Cheryl and I went to the TCEQ meeting in Liberty Hill on Tuesday, Aug. 29. The (good sized) room was pretty well packed, and there was additional seating outside with a good sound system and comfy folding chairs set up.

The TCEQ folks were there, as well as the owner of the rock crushing operation, Wilco Agregates. The meeting was divided into two parts, first, questions, and then formal comments which were read into the record. The permit under consideration dealt strictly with AIR quality, and the TCEQ folks who were there were from the air quality division. Water was only dealt with in passing, noting that the several proposed wells could only provide a fraction of the water required for keeping dust down. Water issues were, nonetheless, the 500 lb gorilla in the room, and the water issue was brought up several times. The crushing operation intends to get most of its water from ponds, and several people pointed out that no one has any ponds with water in them this time of year.

Among the strongest points made by attendees brought up the observation that the request for “expedited” consideration of the permit smelled decidedly fishy. The law requires that public notice be given via local public libraries and in general circulation publications. One participant, who worked at a local library, noted that they’d been given a “packet” of information, with no instructions as to what to do with it except “hang on to it”, and when asked for it by interested citizens, couldn’t find it. Another person noted that he’d gone to a local publication, which was supposed to have published the requisite information, and asked where their distribution points for the publication were. The publication folks had no idea! The bottom line is that the whole concept of “public notice” relies on concepts of information distribution that are 50 or more years old, and totally predate the digital revolution. Small-town print newspapers are in general struggling and dying as the public moves toward getting its news digitally. Nextdoor, while far from perfect, would be an appropriate place to publish such public notice, even though it might still only reach a subset of our citizens – those who have Internet and are subscribed to ND – probably far better than many hard-copy local print media.

So there were a number of formal requests that the “expedited permit” request be denied, and that a more formal contested approval process be started instead, and that appropriate public notice of meetings be given sufficiently in advance to enable robust public participation. A number of people who live near existing rock crushing facilities spoke up saying that dust-suppression operations are woefully inadequate with them, and that trees, houses, vehicles, etc. are often covered in dust. Others pointed out that the proximity of the proposed facility, Wilco Aggregates, near Liberty Hill will be adjacent to the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, and the welfare of trees and wildlife in this area may well be impacted, given the likelihood that this operation will indeed produce copious amounts of airborne dust.

There was a general sentiment in questions and comments toward an attitude of “hold on, let’s step back and take a closer look at this, and do it RIGHT”. And there was much applause for the people who expressed this, many of whom were well versed professional folks and well educated on the subject.

TCEQ has extended the date for public comments until Sept. 23rd. Please check the TCEQ website and note permit #169044L001,

I should note that unlike many parts of Texas, our areas of Travis and Williamson counties have no formal groundwater conservation district organization (thank you! Texas state legislature!). These organizations, where they’re established, have teeth in them and can enforce regulations regarding well drilling and the use of water from them.

So here’s a link to an article on the subject: https://www.kxan.com/investigations/williamson-county-homeowners-concerned-about-growing-rock-crushing-operations/

And for those of you who want it, the TCEQ WATER Division can be reached at 512-239-6696.

Back around 1998 we had a very active community group here. Our friend and neighbor Jean Nance published a monthly newsletter, and we had monthly meetings at the old fire station, or at the Community Center. I hosted a website for the SCCA, the last edition of which, with the last SCCA Newsletter in it, is online here. You might find it interesting to click on the pink box near the top of the page and see some history about the old schoolhouse that’s our community center building. This is how we were 20 years ago.

Please note that this is a very old website and EMERGENCY NUMBERS ON IT MAY WELL BE OUT OF DATE.

Minutes of the meeting of the Neighbors of Sandy Creek
held on August 12th at the Round Mountain School/Community Center.

There were approximately 60 participants for this meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to communicate with County Commissioner, Precinct 3, Gerald Daugherty about the ongoing problem with:

1)  Illegal subdivisions that add to the water issues.
2) Aqua and its role in the new illegal development and resubdivisions of lots and extensions of inadequate system.

Commissioner Daugherty began by saying he would tell us what he knows about the issue, how he found out, and where it stands at this time. The county will be focusing on stopping the development without making the situation worse over the long term.

The county engineers, planners and the assistant county attorney have met with the development owners, so they know that they are in trouble. They have not submitted a subdivision plan or plat that complies with the county regulations. One attempt to get the development legal is to use the condominium regime to try to fit their purposes, which has not been accepted by the county, but they are still trying to work it out. The developers are trying to side-step county regulations

There is a “stop-work order” in place, and the legal department is looking at all of the options that they think a court would uphold. They can’t go out and put notices on the individual trailers to move out of the place, and we can’t keep them from bringing in more
trailers. He told us that the county attorney is getting the Attorney General involved which would provide more impact.

Nearby land owners told Daugherty that there has been ongoing work being done on a new 7 acre lot that is land locked, and people are trespassing to access it. There is also a septic tank ready to be dropped into an already dug hole on the original 20 acres. Daugherty
said that he would look into those issues because there are legal remedies available for immediate action, and asked that the property owners call him when they see this activity. He said that he would drive out to observe the septic tank today, before it could be dropped
and covered.

There was a lot of discussion about the Aqua water system and it’s inadequacy to supply existing demand. The new taps at the property line on each 10 acre tract are a problem but not considered illegal construction since they are on the right of way and not on the
property. If they try to extend internal water lines to hook up the trailers, then that would be illegal construction.  We were promised that if we organized to file complaints with the Public Utility Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, he would back
us up as an elected official, but that he had no separate standing to file a complaint.

He said that the Travis County Fire Marshall will enforce the fire prevention regulations, and that the Chaparral development would have to have a lot of water storage in place to fight fires on their property before they could become compliant with fire regulations. The Health Department will inspect the suspect illegal septic system.

He promised us that this is one of his three or four top priorities (thanks to Chad and Melissa Moss and others who have relentlessly complained to him) and that he will work hard to bring a resolution to the situation because this area could easily turn into a “colonia” if
this isn’t stopped.

He also promised to keep us all informed as to his actions and progress. Many attendees signed a sheet giving his executive assistant, Bob Moore, their contact information and were promised email updates.

Thanks for all who came out and also for the interest of those who could not attend.

Linda Hambrick
512-415-5803
Linda.hambrick1@gmail.com
24604 Long Hollow Trail

This small solar system involved a lot of work (largely woodwork and wiring) The basic kit was obtained from Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/Renogy…/dp/B00BCRG22A/). Later upgrades were purchased separately directly from Renogy.

A home solar system, capable of off-grid operation, generally consists of four parts:

• Solar panels
• Charge controller
• Energy storage (usually one or more batteries)
• Inverter

Not all residential solar systems contain all of the above. Notably, some systems use what’s called a “grid tie” inverter which eliminates the charge controller and battery array and feeds power back into the commercial power grid when your panels are producing more electricity than you’re using, cutting your electric bill. Our system is an “off grid” system, not connected to the power grid, and providing a relatively small amount of power. It’s basically an experimental or “hobby” system.

Solar Panels

Solar panels convert sunlight into electrical energy and come in several flavors with different costs and efficiencies. The panels used in the system here are “monocrystaline” silicon, the most effecient and highest priced type. These 100W solar panels from Renogy can be bought individually (sans the voltage controller) for $136, and the price keeps dropping. It was only a few years ago that my price target for solar panels was $5 per watt. I’ve seen panels for under $1 per watt recently. The panels in our system are “monocrystalline” silicon, the most efficient and most expensive of the several solar panel technologies available. Many solar installations use “polycrystalline” silicon, slightly less efficient and less expensive. These panels are designed and installed to work with a 12 volt system. Commercial home solar installations generally use 24 or 48 volt panels. These panels are wired in series, and the array, in full sun, puts out 80 to 90 volts.

The original solar panel array was the Renogy “starter kit” consiting of two 100W panels and a 20W charge controller. I’ve upgraded it to four 100W panels, as shown above.

Charge controller

The purpose of a charge controller is to adjust the voltage and current provided by solar panels and present the battery or battery bank with voltages which are appropriate for battery charging and maintenance. Abstent a charge controller, batteries would quickly be destroyed by the voltage delivered from the solar panel array. Charge controllers come in two flavors, pulse width modulation (PWM) and maximum power point tracking (MPPT). PWM technology is relatively inexpensive, but less efficient that the newer and more expensive MPPT technology.

The original charge controller was Renogy’s “Wanderer” PWM controller. It’s their least expensive 20 amp controller. The system has been upgraded to a more efficient 40 amp Renogy “Rover” MPPT controller which handles the current and voltage delivered by the four panels.

Energy storage

The big “gotcha” with solar power these days is still energy storage. All batteries have a limited life span, and are not cheap. For this system, I bought a single 12V 100AH (amp-hour) AGM deep-cycle battery (Mighty Max ML100-12), the cost of which was $175 plus shipping (not inconsiderable on a lead-acid battery). This is cheap for an AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat) battery. Better cost/performance can be obtained with regular flooded deep-cycle batteries, but part of my intention with this solar system is to be able to take a minimal sub-set of it with me if I play out of doors somewhere to power our sound system, and unlike flooded batteries, AGM batteries are spill-proof. I’ve added a Renogy 200AH AGM battery to the system to provide more storage capacity, for a total of 300AH. Many small systems such as ours use widely available standard deep-cycle flooded batteries. For a system which isn’t intended to be portable, flooded batteries are the way to go and provide the least expensive solution. All good charge controllers will have a setting to optimize their performance for any one of several kinds of batteries, including AGM and deep-cycle flooded.

A bit of research on batteries shows that the up-and-coming technology for large installations, capable of powering a home, is what’s called “saltwater” batteries. These are currently marketed by a company called Aquion. They’re 48V batteries, the voltage standard for substantial home installations. Saltwater batteries have several advantages over lead-acid (AGM, gel, flooded). They’re environmentally very friendly, using non-toxic materials and chemicals. They can be deeply discharged without damage. On the con side, the energy density of saltwater batteries is rather lower than that of lead-acid or lithium batteries, which isn’t a problem if space and portability aren’t a consideration.

Inverter

In the US, as in most of the world, all household devices from light bulbs and air conditioners to computers use alternating current (AC). The line voltage varies from country to country, but in the US, the accepted voltages are 110V, or 220V for large appliances such as electric stoves and large air conditioners. An AC electric line alternates between positive and negative at a fixed rate, which is 60 cycles per second (60 Hz) in the US. The inverter in a solar power system converts the DC electicity provided by one or more batteries into AC at the proper voltage and frequency required for home use. Inverters come in a wide variety of capacities, and are rated in output watts. Our system here started out with a Power Bright 600W inverter, shown above, and now uses a Renogy 2000W inverter capable of powering a fridge a small AC or a home-shop power saw. Both of these are “pure sine wave” inverters, the output of which is suitable for use with electronics. Pure sine wave inverters are more costly than those which aren’t, but if you plan to use your solar system for more than just running electric lights and motors, the cost is worth it.

Every component in a solar system should be both switched and fused – or controlled by a circuit breaker which serves both functions. 65 years ago I was a teenager in Appleton, Wisconsin – one of the first towns in the country to have commercial residential hydroelectric power. There was a lot of “legacy” wiring in homes around town, a lot of which didn’t measure up to current safety and code standards and had been taken out of service. This old knife switch was in our attic, attached to the wall but unused. I’ve had it ever since. It serves nicely as a cutoff switch for the solar panel array. The 30A fuses, still available in hardware stores, are probably overkill, but the current delivered by the panel array, even without fusing, should never exceed the capacity of the AWG10 wires.

Cost considerations

The return on investment on this small system is definitely poor compared to power from the grid. Even had I built a larger, more cost-effective system it’s pretty difficult to match the cost of on-the-grid electricity with solar power alone. A well designed system which will power your home or farm has a ROI of 10 to 15 years. After the initial cost, batteries have life-spans. Solar panels have rather longer life-spans, but don’t last forever. Our system, as it stands now, will put out 2000W of power (the rating of the inverter) which is well under 4 hours of power without the solar panels. During the day, with the solar panels providing 400W of power, this would go up a bit. With the addition of another battery or two I could probably coax enough power out of the system to power our cable-modem and small gateway/firewall computer 24/7 so we could stay on the Internet in the event of an extended power outage (assuming Spectrum née Time Warner was still operational). Would it be worth it? I really don’t know. You can take a look at the cost stats at the bottom of this page to get an idea of what I’ve put into it so far and what it would take to bring the system up to something which would provide the equivalent of a single 20 amp circuit for a limited period of time each day.

Perhaps the major payback from this project was learning more about solar power. Were we to decide to seriously invest in taking our home off-grid, this small system would be out of the loop. Standard practice these days is for the installation of 24V or 48V panels – a lot more of them, with a combined capacity of