Residents of southern Tarrant County voiced opposition this week to a proposed wastewater treatment facility during a public meeting held at the Forest Hill Civic and Convention Center. The meeting, requested by State Representative David Cook, focused on concerns related to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) pending permit for a plant intended to treat wastewater and discharge it into a creek already listed for high E. coli levels.

Approximately 200 people attended the gathering, where residents expressed apprehension about potential environmental and health impacts. The treatment plant would be constructed on land owned by Greg Coontz, an attorney, and Cathy Frederick, a real estate agent, located near FM 1187 and Bill Levey Road in Burleson. The facility is designed to serve a forthcoming mobile home community and would discharge treated effluent into a usually dry creek bed that feeds into Village Creek, a waterway classified by TCEQ since 2010 as impaired due to bacterial contamination. Village Creek ultimately flows into Lake Arlington, a critical regional water source.

TCEQ representatives stated the plant’s design includes safeguards intended to prevent additional bacterial pollution. “The permit and proposed facility are designed to provide adequate treatment to protect the stream from bacterial loads,” a TCEQ spokesperson said in a written statement.

However, neighboring resident Michelle Quant contested aspects of the application, pointing out that the treated wastewater would pass through a pond on her property—used for fishing and livestock—that was not mentioned in the permit documents. Quant’s family has retained legal counsel to challenge the permit’s approval, arguing that the application misrepresents the waste discharge path.

Neither Coontz nor Frederick addressed media inquiries ahead of the meeting. Their attorney, Peter Gregg, appeared at the session but declined to comment, noting that his clients would not be engaging with the press at this time.

Former Fort Worth City Council member Jared Williams also spoke against the permit. As pastor of the South Fort Worth Baptist Fellowship, situated roughly four miles north of the proposed site, Williams questioned why the applicants removed their property from Fort Worth’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), thereby foregoing connection to municipal water and sewer infrastructure. Representative Cook echoed this concern, noting that the land was deannexed from the ETJ in March 2025, just weeks before the wastewater permit application was filed. Cook urged TCEQ to deny the permit and requested a contested case hearing—an administrative process that could compel the agency to reject the application.

The Trinity River Authority (TRA), responsible for overseeing regional water and wastewater services in the basin including a facility supplying several area cities, emphasized the role of modern permitting in protecting water quality and public health. TRA executive manager Webster Mangham noted that properly operated wastewater plants generally do not exacerbate bacterial pollution but cautioned that effluent discharges can elevate nitrogen and phosphorus levels, which may contribute to algae blooms harmful to aquatic ecosystems.

As the TCEQ reviews the permit request, local residents, their representatives, and regulatory authorities remain engaged in deliberations over the facility’s potential environmental impact and compliance with procedural standards.