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Homeowner asks city to buy property after TCEQ odor tests; council tables request for follow-up
Summary
Rudy and Isabel Rivera asked the council to buy two adjoining lots at 404 North Gregory after decades of odors and TCEQ testing that the Riveras say showed noncompliance and caused an investigator to become ill; council agreed to research the request and tabled action until next month.
Rudy Rivera and his wife asked the council to purchase two lots they own at 404 North Gregory, saying the family has endured offensive sewage odors and potential health effects for decades and that recent Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) testing documented noncompliance.
Rivera said he called TCEQ on October 16 and that investigators conducted tests, provided odor-log forms and, in his account, one investigator became sick while performing the tests. Rivera said he and his family can no longer live at the property and asked the city to buy both lots and help with relocation and damages; he and his wife proposed an amount in the neighborhood of $500,000 covering both parcels.
Councilors said the matter deserved further review and recommended discussing it in closed session (as listed on the agenda) and with additional staff follow-up. The council then moved to table/postpone the matter for additional research and agreed to hear it again at next month's meeting; no purchase agreement or payment was approved in open session.
Council members and staff asked procedural and factual questions — including when the lift station and house were constructed, property ownership details and possible affidavits — and noted the sensitivity of a buyout request that might require legal and budgetary review.
