Dear GEAA members and
friends,
We need your help in
making sure that Texas waters stay clean and healthy. The Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality (TCEQ) is proposing revisions to the state's water quality
standards for rivers, lakes, and streams. Some of the revisions would
weaken efforts to keep or make Texas water bodies clean enough for swimming,
boating, wading, canoeing, kayaking, and other recreational activities. Texans
need to act NOW to oppose these revisions.
The most troublesome
revisions would create a new category for "primary contact recreation
2" that would allow weaker clean water standards for streams put into that
category and increase the levels of bacteria allowed in water bodies that could
be cleaned up and used for recreation, creating permanently polluted streams
and taking polluters off the hook to clean up their mess.
Texans beat back an
attempt by TCEQ in 2010 to weaken standards controlling bacteria pollution in
water bodies designated for primary contact recreation when thousands of
comments in opposition to the proposal were sent to TCEQ. Now proponents of
pollution are seeking to undermine that clean water victory with new
bureaucratic tricks to allow more bacteria in our streams and deny Texans the
opportunity to recreate safely in more streams. Send a message to TCEQ telling them to maintain –
not weaken – water quality standards for bacterial pollution in Texas rivers
and streams.
Many thanks to Ken
Kramer, Water Resources Chair of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club for
taking the lead on this important issue. Go to the Lone Star
Sierra Club page for more background on this issue and for Sierra Club's easy comment form. (I apologize that I am unable to
provide the links to the Sierra Club and their information. If you
contact me (annalisa@aquiferalliance.org) I will be
happy to forward the information via e-mail.)
Meanwhile, celebrate
the Hill Country at the many great events going on this weekend
and through September.
Annalisa Peace
Executive Director
Happening around the
Hill Country...
Those of you who like to
garden are invited to the join gardening experts on September 21st at the Herff
Farm in Boerne for free workshops that will
help you create and maintain a productive vegetable garden. Topics will
include creating a garden bed, drip irrigation, worm composting, natural pest
control, fertilizing, and many other sensible gardening techniques. Read
more here. And, come celebrate Cibolo Nature Center’s
25th Anniversary Gala. Click here for details.
Meanwhile, you
Austinites can help the Austin Parks Foundation to close the Park Funding
Gap. Find out more here.
Folks
in the SA metropolitan area, particularly those commuting from nearby cities,
should weigh in on their preferred transportation options now. The San Antonio – Bexar County MPO will be
hosting a series of public meetings as the first stages of updating the
region’s long range multi-modal transportation plan. You can also participate on-line, or have
them send a speaker to talk to your organization. For more information, click here.
Please join OST100 as for Traveling on Fredericksburg Road: 120 Years
in 12 Miles exhibition, showing at the Institute of Texan Cultures September 19 through December 15, 2013. A
result of a spring 2013 research seminar in the UTSA College of
Architecture, the exhibit traces the historical development of Fredericksburg
Road between the years 1890 and 2010. The exhibition, including a large-scale
timeline of the road, multiple oral histories, and a short film about the
suburban expansion.
Bat Conservation
International now lets you watch the bat emergence at Bracken Cave, the World’s
largest bat colony, from the comfort of your own home. Emergences begin around 7:30 each evening.
And to celebrate this
new development, BCI is hosting one more public tour to Bracken on September
20th! So make your reservation before it’s too late!
If you didn’t experience the bat flight this summer, you still have a chance to
discover for yourself why this bat colony is so special: join BCI at the cave
on September 20th or watch the evening bat emergence online.
Joint the Farm and Ranch
Freedom Alliance for a Dai Due feast of local foods by Chef Jesse
Griffiths. The banquet, featuring keynote speaker, Dr. Francis
Thicke, will be held at the Bastrop Convention Center on Sunday, September 22nd
at 7:p.m. Can’t make it? You can still support FARFA by bidding on
their online auction, featuring an array of wonderful
items local to Central Texas, statewide or nationwide, so you can find
something great wherever you are!
The Wimberley Valley Watershed Association
will be having their Fall Membership Meeting at Jacob’s Well on
September 28th. Fun for the
whole family with a picnic dinner and music by One Village Music Project.
"Preaching
Green" panel discussion on Thursday, September 26 at 7pm at St. Mary's
University's Quad Amphitheater. Click here for a campus map.
Panel members will describe what in their faith traditions call them to care
for the planet. Panelists will include: Imam Mustafa Safak (Muslim), Dr. Rama
Krishna Rao (Hindu), Rev. Robert Woody (Episcopalian), and Irene Quesnot (Roman
Catholic).
By the way, 457 people like all the information we share on GEAA’s Face Book page. If you are the 500th person – let me know and I’ll send you a GEAA t-shirt.
here
are some other great events coming up in our region this fall. Check out the calendar here.
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