Hawk Cove, Texas, October 16, 2026. Consistency is a value we hold dear, and the wastewater plant has delivered. In the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Detailed Facility Report for the City of Hawk Cove WWTP, with data as of October 16, 2026, the plant’s compliance status reads “Significant/Category I Noncompliance.” Quarters in noncompliance: 12 of 12.
Twelve quarters is three full years. We are not aware of a single quarter missed. The plant is also well documented: the same report lists two Clean Water Act permits on file for it, one marked “Permit Expired” (TX0126691) and one marked “Permit Effective” (TX0141691). Half of them are current.
Highlights
- Quarters in noncompliance: 12 of 12. Quarters with significant violation: 12.
- Penalties from formal enforcement actions in the last five years: $39,525.
- State reviews listed in 2026 alone: “Under Review” on February 20, April 28, May 26, July 17 and September 25.
- EPA’s own note, which we share in the spirit of fairness: the table “indicates an alleged violation subject to further evaluation.”
A program with a timeline
The plant’s compliance has had attention. At the Council’s March 17, 2026 regular meeting, notes of a March 10, 2026 meeting with USDA were read into the record. They said: “we are on a non-compliance list. We need to be cleared ASAP to begin discussions on modifying the loan” (0:06:19).
Good news followed at the same meeting. The Council heard that the City was in a TCEQ program, “about three weeks in,” with regular meetings in which TCEQ is “walking us through compliance issues” (0:12:23). “We’ve made great strides,” the Council was told, with the program expected to wrap up “somewhere around 90-ish days” (0:15:21).
Ninety-ish days from March 17 is the middle of June. The federal report printed in October still shows twelve quarters out of twelve, which we choose to read as thoroughness.
The plant’s earlier record with the State is covered in our story on fourteen years of partnership with TCEQ.