Do I need an Edwards Aquifer plan before building in Bexar or Medina County?

Lots on a regulated zone. On the recharge, transition or contributing zone, construction cannot start until the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approves an Edwards Aquifer protection plan. For the San Antonio region its program pages list Bexar, Medina, Comal, Uvalde and Kinney counties; of the seven counties on this site, Bexar and Medina are the two on that list.

Being in the county does not settle it. TCEQ says only parts of the aquifer are regulated, and it sends you to its own map viewer to see whether a given site sits over a regulated zone. The answer belongs to the parcel, so check it before anything gets designed and before a shovel moves.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, 2026-09-13.

More than putting up the building. On the recharge zone, nothing regulated happens without an approved water pollution abatement plan, and TCEQ's list covers putting up buildings, utility stations, roads, highways and railroads, plus clearing, digging, and anything else that changes the lay of the ground, its geology or how it takes in recharge.

Clearing and digging are what trip up a metal building job. Dozer work, the pad and the cut for the drive count on their own, so on a recharge-zone lot the approval has to be in hand before site prep, not just before the steel shows up. What that site work involves once you are cleared to start: the pad and site prep sheet.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, what plans you might need, 2026-09-13.

That is the recharge-zone plan. Every regulated activity on the list above needs one approved before it starts.

Drainage stretches its reach. A lot that sits partly on the recharge zone, where the natural drainage flows back to the recharge zone, is reviewed as though the whole lot sat on the recharge zone. So a tract with one corner over the zone can be reviewed as a recharge-zone lot, and it is the drainage that decides, not how much of the acreage is over the line.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, what plans you might need, 2026-09-13.

The contributing zone has its own plan (a contributing zone plan), and it comes into it only when the work disturbs five acres or more, or the lot belongs to a wider plan for development or sale. A single shop on a contributing-zone tract can stay under that line where a warehouse with its parking and truck apron will not, so pin down the disturbed acreage early in the layout.

One hole in the record, stated plainly: the sources behind this sheet name the recharge zone plan and the contributing zone plan, and they do not say which plan the transition zone takes. That goes to the program, not to this page, even though the transition zone is one of the three zones the approval rule names.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, what plans you might need, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, 2026-09-13.

Two reviews, and the second takes 90 days. TCEQ sets the administrative review two weeks after submission and gives it up to 30 days. Payment runs through TCEQ EPay after that, and the application counts as administratively complete only when the program has the payment confirmation. Then technical review has 90 calendar days, with two 14-day windows to answer deficiencies.

No construction or other regulated activity may start before approval issues. Put that next to the clearing rule above and the job order flips: on a recharge-zone lot the calendar starts with the aquifer plan, ahead of the building permit and well ahead of the slab.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer application and review process, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, what plans you might need, 2026-09-13.

TCEQ sets the application fee by the acreage of the whole property inside its legal boundaries and by the kind of development, with a $650 floor and a $10,000 ceiling. Its fee schedule counts commercial, industrial, institutional, multi-family and school sites as non-residential, and prices a non-residential job like this:

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer application fee form TCEQ-0574, 2026-09-13.

Two points are easy to miss. The fee goes by the acreage of the whole property inside its legal boundaries, not the patch being disturbed, so a small building on a big tract pays on the tract. And it is TCEQ's fee alone: TCEQ posts nothing on what an engineer charges to prepare the plan, so no number for that appears here. Get it in writing when the building is priced, because that bill comes whether or not the building goes up.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer application fee form TCEQ-0574, 2026-09-13.

Homes are covered too. TCEQ says construction at a private residence on the recharge or contributing zone falls under the Edwards Aquifer rules, and it lists when a homeowner may not need an individual plan:

• The home is part of a master community that has an approved plan.

• The lot is over five acres and carries no more than one residence.

• The work keeps impervious cover at or below 20 percent of the lot.

• Rainwater harvesting brings adjusted impervious cover to 20 percent or less.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer private residences, 2026-09-13.

This is where a shop building changes the math. TCEQ counts rooftops, driveways, concrete pads, sheds and sidewalks as impervious cover, so the building, its slab, the apron and the drive to the road all add into one total. Run that percentage before you fix the size of a metal shop building, since it may be what sets the footprint.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer private residences, 2026-09-13.

Use the TCEQ map viewer. The program says only parts of the aquifer are regulated and sends you to that viewer to see whether a given site sits over a regulated zone. The source line under this section links to the program page.

No page on this site can answer the zone question for one address. Get it from the agency map or the engineer sealing the plans, and put it in writing in the job file before design starts.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, 2026-09-13.

Wells belong to a different agency. The Edwards Aquifer Authority is its own body, apart from TCEQ, with a jurisdiction of more than 8,000 square miles over eight south-central Texas counties: all of Uvalde, Medina and Bexar, and parts of Atascosa, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal and Hays. TCEQ approves protection plans; the Authority handles wells.

Drilling a well into or through the Edwards Aquifer starts with a well construction permit application to the Authority, and the application fee is $25. Capping or plugging a well also needs an Authority permit before work starts: a capping permit is $125 and good for five years, and a plugging permit is $25 a well, with 180 days to finish the job.

An existing well carries its own paperwork. State law requires every well drawing from the Edwards Aquifer to be registered with the Authority. To count as exempt, and pump without a groundwater withdrawal permit, the owner registers the well and shows three things: it cannot yield more than 25,000 gallons a day, it serves domestic or livestock use only, and it does not supply a subdivision that needs platting, which the Authority describes as water to more than three homes. Water, sewer and power on a rural lot: septic, water and power for a shop or warehouse.

Checked at Edwards Aquifer Authority, learn about the aquifer, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Edwards Aquifer Authority, well closure procedures and construction, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Edwards Aquifer Authority, well registration and updates, 2026-09-13.

It changes who may design the system. State rule 30 TAC 285.5 requires a professional engineer or professional sanitarian to prepare and seal the planning materials for all new construction on the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. The same rule requires that seal on non-standard treatment or disposal, and for a professional engineer in particular where secondary treatment is required.

The kind of building counts as well. The rules call any building that is not a single-family home or a duplex a commercial or institutional facility, which puts a shop, a warehouse or a church in that group before the aquifer comes up at all. An owner or installer may prepare the planning materials only when none of those triggers applies.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality publication RG-472, on-site sewage facility rules compilation, 2026-09-13.

The TCEQ construction general permit bars construction on an Edwards-regulated site until TCEQ approves the protection plan. The two run side by side, and the aquifer approval is the one that opens the gate.

The stormwater tiers then apply on their own acreage terms:

• An acre or more disturbed, with stormwater running to surface water in the state: coverage under the construction general permit, with the stormwater pollution prevention plan ready and running before work starts.

• Five acres or more: a Notice of Intent through STEERS before work begins.

• One acre to under five: a signed small construction site notice posted at the site, with a copy to the storm sewer operator at least two days before work begins.

• Under an acre, off any wider common plan of development or sale: outside the permit.

• Near the aquifer: where the discharge point sits 10 stream miles or less upstream of the recharge zone, a copy of the Notice of Intent also goes to the TCEQ regional office, and for Bexar, Medina, Comal, Uvalde and Kinney counties that office is San Antonio.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, general permit TXR150000, part II, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, construction stormwater general permit TXR150000, 2026-09-13.

In unincorporated Bexar County the county building permit for a structure not for single-family dwelling use comes from the Fire Marshal Office, 210-335-0300, after Bexar County Public Works approves a Building Permit Authorization, and that permit reaches site clearing as well as building, renovating or changing occupancy. The aquifer plan is a different approval from a different agency, and on a recharge-zone lot it has to issue before clearing starts.

Medina County posts a one-page list of the permits it requires: 911 addressing, water well, floodplain, septic, and driveway and utility. A building permit for a commercial or accessory structure is not on it, and no page checked on the county site names a building department, a code edition or a county commercial plan review (Medina County, What Type of Permits Are Required In Medina County?, checked 2026-09-13). None of that changes the aquifer answer: the TCEQ rule is a state rule and holds whatever the county does or does not permit, so confirm the county side at 830-741-6000.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, what plans you might need, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Bexar County, building permits and fire marshal code enforcement pages, 2026-09-13.

TCEQ reviews and approves it, and no construction or other regulated activity may start before approval. The sources behind this sheet do not say who must prepare the plan, so ask the program and the engineer sealing the drawings. What is known is the timing: up to 30 days of administrative review, 90 calendar days of technical review, and no clock at all while the application is incomplete.

The contractor builds what the approved plan and drawings show. Texas licenses no builder, so on an aquifer-zone job the credential that counts is the engineer or sanitarian sealing what TCEQ reviews. One independent metal building contractor puts up the building and prices the work.

Ask any contractor bidding an aquifer-zone job who files the plan, who pays the engineer, and what the schedule assumes about the 90-day technical review. The order of a whole job, lot to finish: the start-to-finish San Antonio guide.

Checked at Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Edwards Aquifer application and review process, 2026-09-13.

Checked at Sunset Advisory Commission, Texas Residential Construction Commission; TDLR regulated industries list, 2026-09-13.