San Marcos neighbors are fed up with nearby property being used as a landfill

SAN MARCOS, Texas – This is a dream home built by her father on the San Marcos lot where Christa Pepau grew up. As a child, she managed the line behind the property to get up and play with the neighborhood kids who lived there at the time.

Now, beyond the same site boundary, Pepau showed us a completely different scene – piles of rubbish hanging over the site. They first noticed it in early 2022.

“We regularly walk around the boundary of our property, just to make sure it’s clean and that there are no problems, and we found that the neighbors right behind me had invaded more than 100 feet and stole cedar poles that they could sell for money.” Pepau said. “They cleared a path where we could see a dump site behind us that we had no idea about.”

They were able to fly over the area and take aerial photographs, which show that much of it is covered in piles of debris.

“We’ve seen posts on the district’s pages where they’re asking, ‘Does anyone need a trash pickup or household waste pickup?'” Pepau said. “So what they do is collect it and they tell them I think they’ll take it to the landfill, but they take it to their property so they don’t have to spend money on the dump.”

For neighbors, this is more than just a visual nuisance.

“They burn plastic, furniture, big plastic bags full of garbage, and it’s toxic, enough that when you’re outside it burns your nose, burns your lungs, your eyes start to water and burn,” Pepau said. “Neighbors complain that they have a cough that has not stopped for several months.”

Anxiety also goes under the surface. The Pepau property and its surrounding properties are in the recharge zone of the Edwards aquifer.

“It feeds all the rainwater that falls in the area, straight to the springs and down to the aquifer,” said Dianne Wassenich, former executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation. “Underground is a very fast transmission because it has cellular rock and from time to time a crack appears in the rock, opening a so-called channel through which water will flow at a faster rate and in greater quantity.”

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Pepau showed us one of these places on her territory.

“And it all heads towards Spring Lake at the source of the San Marcos River,” Wassenich said. “And that’s where there are wells in the city, and many people have wells along the way.”

Pepau is one of the residents with a well. Another FOX 7 resident Austin spoke to is concerned about fumes that are affecting her only source of water, rainwater on her roof.

“Of course, our biggest concern is how this affects the environment in many ways, but personally we have smelled burning chemicals from our house and we are concerned that the chemicals are on our roof,” he said. Angie Carpenter. “Any burning of hazardous chemicals can have serious consequences for our health and the health of our neighbors who depend on the same water supply.”

The Hayes County Department of Development Services confirmed that they filed charges on Jan. 5 for violating the Texas Health and Safety Code.

County records show residents of the home were also prosecuted several times in January for being “uncomfortable” and “out of control dog.” Pepau noted that one of her cats was once attacked by a stray dog ​​belonging to the residents of a nearby house.

“They are quoting, but we don’t see much action,” Wassenich said. “It has to stop and then someone has to go out and evaluate what’s in there and figure out the right way to get rid of it.”

The Hayes County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that a detective had been assigned to investigate a case involving the residents of the home.

Hayes County Development Services shared the following statement with FOX 7:

“The Hayes County Development Services Department received a nuisance complaint regarding a property located at 400 Boulder Bluff in San Marcos, Texas. As part of the investigation process, staff visited the facilities and sent appropriate notice to inform residents and the property owner of their potential infringement. On January 5, 2023, Development Services officials discharged the property for violating the Texas Health and Safety Code. Our department is linked to the process and procedures set out in the health and safety code regarding law enforcement and possible penalties for embarrassing violations. This is currently an ongoing investigation in conjunction with other agencies. All participants are working to resolve this issue.”