FREE-Training for private well owners - September 12, 2013 8:30am-3:30pm

'Well Educated' Training                     

The Texas Well Owner Network along with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will be holding a one-day educational event.  

This event is aimed to aid private well owners with topics including:

·         Texas groundwater resources

·         Septic system maintenance

·         Well maintenance and construction

·         Water quality and water treatment

The event is free to all, but if anyone is interested there’s a $10 well water screening for the following: nitrates, total dissolved solids and bacteria.  Well owners who would like to have their well water sampled can pick up the two sample containers, one bag and one bottle, at the Hays County or Blanco County AgriLife Extension offices.  The bags and bottles are also available at the Hays Trinity GCD office for those who are interested.  After filling each bottle and bag with a sample from their well, participants should bring the two samples to the September 12^th  training…. See the  instructions below.

Event Time:  8:30 am – 3:30 pm

Location: Wimberley Community Center – Johnson Hall

Attendance is limited, so attendees are requested to register at twon.tamu.edu/training or by calling 979-845-1461 as soon as possible.

                            Instructions for Collecting and Submitting

Water Samples for Screening

Instructions for Collecting and Submitting

Water Samples for Screening

• Wash your hands.

• Use a faucet as close to the well as possible for making the collection.  If an inside faucet is used, remove the aerator on the end of the faucet before making the collection.

• Rinse and dry the exterior of the faucet to prevent exterior contamination of your water sample. If possible, wipe off with a Chlorox-type towelette or paper towel wetted with a light bleach solution to kill any bacteria present on the faucet.  Allow the solution to dry before sampling.

• Turn on the water full force and let it run at full force for two minutes.

• Reduce the water flow to a small stream.

• Tear off the perforated strip above the yellow twist ties from the top of the bag. Grasp the small white tabs on the side of the water-sampling bag and pull the bag open (be careful not to touch the inside of the bag with your fingers).

• Holding the bag by the yellow twist ties, fill the sampling bag three-fourths full and then twirl the bag top over bottom to close it.  Some water may leak out, but don’t worry.  Tie the twist ties together.

• Cost per sample is $10.00.

Submitting the Samples:

Please bring the sample to the Texas Well Owner Training at the Wimberley Community

Center – Johnson Hall, 14068 Ranch Road 12, Wimberley, TX on September 12, 2013.  The water well owners program will be from 8:30 – 3:30 with samples being turned in at  8:30. If you have any questions please call 979-845-1461.

Please Note: Samples should be collected within 24 hours before the training to ensure accurate results.

Texas town runs out of water after using it all for fracking...sigh

Chris Tackett
Business / Environmental Policy
August 13, 2013

CC BY 2.0 USDAgov Suzanne Goldenberg at The Guardian has a startling article on what may be a common occurrence in Texas and other parts of the US:

Across the south-west, residents of small communities like Barnhart are confronting the reality that something as basic as running water, as unthinking as turning on a tap, can no longer be taken for granted.

Three years of drought, decades of overuse and now the oil industry's outsize demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse.

In Texas alone, about 30 communities could run out of water by the end of the year, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Nearly 15 million people are living under some form of water rationing, barred from freely sprinkling their lawns or refilling their swimming pools. In Barnhart's case, the well appears to have run dry because the water was being extracted for shale gas fracking.

It is important to note that fracking is not the only problem here, though it is a major one. What this story is also about is decades of sprawl and unchecked resource extraction.
As I've bolded above, Goldenberg notes that where water is being rationed, people are barred from watering their lawns or filling pools. Yet, the lawns themselves are a significant source of the problem. At some point we were convinced that every home needed this lush, green lawn, despite the fact that the grasses were non-native and required an unreasonable amount of chemical fertilizer and water to keep alive. And, this isn't describing Barnhart, specifically, but American sprawl, generally, we've built these communities of suburban homes and McMansions with pools that are not designed for life in the desert. All of it has contributed to this current problem.   Read More.....

Growing Pains in America’s Fastest-Growing City of San Marcos

Development May Have Already Damaged Fragile Habitats

San Marcos, Texas is the fastest-growing city in the nation, in a rapidly-growing state, and with that
growth comes concerns over balancing development with environmental and ecological needs.

                     Holly Heinrich / State Impact Texas

                 The Aquarena Center, an educational center 

                  at the headwaters of the San Marcos River.

Tensions over development exist in communities across the country, but they are amplified in San Marcos, which is home to approximately 50,000 people, and a number of endangered species, including rare salamanders and golden-cheeked warblers. The growth in San Marcos has been a source of conflict among residents, as well as a source of pride.
Some residents see the city’s real estate development as an economic opportunity, and necessary to house the growing student population of Texas State University. Others say that new student housing developments are eroding the character of the town they love, and damaging the area’s fragile natural environment.
San Marcos is a unique community for additional reasons. Some Texas State professors are seeking UNESCO World Heritage status for the town, on the basis that it is believed to be the oldest continuously habited place in North America.
Then there are the geologic factors. The area is home to Edwards Aquifer, a natural groundwater system that supplies drinking and other water to approximately two million people, including the residents of San Antonio and San Marcos. In an area known as the recharge zone, rain refills the aquifer by percolating through interconnected holes and fractures in its porous limestone karst. Pollutants can also enter the aquifer through the same process. According to the Texas State Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center, the Edwards Aquifer is home to the most diverse known groundwater ecosystem in the world, and numerous endangered species. Read More....

 

 

Brushy Creek water plant temporarily closes as lake levels drop

Posted: 10:18 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013

By Esther Robards-Forbes and Marty Toohey - American-Statesman Staff                                                                                                              

A regional plant supplying a few million gallons of water a day to Cedar Park and Leander shut down this week because Lake Travis has dropped too low, said Tom Gallier, the plant’s general manager. It can only reopen when lake levels rise.
The $140 million Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority plant, which began operating in July 2012, was built in cooperation between those two cities and Round Rock, which has not yet connected to it. Cedar Park was getting about 10 percent of its water from the plant, while Leander was getting a little more than half, but officials say both cities can turn to alternate supplies.

“It’s not going to impact us,” said Leander City Manager Kent Cagle. “We have another water treatment plant. For us, BCRUA was all about the future.”
Brushy Creek appears to have the only intake now threatened by dropping lake levels, though another, Windermere Oaks which serves an area near Spicewood, is drawing water from a pool that is now separated from the rest of Lake Travis, according to the Lower Colorado River Authority, which manages the Highland Lakes.
Both situations illustrate the kinds of problems created by the drought gripping Central Texas. The surface of Lake Travis is 623 feet above sea level, 42 feet below where it typically is this time of year. Travis and Buchanan, the reservoirs that supply much of Central Texas’ water, are 35 percent full, near the all-time low. They are expected to drop below 30 percent in the fall. That is the last trigger for the LCRA to declare this drought the worst on record.
The Brushy Creek water plant was built to serve the rapid growth in Williamson County. The plant relies on a barge on Lake Travis to pump water back through hoses to the shore until a permanent deep water intake is built, a project that could take up to a decade. The problem is the barge cannot get to deep enough water to continue supplying the plant, Gallier said.
In the meantime, Cedar Park will turn on an interconnect with Round Rock and buy up to 2.8 million gallons a day, at a cost of $3.53 per thousand gallons to supplement water coming from its own Lake Travis plant. Leander will ramp up output from its water treatment plant near the Sandy Creek arm of Lake Travis, which can more than meet the city’s peak demands, Cagle said.
“The major concern is the financial hit,” Cagle said. “We’re paying debt service on a plant that is not operating.”
Leander has paid about $4.5 million in debt service this year and will pay another $5 million next year, he said.
A deep water intake for the Brushy Creek plant is planned for the next phase of expansion, which would allow the lake to drop to about 590 feet before a shutdown occurs. The start of construction is tied to growth in the area.
The plant is on a 25- to 30-year expansion timeline and will eventually be able to supply 106 million gallons of water a day. It will ultimately become a primary water source for the three cities, Gallier said.
“It seems odd that the plant is shutting down in a drought when it was built as a contingency, but I don’t think anyone foresaw the lake getting this low,” Gallier said.
Austin’s two treatment plants are on Lake Austin, which stays full unless Buchanan and Travis are nearly empty. Austin is building a third treatment plant along Lake Travis that, when it opens in 2015, will have three intakes. One of those intakes will be operating at a given time. The deepest of the intakes is near the bottom of the deepest part of Lake Travis. 

Guadalupe River is going dry in places

By Drew Joseph and Zeke MacCormack, Staff Writers : August 13, 2013 : Updated: August 13, 2013 7:54pm 

Photo By Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News

 SPRING BRANCH — Vidal Mendoza scanned the Guadalupe River, looking for the right spot to measure the flow of the water. Or perhaps more accurately, Mendoza, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologic technician, was searching where the river should have been.

The river bed was mostly dry Tuesday, slowly baking and cracking in the sun, and the pools of the water that remained were shallow and still. It's the third time in five years that stretches of the Guadalupe above Canyon Lake have effectively gone dry, conditions not been seen in the preceding five decades.

“This is what you call dry,” said Mendoza, who has worked for the USGS for 25 years. “I don't think I've ever seen it like this.”

The river is so low that the Guadalupe River State Park had to shut off water to toilets and showers this week, but will resupply two campgrounds by the weekend.

The drought, now well into its third year, has also forced a water district in Kendall County to ban sprinklers.

Read the full story at ExpressNews.com.
djoseph@express-news.net
zeke@express-news.net
Twitter: @drewqjoseph

San Marcos is the fastest growing U.S. city, according to today’s feature from State Impact Texas.

Growing Pains in America’s Fastest-Growing City of San Marcos

HOLLY HEINRICH / StateImpact Texas

The Aquarena Center, an educational center 

at the headwaters of the San Marcos River.

 Development May Have Already Damaged Fragile Habitats 

San Marcos, Texas is the fastest-growing city in the nation, in a rapidly-growing state, and with that growth comes concerns over balancing development with environmental and ecological needs.
Tensions over development exist in communities across the country, but they are amplified in San Marcos, which is home to approximately 50,000 people, and a number of endangered species, including rare salamanders and golden-cheeked    warblers. The growth in San Marcos has been a source of conflict among residents, as well as a    source of pride.
Some residents see the city’s real estate development as an economic opportunity, and necessary to house the growing student population of Texas State University. Others say that new student housing developments are eroding the character of the town they love, and damaging the area’s fragile natural environment.



San Marcos is a unique community for additional reasons. Some Texas State professors are seeking UNESCO World Heritage status for the town, on the basis that it is believed to be the oldest continuously habited place in North America.

Then there are the geologic factors. The area is home to Edwards Aquifer, a natural groundwater system that supplies drinking and other water to approximately two million people, including the residents of San Antonio and San Marcos. In an area known as the recharge zone, rain refills the aquifer by percolating through interconnected holes and fractures in its porous limestone karst. Pollutants can also enter the aquifer through the same process. According to the Texas State Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center, the Edwards Aquifer is home to the most diverse known groundwater ecosystem in the world, and numerous endangered species.
Two sites that have been slated for private student housing development here — one where development has been postponed for three years, and another where plans are moving forward — illustrate the tug-of-war over development that has been occurring in San Marcos. READ MORE....

Thank you! And save water. We extend our thanks to our Barton Springs Fest sponsors

Thank you! And save water.     We extend our thanks to our Barton Springs Fest sponsors: Silicon Labs, Kirk Mitchell Environmental Law Fund, Perry Lorenz, Save Barton Creek Association,  Raymond Goodrich & Family, Barkley Houses, Constructive Ventures, Planet K,   Whole Foods, Southwest Strategies Group, WholeEarth Provision Co., El Interior,   Blue Sky Running, Austin Energy, Gilbert's Gazelles, Cypress Real Estate Advisors,  Sam & Maydelle Fason, Bicycle Sport Shop,  Austin Parks & Recreation Dept.,  Dick Kallerman, Tracey Whitley       Please join us in supporting and thanking these businesses and individuals that support Barton Springs and sustainable development.  We also extend our thanks to all the speakers, conservation groups, musicians, divers, snorkelers, hikers, and swimmers who enjoyed the Fest with us.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  We look forward to seeing everyone again next year on the second Saturday of August. The event was a big success.  We will have the photos up soon.  We recorded the Barton Springs University presentations and will be posting them online in the weeks ahead. Join Karen Kocher next Tuesday, August 20th for a screening of portions of her new Barton Springs educational website. Screening starts at 8:30pm Barton Springs-north entrance and then free full moon swim after.  Get a glimpse HERE.  Meanwhile, the drought continues.  Please take care to minimize your water use. Today the New York Times ran a great piece on the move to lose and shrink lawns in order to save water. Check it out HERE. This is a great time to let the drought take unsustainable parts of your landscape in advance of planting native and drought-tolerant plants in the fall.   The SOS office will only be open sporadically over the next two weeks, as we take a break and enjoy the last of summer vacation.  We will be back and in touch soon.     Help us save Barton Springs from pollution and over-pumping. Please consider a summer donation or monthly pledge to SOS today.  Visit SOS's website!