East Texas Legacy Coalition

Sewage, a fish kill, and 200,000 gallons of drinking water.

In August 2023, sewage spills from a Lufkin lift station caused a fish kill in Mill Creek. Here’s what the state’s own order says happened, and what the City paid.

What happened

When
Aug. 26 to 29, 2023.
Where
The Ellen Trout lift station, part of the City’s Hurricane Creek wastewater system.
What
Clogged and inoperable pumps, plus pump servicing, let about 6,100 gallons of untreated sewage out in two spills. Fish died. A landowner whose property Mill Creek runs through reported the fish kill on Aug. 28.
Cleanup
The City fixed the pumps by Aug. 31 and flushed the creek and a nearby stream with about 200,000 gallons of drinking water from a public water tank.
Source: TCEQ Agreed Order 2024-0641-MWD-E, Findings of Fact 2 and 3, and the Executive Summary.
Penalty
$75,000.
To the state
$0 to the state’s general fund. The whole $75,000 is offset if the City finishes a project: an alarm and monitoring system (SCADA) for its lift stations, with an estimated cost of $1,873,023. If the City doesn’t finish it, the state can demand the money.
Signed
By Mayor Mark Hicks on June 15, 2026, and for TCEQ’s executive director on July 25, 2026.
Source: the same order, Conclusion of Law 4, the signature page and Attachment A.

It wasn’t a one-time thing

The compliance history filed with this order shows the Hurricane Creek plant reported its own failure to meet one or more permit limits every month from July 2023 through September 2024, 15 months in a row. TCEQ still rated the City “Satisfactory.”

An earlier order, 2020-1536-MWD-E, took effect Feb. 27, 2024, also for sewage discharges. And a separate case, 2024-0119-MWD-E, lists 14 violations at the same plant, with a proposed penalty of $193,813, again with $0 to the state’s general fund. That one was on TCEQ’s Oct. 21, 2026 agenda, and we haven’t confirmed the final outcome.

Sources: TCEQ Compliance History Report in the order above (Section A and Appendix A); KLTV, Oct. 23, 2026, and The 936, Oct. 24, 2026, on case 2024-0119-MWD-E.

Why it matters now

A data center is planned for the old paper mill site, and the site’s owner is renewing the mill’s old wastewater permit, which allows discharges averaging up to 5 million gallons a day into Paper Mill Creek, the Angelina River and Sam Rayburn Reservoir. [Our reading: before anybody approves more wastewater here, the public deserves to know who will treat it and how.]

Source on the permit renewal: Powered Land. See also the seven projects and our water history.

What you can do