The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality administers 604(b) planning funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act. As the Governor-designated agency for water quality management planning in this region, H-GAC has had a long-standing contractual agreement with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to conduct planning and analytical efforts under this program. The activities of this annual project cover the entire 13-county H-GAC region and are summarized each year in a Water Quality Management Plan Update document. This document becomes part of the State of Texas’s Water Quality Management Plan.

The work conducted under this program includes maintaining several wastewater infrastructure databases, facilitating watershed planning efforts, providing staff support for the Natural Resources Advisory Committee, and providing technical assistance to local governments. Highlights of the work conducted in fiscal year 2022 include:

• Working with authorized agents throughout the 13-county HGAC region to update location information on nearly 120,000 permitted septic tanks and other on-site sewage facilities;
• Coordination and program support for the Supplemental Environmental Project to repair or replace failing septic systems;
• Maintaining and expanding databases of wastewater infrastructure and monitoring data for permitted facilities;
• Providing program support for various watershed-based plans;
• Performing analysis of wastewater permit limit exceedances for the 13 county region.
  
  

The Natural Resources Advisory Committee met on August 4 and voted to recommend this Water Quality Management Plan Update to the Board of Directors for review and acceptance. Once accepted by the Board of Directors, the report will be submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for certification and inclusion in the State’s Water Quality Management Plan. The 2022 update can be found on the H-GAC website: https://www.h-gac.com/water-quality-management-planning.

Request acceptance of the fiscal year 2022 Water Quality Management Plan Update. (Staff Contact: Todd Running)