San Marcos River Foundation Newsletter - Vol. 7, No. 3
Printed Quarterly on Recycled Paper - July 11, 1997

PLEASE TAKE NOTE:
July 15 - Board Meeting at Grins, 6 p.m.
Aug. 19 & Sept. 16 - Nuts & Bolts Meetings

QUARTERLY BOARD MEETING ON TUESDAY, JULY 15

The quarterly board meeting of the River Foundation will begin at 6 p.m. at Grins Restaurant on the third Tuesday of the month, July 15. All SMRF members are urged to attend, and visitors are welcome to attend and participate. The agenda will include discussion and action on these items:

Financial report, and investment committee report.
River Awareness Month debrief.
Updates on permit hearings and lawsuit issues:
State Fish Hatchery effluent discharge into River.
City of San Marcos River withdrawal plans.
Federal EPA permit for City sewage discharge into River.
Updates on parking lots being built along Riverbank, and other non-point pollution.
Committee reports on grants, Adopt-a-River, downstream membership drive with SWT intern assistance, salamander costumes, educational exhibits at Aquarena, new website, Playscape kiosk, Edwards Aquifer map.

PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS

The annual SMRF River Awareness Month in April has come and gone. The attendance at the many exciting lectures was adversely affected by severe thunderstorms which seemed to plague every event this year. Those who braved the elements, however, were rewarded with very interesting programs, hikes, and tours. And the rain of April was the best event SMRF could have wished for during River Awareness Month. The school contests brought in great efforts from San Marcos, Prairie Lea, and Luling schools. The enlarged version of Prairie Lea 5th Grader Juan Pastrano Jr.'s poster, which won the Grand Prize, is on the Gunnarson donated billboard on South Guadalupe across from the Sonic. Thanks to Kathryn Chaney, Deborah Lane, Jo Ellen Korthals, Kay Moore, Mary Beth Garrett and Dianne Wassenich for working so hard on River Awareness Month, and to the businesses listed in our last newsletter who generously donated contest prizes.
Activity continues on the legal actions and public hearings that SMRF is engaged in to protect the River. The attempt to short-circuit the "Bed & Banks" permit hearing by challenging the TNRCC's jurisdiction failed. We are considering whether to appeal. This means the public hearing process is back on the front burner. (See page 4 for details on the City's permit.)

The A. E. Wood State Fish Hatchery discharge permit is in temporary limbo as Texas Parks & Wildlife has changed its permit application. TNRCC will need until December 1 to review the new application. (See page 5 for details.)

The EPA wastewater permit for the City of San Marcos, which was protested by SMRF, is also in limbo at the time of this writing, with no news from EPA on whether a hearing will occur.

Senate Bill 1, which passed the Legislature and was signed into law by the Governor, is the most significant change in water law in decades. Its impact will probably have to await interpretation by the courts, but most environmental groups think the Bill was a beginning step in the right direction. There are still many issues left unresolved, such as the failure to address the "right of capture", thus allowing landowners (like the infamous Catfish Farm) to pump an unlimited amount of water from beneath their land.

Also, the Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) has recently set rates for pumping water from the aquifer. Miraculously, this has not thus far caused a revolution in the City of San Antonio or Uvalde or Medina Counties. The Water Bill and EAA's beginning forays are positive developments that indicate that this State is finally beginning to address water problems. Thank God the recent deluge of rain did not occur last year, or another decade may have passed without any action.

Hope to see you at our Board meeting or the monthly work meetings!

SMRF Pres. Dr. Jack Fairchild

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RECORD RAINFALL HELPS FILL AQUIFER AND CLEANS OUT THE RIVER

Finally, the drought is over, and record amounts of rainfall in the past few months caused several floods in Central Texas rivers. The repeated flushes of the Blanco running into the San Marcos have finally cleaned out the algae and discoloration that peaked last summer. Downstream communities are seeing water clarity and the turquoise blue color missing for so many years from the River. Using USGS info from the Internet, SMRF members have been kept busy trying to warn people downstream of the Blanco confluence when floods are expected, since there is no known warning system in place run by any government entities. To be added to the warning list, call 512-393-3787.

The aquifer level is 673.9 on July 11, well above average for July. This does NOT mean that water conservation is no longer necessary. Those in the know will continue their efforts to use water sparingly, plant native vegetation, and replace water guzzling toilets with low flow models.

The clean clear River water since the big flush occurred in June is giving downstreamers hope of seeing the River improve from the new sewer plant being built by the City. (See photo below.) Checking with Alphonso Carmona, Wastewater Plant Supervisor, brings the news that the plant will have many improvements in place by January 98. The completion will be by June '98, at which time the BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) will drop from the current average of 12 to 2!

Alphonso also says that priorities are being assigned to the worst sewer lines in the city, so that they can be fixed first. This will stop rainwater from getting into those lines and flooding the sewer plant, causing raw sewage to flow into the River. There is hope for the River, and this summer is a great preview of how a clean River will look. Canoe it to see it first hand.

LOLA WRIGHT FOUNDATION GIVES SMRF A GRANT, & MORE GRANTS REQUESTED

SMRF Board member Mark Boucher is shopping with grant money for a laptop computer that will be used with the hydrolab also recently purchased with grant money. The Lola Wright Foundation has given SMRF $1000 to use for this computer purchase. This money will be put to great use, since this portable computer will enable Dr. Fairchild to set up the hydrolab testing equipment previously bought with a $5000 grant from the Vaughn Foundation. The hydrolab and computer will record weeks of water tests automatically, without anyone having to watch the testing site around the clock. This data will be invaluable in permit hearings, and to monitor pollution sites.

Many thanks to both Foundations who granted SMRF this assistance, and to skilled grantwriter Madge Altes, as well as Richard Salmon, Hays County Grant Coordinator. Thanks to Hays County Judge and Commissioners for having the foresight to fund Richard Salmon's job, since he is instrumental in bringing many millions of dollars in grants to Hays County.

Eight grant proposals are currently being completed to establish a legal defense fund for SMRF. These will ask for a total of $30,000 in matching funds to enable SMRF to follow through on the two permit hearings currently underway. There is no way to predict what a hearing will cost, but since the 1995 wastewater hearing cost SMRF $30,000 the plan is to gather double that amount to assure that the organization can make it through both current hearings safely.

That wastewater hearing money was gathered from several foundations through grants for legal fees and scientific studies, as well as from members of SMRF who gave earmarked donations for the hearing, and from several art auctions. (Speaking of art, Sally Cummings' beautiful paintings continue to be shown and sold at Cardinal Art and Frame on RR12, to the benefit of the grateful River Foundation. Go see the lovely local landscapes, all sizes, oils in very nice frames.) The stock market has helped the Foundation a lot in the past few years, since the endowment fund is partially invested in mutual funds, but SMRF doesn't want to count on that to make it through the two hearings.

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9TH ANNUAL WILD RICE SURVEY ON SAN MARCOS RIVER COMPLETED

Jackie Poole of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department put out a call for volunteers in June, and was inundated with help for her survey. Shown below are Karim Aziz of TP&W River Studies, and Shannon Breslin of TP&W Endangered Resources, locating wild rice stands with surveying equipment, using permanent benchmarks recently installed on the bank of the River (and being watched by a curious young swimmer). Shown in the cool water are Americorps volunteers and TP&W employees, using measuring tapes to track the changes in size and length of wildrice clumps, for the ninth year in a row. Results will be available later, when all results are compiled by TP&W.

SMRF IS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB WITH RIVER NEWS!

Thanks to excellent work by Board member Charles Blankenship and his talented daughter, Dana, SMRF has a new web site address. You can access it at: http://www.sanmarcosriver.org.

The website is ready with the last three newsletters, and a lot of historical information about the River Foundation, its efforts to protect the River, and its Board members and volunteers. Color photos will be added later, and the current newsletter you are reading. Soon SMRF hopes to be able to update the website with info each month, as news unfolds, so that members will not have to wait for the newsletter every quarter to get the current news. We hope this effort will encourage more people to join the Foundation, on downstream, as we link up to more river, bay and estuary protection groups. Thanks to our webmaster, Dana Blankenship. She's a pro.

"BED & BANKS" PERMIT SCORE: TWO TO ONE

SMRF won two and lost one in the effort to stop the City of San Marcos "Bed & Banks" permit. This permit seeks to take drinking water from the San Marcos River in an amount equal to the amount of wastewater discharged by the wastewater treatment plant. The City first attempted to have the TNRCC Commissioners deny a public hearing, or if granted, to limit the issues to be considered to only how much---not whether---water could be taken from the River. The three Commissioners rejected these two requests, granted a public hearing and itemized several issues that SMRF wanted addressed. SMRF 2-0

Then, in an attempt to shorten the long and expensive public hearing process, SMRF filed suit in the Travis County District Court challenging the TNRCC's jurisdiction to issue a "Bed & Banks" permit. This action was based on the fact that the Texas Water Code clearly states that "Bed & Banks" permits do not apply to groundwater. The City maintained in permit documents that the wastewater it discharges into the River and plans to recoup was its own private groundwater. In addition, the City has not obtained a water appropriation permit for this water. Unfortunately, the District Judge based his ruling, in spite of the detailed provisions in the Water Code, on his belief that TNRCC was the only state agency with broad powers to address all water issues. He ruled that TNRCC has jurisdiction to go ahead and hold the hearing on the permit. SMRF 2-1

SMRF is currently considering whether to appeal that ruling. At any rate, the public hearing is back on track, tentatively scheduled for October 13, 1997. Preliminary issues will be discussed and discovery procedures will start on July 17. See below on ways to keep up with news.

HEARING DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE AT SAN MARCOS PUBLIC LIBRARY

In an effort to disseminate information to all interested parties in the several public hearings and legal actions involving SMRF, copies of all the documents issued in the "Bed & Banks" permit, the State Fish Hatchery discharge permit, and the District Court lawsuit have been placed in a notebook entitled "SMRF PUBLIC HEARING DOCUMENTS". This notebook is available at the Information Desk of the San Marcos Public Library, and all protestants have been notified.

SECOND WATER PERMIT TO APPROPRIATE MORE RIVER WATER STILL IN LIMBO

The City of San Marcos' application for a second water permit to withdraw (or appropriate) public San Marcos River water in a much larger amount than the "Bed & Banks" permit has not yet been declared "adminstratively complete" by the TNRCC. So SMRF considers this second permit in limbo at this time, stalled because of the requirement for an adequate instream flow analysis. This permit is the "big daddy" of the City's two, since it asks for 46 cubic feet per second (CFS) to be taken from the River. This is 80% of the TNRCC's "critical low flow" established for the San Marcos River. Stay tuned for the latest developments in this hot permit issue.

CITY SIGNS PACT WITH GBRA FOR PIPELINE TO GET CANYON LAKE WATER

The City Council in San Marcos recently approved a contract with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) to provide the pipeline from Lake Dunlap to the still un-named location of the new drinking water treatment facility. This will enable the City to get the 5000 acre-feet of water from Canyon Lake which the City purchased from GBRA for $265,000 per year, several years ago, but has not been able to use. It will take years to build the pipeline, but at least it will start now.
Additional Canyon Lake water supplies recently requested by the Council have not yet been contracted for. If those details can be worked out with GBRA soon, those supplies could help keep the San Marcos River from being over-pumped, causing water quality problems all along the river downstream of San Marcos, and damaging bays and estuaries on the coast during dry spells.

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REMEMBER TO COME TO SMRF MEETINGS ON THIRD TUESDAY OF EACH MONTH

The monthly "Nuts & Bolts" work meetings of the Foundation are at 6 p.m. at Grins, on the third Tuesday of each month. At the beginning of each quarter, and also when needed, these meetings may be official Board meetings, but at any rate, everyone is welcome at any and all of these meetings. It's the best way to keep up with what's going on, and get involved in River issues.

A. E. WOOD FISH HATCHERY DISCHARGE PERMIT HEARING ON HOLD

The hearing is limbo, while TNRCC looks at the new application filed by Texas Parks & Wildlife staff at the hatchery. TP&W has contracted with FishPro, Inc., the original designers of the fish hatchery , to develop an effluent treatment plan. SMRF has met with officials from the hatchery and FishPro to provide input to this study. The study is near completion.

SMRF has had good rapport with the fish hatchery staff, and information has been freely exchanged on what is being studied and what plans are being made. It appears that as a result of information developed in this study, the hatchery realized that their discharge application was inadequate for their needs. Their new application requests increasing the permitted discharge from 2.7 million gallons per day (MGD) to 5.0 MGD. How this permit change will affect SMRF's party status in the hearing is unknown at this time. SMRF agreed to a delay in the hearing to allow the permit change provided that we retain our party status without requiring a new round of protest letters, and TP&W agreed to this. Stay tuned for news of the FishPro study and the new permit.

AQUARENA CONTINUES TO WORK ON EDUCATIONAL DISPLAYS

The new 5' blind salamander, Salvatore, created by local Art League members Sterling Rogers and Dianne Wassenich for a tourism conference, has found a home at Aquarena above the ticket booth in the gift shop. A fountain darter has also been commissioned and will be worked on during the Thursday "Artists in Action" morning meetings at the Old Fish Hatchery Building behind the Chamber, starting at 9 a.m., during the summer. See photo of Salvatore below, on the window.
Other photos of new educational displays SMRF members have worked on at Aquarena are at bottom of this page and top of next page.

Sally, the 16' float, is on permanent display at Aquarena near the old Submarine Theatre. She needs a coat of rubberized paint, since she is outdoors, if anyone wants to volunteer for that job. Call Dianne Wassenich at 512-393-3787, to volunteer. There is also a recently donated wood and canvas canoe that needs to be readied for children to play in on the lawn, if a handy person would like to take on this little task for SMRF. The canoe was built long ago by Seguin native, the late Ben Stein, and donated to SMRF by Helen, his wife. It needs cleaning, a paint coat of rubberized or elastomeric material, and some cutting and gluing of a liner of rubber foam or masonite to make a smooth surface inside the canoe.

AQUIFER UNDERGROUND

New cave exhibit funded by Edwards Underground Water District (as its last action before disbanding), at Aquarena in the same building as the Aquariums. The lighted windows in the cave feature aquifer facts, and several aquariums with live blind salamander inhabitants are set into the walls of the cave. Cracks, karst limestone holes, water drips and more are painted on the walls by local faux painters Laura Dickerson and Dianne Wassenich. Cave designed by Ron Balderach and built by Perkins Construction.

RIVER RANGERS UPDATE: THEY COME, THEY GO, THEY KEEP ON WORKING

Past SMRF Board member Mary Beth Garrett is moving to Alpine with husband Hugh and children in July. Her invaluable work as a River Ranger on the enormous amount of River testing they accomplish year round will be missed, but new folks are stepping in to carry the load. Best wishes to Mary Beth and family in their new adventures. SMRF hates to lose Mary Beth as well, but West Texas could use some good workers to help with their environmental preservation efforts.
Board member Deborah Lane is an active member of the River Ranger testing group, and will fill the liaison position that Mary Beth held during her tenure, to keep SMRF informed of needs that the River Rangers have in the way of chemicals or equipment, to keep their test kits well stocked. Many serious water testers are trained to carry on the Ranger work and are featured in the Daily Record once a month, with a photo and details about their background and chosen testing site.

Mary Ann Hopkins is also a River Ranger who is working on an important project for the River Foundation. Through an SWT internship, Mary Ann is completing the work begun by Fred Mynar last summer on gathering mailing addresses for all the Riverside landowners in downstream counties. SMRF plans to use these to do mailings of the newsletter to those people in hope that they will want to join the effort to protect the River. The mailing for Caldwell County is going out with this current newsletter, and Guadalupe and Gonzales Counties will follow this summer.

Thanks to all the River Rangers for their steady and reliable work as water quality guardians.

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WATER SAFARI JUST BLEW BY!

The high water from all the rains of May and June made the Safari an exciting one, with record speeds recorded for the racing canoes that left Aquarena Springs and managed to get to the Gulf Coast in times of less than 30 hours. That was the winning time for the 6-man canoe that SMRF member Fred Mynar was a part of. Member John Dunn was in the 2nd place 5-man canoe, with only a slightly longer time. No flying gar attacks this year, the gar must have been too busy swimming in the strong current. There was a flying dive by an armadillo, but you'll have to look up the Safari website by West Hansen to hear all the details of that story. http://nac.tamu.edu/~x075bb/safari/

The Safari this year was dedicated to Larry Kendrick, the San Marcos Police Chief, who drowned while in training for the Safari on the San Marcos River. He and his son were in the Safari last year, and planned to participate this year as well. All of San Marcos has been saddened by his death. He will be missed by everyone who knew him and his smile. All the flooding made the River a dangerous place to be, at times this year. Such a contrast with last year's drought and low flows.

SWT "DEVELOPMENTS"

Pepper's has closed and the building is being leased to Joe's Crab Shack, a Landry's Corporation restaurant. A new parking lot on the bank of Spring Lake is planned for the space that the small yellow house formerly occupied, just behind Pepper's parking lot. This is in violation of the local River Corridor Ordinance that prohibits impervious cover so close to the River, but SWT doesn't have to follow local rules, according to their attorney. The City of San Marcos is considering legal action, since this restaurant has nothing to do with SWT's educational mission, but rather is competing with local businesses that have to comply with said Ordinance. Fish & Wildlife has written SWT, asking them to cease and desist.

Pave Paradise and put up a parking lot! --Joni Mitchell

Note the massive old trees, and the elephant ears and lakewater just beyond the line of haybales, at this site behind Pepper's. The retaining pond on Sessom Drive is full of sediment, as it has been for the past year, and SWT is not cleaning it out, so the sediment is being blown into the River with each rainfall event. This is an excellent example of why retaining ponds don't work unless a citizen group monitors them after every rainfall event, and legally pressures the owners to maintain them properly.

The plan to suck water from Spring Lake progresses. SWT has hired an engineering firm to plan the pump station to put into the Lake to withdraw all the water needed for their cooling towers. Quite a bold move for the "Stewards of the Springs".

A new $12 million or more highrise building at Aquarena is being planned in partnership with Texas Parks & Wildlife. This building and the accompanying parking lot are certainly not going to help water quality in this most sensitive ecosystem. Wish TP&W would realize this, since endangered species and river protection is their area of expertise, while SWT does not seem to understand what this entails.

A NEVER ENDING STREAM OF NON-POINT SOURCE POLLUTION

The City Park System has a new parking lot across from Herbert's, which needs to be watched closely as it is constructed so near the River, and on top of a supposedly protected archeological site. As everyone knows, retaining ponds only work when they are clean and sized to properly handle the runoff material, and they will never be as good for the water as vegetation.
Neighbors of the River Pub and Grill at Rio Vista Dam protested the bulldozing of woods and enlarging of that restaurant's parking lot at a recent City Council meeting and Planning & Zoning Board meeting. The work was done without a permit, so a permit applied for after the fact was denied, restoration of the vegetation was ordered as well as removal of gravel already spread.

Hays County roadwork on Lime Kiln Road caused massive mud streams to flow unfettered into Sink Creek and on down to Spring Lake and the River via the slough at Aquarena's golf course during the rains of June. Pleading that TNRCC had approved their construction plans, county officials promised quick action to stop the mud. As of this writing, miles of roadsides are still bare over a month later and the only changes seen are piles of dirt brought in, which are ALSO unprotected by sediment cross fencing or rock berms. Those who saw the foaming dark brown mud coming over the falls at Pepper's and repeatedly contaminating the River for days, can appreciate the magnitude of this disaster, which even surpassed SWT's frequent pale tan mud flows from their construction projects along Sessom Drive. Fish & Wildlife is writing a concerned letter to the County Road Manager, and considers this a perfect example of a failure of the systems in place to protect endangered ecosystems. It will be interesting to see how long this damage is allowed to continue.

Part of the group that gathered during River Awareness Month to tell and hear River Stories on the lawn at Aquarena. A perfect spring evening. Thanks to all who came to share their unique and valuable historical tales.

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