A fight over 38 annexed acres on Elgin’s edge has pulled the tiny historic community of Littig into the middle of a big infrastructure battle. Descendants of Littig’s founding families, along with a local conservation group, have organized in response to the city’s plan for a new wastewater treatment plant on the tract, arguing that it would burden the freedom-colony community with industrial infrastructure and put nearby farmland and creeks at risk. City officials say the additional capacity is needed to keep up with rapid development to the west and that most of the cost will be covered by development and impact fees. Residents and nonprofits plan to bring the dispute directly to elected leaders at the Elgin City Council meeting on March 3.
What the city is planning
The city has included a second wastewater facility in its five-year capital plan and brought the land into municipal jurisdiction to reserve the site, according to City of Elgin documents. Design work is already in motion. The council approved an agreement of roughly $5.1 million with engineering firm Ward, Getz & Associates to start designs, and the plant is slated to roll out in phases until it reaches up to 6 million gallons per day at full buildout. Funding for the initial phases will come mostly from development agreements and impact fees rather than the city’s general budget, city officials told reporters, per the Elgin Courier.
Neighbors say they were left out.
Longtime Littig residents say many people living near the site never received a timely notice of the annexation and that it felt like the decision was made before they heard about it. As reported by The Austin Chronicle, neighbors showed up at council and public meetings to object and accused city leaders of sidelining the historic freedmen community. Mayor Theresa McShan was quoted telling the crowd, “I did not take Littig into consideration. I’ll be honest with you. We’re looking at property. It’s a business. It’s how we make our city work.” The Chronicle also notes that the Wilbarger Creek Conservation Alliance says Wilbarger Creek already carries multiple existing discharge permits and pending applications, a fact neighbors say should trigger a fuller watershed review.
Health, soil, and watershed concerns
Conservation advocates worry that another discharge point to Dry Creek and downstream Wilbarger Creek could pile on to existing water quality, wildlife, and farmland pressures. The Wilbarger Creek Conservation Alliance, a local nonprofit focused on protecting ranches, open space, and the watershed, has called for alternative sites and wants the tract preserved as a park or green space, in line with the group’s mission and outreach materials.
Academic research has added fuel to residents’ anxiety. A 2016 survey-based study found that people living within roughly 500 meters of some wastewater treatment plants reported higher rates of headaches, concentration difficulties, and gastrointestinal symptoms (PubMed). A 2025 air quality assessment detected a variety of volatile and trace contaminants near plants during monitoring campaigns (Environmental Science & Pollution Research/PMC).
What comes next
Family members who received annexation notices say they plan to challenge the approvals at the March 3 Elgin City Council meeting, which appears on the city’s public calendar. According to The Austin Chronicle, Gena Gonzalez and her siblings intend to push for state-level review and hope to secure a meeting with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to raise questions about permits and downstream impacts.
Permits and the legal path
Any plant discharge and outfall must be signed off on by state regulators, and TCEQ’s permitting rules require public notice, public comment periods, and a process for affected persons to request contested-case hearings. For more details on timelines, comment windows, and how contested-case standing is evaluated, residents are directed to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s guidance and rule summaries. People who want to track the project are advised to watch council agendas, city permit filings, and TCEQ notices, and to expect additional technical studies and permitting steps before any construction can begin.
The fight over the Littig parcel ties together local history, land use, and water quality. City leaders describe the project as necessary infrastructure for growth that is already arriving, while descendants and conservationists see a threat to a fragile freedom-colony landscape and to a watershed that already carries multiple discharges. How Elgin balances development pressures, developer-backed funding, and long-standing neighborhood ties is now set to unfold in public over the coming weeks and months.
