Callisburg ISD asks state to renew wastewater permit for school plant on FM 3164

Callisburg Independent School District has asked the state for permission to keep operating the wastewater plant that serves Red Ware Elementary near Gainesville, water that state records show drains toward a reservoir built to supply Dallas and Denton. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality received the renewal application on July 6, according to the agency's public notice, and the permit now in force expires in January.

The filing covers Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit No. WQ0013393001. TCEQ's notice says the renewal would authorize treated domestic wastewater discharge at a daily average of no more than 15,000 gallons per day, the same ceiling the district operates under today. The agency lists the facility at 648 Farm-to-Market Road 3164 in Cooke County and classifies it as a minor public domestic permit.

Where that water goes is spelled out in the record. TCEQ traces the route from the plant site to an unnamed tributary, then to Lake Kiowa, Indian Creek and Ray Roberts Lake, and the existing permit places the discharge in Segment No. 0840 of the Trinity River Basin. The Texas Water Development Board says Ray Roberts was impounded beginning in 1987 and built mainly for water supply for Dallas and Denton. Water Data for Texas listed the reservoir at roughly 97 percent of conservation capacity on Aug. 16.

The timing comes from the permit itself. The current authorization, issued Jan. 4, 2022, requires the district to apply for renewal or amendment at least 180 days before expiration to keep discharging after that date. That 2022 document replaced a prior TPDES permit issued Sept. 13, 2016.

TCEQ authorizes the City of Callisburg's municipal plant for eight times the district's 15,000-gallon daily flow in the same river segment, and permits the City of Gainesville's facility for millions of gallons a day, discharging directly to the Elm Fork of the Trinity River above Ray Roberts Lake. Callisburg is not alone among districts running their own plants. TCEQ's August list of pending applications also carries school treatment facilities at Warren ISD and Tarkington ISD, both permitted for larger flows.

TCEQ says the state's surface water quality standards weigh uses that include aquatic life, recreation and public water supply, with criteria such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, bacteria and toxic substances.

Residents can read the application at Callisburg Elementary School before the notice is published in a newspaper. The TCEQ notice gives that address as 668 FM 3164; the district's contact page lists the school at 648.

The filing lands as the county keeps growing. Gainesville's July issued-permit file listed 128 rows, after 110 in May and 116 in June, with trade work, roofing and certificates of occupancy filling most of the list. Census Bureau estimates put Gainesville near 18,500 residents and Cooke County near 44,500 in mid-2025, each about 7 percent above 2020. Callisburg ISD reported unofficial totals of 884-487, 811-548 and 804-559 for the three bond propositions voters approved in May 2025.