Workers install a drip irrigation septic system at a home near Lake Travis. The drip tubes will be covered with sandy loam and Buffalo grass.

As the Central Texas population grows and developers follow the money trail to Hill Country scenery and lakeside lots, the number of on-site sewage systems also rises.

In fact, this fall LCRA’s On-Site Sewage Facility (OSSF) program received its 20,000th permit application since LCRA began its program in 1971 to regulate the installation and operation of septic systems in the Highland Lakes area. The whole idea is to protect water quality, an important responsibility given to LCRA as a steward of the lower Colorado River.

The population served by on-site sewage systems around the lakes has roughly tripled since LCRA’s OSSF program began, according to Burt Carter, On-Site Sewage Facility program manager, who’s worked in the program for 32 years. If activity stays steady in 2005, LCRA staff will process 32 percent more permits and 15 percent more on-site sewage facility inspections than in 2004.

Of the permits issued, roughly 4 percent are commercial and the rest are residential, Carter said.

Under the authority of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), LCRA’s jurisdiction to inspect septic systems and issue permits falls within 2,200 feet of the Highland Lakes, comprising Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, Marble Falls and Travis. LCRA also regulates systems within the city limits of Briarcliff, Granite Shoals, Jonestown, Lago Vista, Lakeway and Volente as the request of those communities.

In those areas, there is not a central water treatment system and in many cases, using an on-site sewage system is the long-term plan, according to James McCaine, engineering specialist with the TCEQ.

“It’s been a common way to manage wastewater, and the reason for so much of the new development is that there is not as much federal money for large sewage collection systems as there used to be,” McCaine said.

The LCRA permitting and inspection process includes reviewing septic system design and construction plans, issuing permits and licenses, inspecting new construction and septic system repairs, and reinspecting existing systems when there’s a transfer of ownership. Staff also investigate complaints and enforce requirements when necessary.

TCEQ has minimum requirements and authorizes local agencies such as counties, cities and river authorities to have more stringent requirements for protection of public health and safety. LCRA enforces the TCEQ requirements in addition to its own.

For systems within 200 feet of the four upper Highland Lakes, there must be a higher level of wastewater treatment, which typically involves wastewater aeration. Disposal areas less than 50 feet from the lakes must also include a method of disinfection such as chlorination. For sophisticated drip and spray irrigation systems, LCRA requires an electronic monitor and maintenance notification that alerts the maintenance provider with a phone call when something goes wrong.

“In some cases, the maintenance contractor comes out and fixes the problem before the property owner knows a problem exists,” Carter said.

Another LCRA requirement is that homes using septic systems built before 1971 must have installed low-flow toilets and showerheads and faucet aerators, which reduce water use therefore easing the wear on the system.

McCaine says that LCRA’s additional requirements are comparable to those of other local agencies, whose concerns don’t necessarily involve water quality. “However, the lack of any identifiable contamination of the Highland Lakes from septic systems is certainly an indication of a successful program,” he said.

LCRA has enforcement ability for those systems that are in violation. Enforcement can come in the form of criminal penalties that can be as much as $100,000 for each day of violation and civil penalties reach $5,000 each day of violation. LCRA can obtain an injunction in district court against wastewater discharges from a home or business to prevent illegal discharge into or near Texas waterways. Complaints against installers can result in their license being suspended or revoked and possibly fines. Typically, LCRA is able to work with the property owner to rectify the violation and only uses enforcement as a last resort, according to Carter.

New state rules will soon enable LCRA and other local agencies to require maintenance companies to properly maintain a system, Carter said. Companies that fail to maintain a system can have their license or registration revoked.

For the most part, homeowners are doing a good job maintaining their systems, according to James Maynard, compliance coordinator with LCRA’s On-Site Sewage Facility program. Most permit applications for on-site sewage facilities meet TCEQ and LCRA requirements and are approved.

When the program began in the ‘70s, septic systems did not have the advanced treatment methods in use today and there was no effluent disinfection. The two kinds of systems that existed either disposed of effluent into a soil absorption drain field or directed effluent to enter a pair of subsurface-lined evapotranspiration beds.

Even guidelines issued by the Texas Department of Health at the time didn’t address the necessary amounts of soil needed beneath drain fields to provide adequate effluent treatment, and evapotranspiration drain fields were about half the size of today’s systems, Carter said.

“Little was known about what was needed to make on-site sewage facilities provide adequate treatment and disposal,” Carter said. “The fact that our program was started when the lake population was much less gave LCRA a tremendous advantage in being able to find most of the pollution-prone septic systems and have them corrected.”

Both kinds of early systems also required clear-cutting trees and other foliage; such vegetation is now known to prevent runoff.

The pressurized effluent disposal piping of today’s systems can typically be routed around trees and along sloping contours to preserve the original beauty of the site. The effluent is dripped into thirsty lawns and plants, which absorb most of the treated wastewater, further protecting the lake water nearby.

“Some of the residential units are made so that the effluent they produce is as good as many from a municipal treatment plant,” Carter said. “The lawn and landscape vegetation uptake during the growing season is an additional water quality protection measure.”

“System improvements like these have definitely helped protect Highland Lakes water quality, which we can’t take for granted,” Carter said.

Mary Morales is an LCRA writer specializing in water topics.

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