For the second month in a row, a citizen group asked the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District to keep up the fight against injection wells that would pump non-hazardous industrial waste underground in the county.
About 20 members of Citizens/Residents Oppose the Well (CROW) crowded Tuesday meeting to urge the district to continue to fight a state permit application which would allow TexCom Gulf Disposal to located four injection wells off Creighton Road. The wells would pump up to 184 million gallons of industrial waste in the old Conroe oil fields.
Montgomery County, Conroe, the water district and citizens have presented a united opposition to the permits. A second round of public hearings is scheduled in April before the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which will make recommendations on the permits to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
While the Lone Star district said it will continue its opposition, it declined to discuss experts it has hired or the budget that has been allocated for the hearing, saying it is part of its legal strategy.
“We’re in,” declared Lone Star district President Richard Tramm.
Montgomery County hired two experts, including Paul Pearce of Nova Biological and an environmental engineer to develop information on the permit’s impact on public interest under the Texas Water Code and alternative disposal methods, said County Attorney David Walker.
Lone Star Attorney Brian Sledge declined to disclose information on who was hired to represent the groundwater issues. Those experts must be disclosed to the administrative law judges hearing the case by tomorrow.
“I want to assure my constituents that I will do everything I can to fight this to the end,” said Jim Stinson, a member of the Lone Star District.
Representatives from CROW attended last month’s hearing after a board item indicated there may be a resolution of the case and they returned yesterday to ensure that the district was not withdrawing its participation.