, your parks and your city development, your restaurants? Uh, the University of Baylor University's facilities, just all upstream of that, and it should be downstream so that you don't have that flowing through the heart of your city," Butler said.
If a treatment plant is built on the nearby land, it would be located upstream of the Brazos River.
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