Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 15, 2010,
Item A1
A 1 is to consider and take appropriate action on a statement announcing the settlement of the mediation over the contamination of hamilton pool by runoff of the ranches at hamilton creek development. Commissioner eckhardt?
>> this is an item just to owe to see to recognize that we have actually received the $2.1 million in settlement on the hamilton hool pollution case. Hamilton pool pollution case. Also to inform the case of that fact in the press release that had gone out on friday.
>> [indiscernible] if you would like to come up, dee sent out the press release on behalf of the commissioners court and the county attorney's office also sent out a press release and gave good quotes in the paper. I just wanted to -- joe, would you mind coming up, too, because i think that t.n.r. And the county attorney's office just did a tremendous job on this case. T.n.r. Parks department was up in a helicopter by chance the day of heavy rain and saw the chocolate milk coming down hamilton creek and traced it back up the creek to its source. The county attorney's office jumped on it like a big bear, outpaced everybody, both on the investigation of the source of the pollution as well as on the -- the litigation leading to its resolution. So just wanted to send big kudos to t.n.r. Parks, t.n.r. Environmental department, the county attorneys litigation as well as enforcement divisions, chester beaver worked on the case, sharene thomas worked on the case, steve capell worked on the case, john white, tom webber, joe gieselman, it was just a tremendous team.
>> charles burg.
>> charles burg, oh, my god, how could i forget charles, i would have my head on a plate. Charles was the one up in the helicopter that day who traced it back up the creek. So we have the text of the press release for anyone who wants to utilize it or see it. And any words from you all.
>> good morning, judge biscoe and commissioners, my name is chester beaver. As commissioner eckhardt has just said, i'm assistant travis county attorney. I'm here on behalf of the travis county attorney, david escamilla and the first assistant travis county steve capell. He was the lead attorney in the litigation, i'm also here on behalf of sherene thomas who is the director of litigation, steve capell wanted to be here very much to deliver the glad tidings himself, but he is away on a much deserved vacation. Ms. Thomas wanted to be here, too, to personally thank each of you for the support that she received during the pendancy of this litigation, but she is away on a family emergency. The travis county commissioners court authorized the travis county attorney's office to file suit against the developers, engineers and builders of a project that was responsible for massive amounts of sediment and silt being released into hamilton creek and hamilton pool. The development in question is called the ranches at hamilton pool located in hays county. At the commissioners court direction the travis county attorney's office, which was then joined by the state, brought suit against these defendants for the large amounts of sediment and silt that were being deposited into our creeks and hamilton pool. Soon thereafter hays county and several landowners in that area intervened in our lawsuit. The county attorney's office is happy to report that as a result of the litigation, we will receive an unprecedented $2.1 million of unrestricted funds. Those funds have already been deposited into the registry of the travis county district court and we should receive the 2.1 million probably mid july. The total amount of the settlement was $3.5 million. The -- i also wanted the court to know this was a joint effort as commissioner eckhardt has said from the -- with the enforcement division and litigation division of the travis county attorney's office and that it was all done in-house and we couldn't have done this without the -- without the help of joe gieselman and his most able staff at t.n.r. If there's any questions, i will be happy to address them.
>> mayor leffingwell: great job. Thank you all --
>> great job, thank you all very much.
>> i would just like to say that hamilton pool is in my precinct, this event took place and the action was initiated before i took office. I just want to thank the rest of the court for looking out for my precinct in such a great way.
>> the county money will be used for remediation.
>> i beg your pardon?
>> the county money will be used to remediate the harm caused.
>> one of the points that i will make besides thanking everyone for the great teamwork is that we have a contractor ready and we will start cleanup immediately and that not only of hamilton pool, the county property, but everything upstream, hamilton creek included.
>> that is an unpress dented aspect of this case that there were three governmental entities as plaintiffs as well as several individual landowners as plaintiffs in this case, the travis county settlement amount will also go to assist, to clean up the upstream areas. We still have i believe five to six feet of silt sitting at the bottom of hamilton pool from this, is that --
>> yes, i believe that's accurate.
>> i wanted to steer clear of hyper bole, but five to six feet of silt.
>> keep up the good work.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:35 PM
