​The Barton Creek Uprising as I remember it

The Barton Creek Uprising began for me when I discovered Barton Creek in 1963. I had come to Austin to go to the University of Texas. Even in those days it cost money to get into Barton Springs. As a student barely scraping by I had to settle for Campbell’s Hole and the water carved rocks in the creek downstream. Unlike the springs the creek above the pool was a wild place, no houses, no sewer lines, no greenbelt or crowds or dogs for years to come. On windy days, too windy for skydiving a friend and I used to go down to Campbell’s Hole and cliff dive off the high ledges above the hole. No chance of that these days. Austin in the 60’s was a small town, especially in summer when the legislature left town along with most of the UT students. Few people even seemed to know a bit of paradise was right there on the outskirts of town. Or we took it for granted - a big mistake.
Eventually I graduated from UT and left town in 1975. After years in the work world around Houston I grabbed a bus back to Austin in 1985 as a hurricane hit town and found my friend Roger Baker with whom I shared rooms in the 70’s. Roger was active in transportation issues opposing ring roads around Austin and introduced me to the terrain and speaking about the issues.

By now lower Barton Creek was surrounded by development, condos so close to the creek people could throw rocks at the swimmers. Austin’s city fathers had perpetrated on abomination on the people. To get the antipathy out of my system one day I wrote a memorial proposing someone build a giant sling shot and loft balloons of brown and green paint and sticks and twigs to splatter up the houses above Campbell’s Hole. In good humor of course. The lady I lived with read the story and suggested I look up some folks called Earth First! A way of life was born.

At first we were preoccupied with saving the endangered species around Austin, the cave bugs, the Black Capped Vireo and the Golden-cheeked Warbler. 

One day in 1989, as I was exploring Barton Creek above town I discovered an algae bloom in Barton Creek below a new development called Barton Creek Properties. We came to know the development of high end homes above the creek disposed of sewage by spraying treated effluent on a golf course drained by tributaries that emptied into Barton Creek. I took the my photos and information to the Planning Commission and I believe Mary Arnold asked if this was an ongoing problem. We set out to prove it was, eventually in effort to thwart their plan to create a monstrous Planned Unit Development above the creek.
 
Earth First! folks kept the pressure on by continuing to document the development’s pollution of Barton Creek.

In time we hit the streets. With Daryl Slusher and the Austin Chronicle fanning the flames the antipathy toward polluting development caught fire. With all of us and tons of lovers of Barton Springs and Barton Creek testifying, the all night City Council hearing ended with a defeat for Jim Bob Moffet and Barton Creek Properties' application to proceed with another PUD on the outskirts of town. The most salient thing I remember of myself that night was Jim Bob testifying he knew more about Barton creek than anyone. My reply from the audience was “Bullshit.” 

I believe that night’s uprising gave birth to the whole Save Our Springs movement. 

Tim Jones

Jenny Clark was an independent video producer for Austin's Public Access Television channels (ACTV) focusing on environmental issues. 

It is hot. I want to go swimming in the scared waters of Barton Springs that I consider my church.

I was part of the effort to stop polluting the sacred waters that night, 30 years ago. I told the Austin City Council to not pollute my church.

Inspired, I produced hundreds of hours of TV programs for Austin’s Public Access TV channels. One series was a section of comments from the hearings in 4 parts. Jobs. Parks. Politics. and Heartfelt stories. 

Those video tapes of all the programs are now housed at the Austin History Center.

It is called the Jenny Clark Video Collection.
https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/aushc/00337/ahc-00337.html

​Texas monthly said about me, something like  “A girl in purple shorts said the sacred waters of Barton springs is my church. “

Remembering the Barton Creek Uprising of June 7 th 1990

The Barton Creek Uprising of June 7 th 1990 brings up plenty of memories from all
who made the effort to be there – or were lucky enough to stumble upon the ruckus at City Hall that Thursday afternoon.

On the surface, and at the outset, it appeared to be just one larger-than-average
fight over yet another proposal to the Austin City Council to approve
development in the Barton Springs watershed. Just one more nail in the coffin.

The numbers were, however, quite stunning: 4,000 acres, the largest proposed
development in Austin’s history; 3 million square feet of commercial
development, 2,000 homes, 1900 apartments, and 3 golf courses (on top of the
golf course already there). All would be locked in by a 30 year “Planned Unit
Development” agreement, or PUD.

As the council convened that morning, City staff and PUD lobbyists were still
drafting last minute amendments to be added to the numerous exemptions,
exceptions, variances, and other species of loophole already incorporated into the
PUD agreement.

The proposed development would be called “Barton Creek.” Not “The New
Shopping Malls Above Barton Creek”; the “Tuscan Towers at Barton Creek;” “ The
Paradise at Barton Creek,” or “Terra California at Barton Creek.” Just “Barton
Creek.” As if that name weren’t already taken.

The Barton Creek PUD proponents, the villains that day, were straight out of
central casting – too good to be true. If you made it up, no one would believe
you.

There was Jim Bob Moffett, the ex-UT football player and CEO of Freeport
McMoRan, the oil, gas, and mining giant that had been fingered by the EPA as the
single largest discharger of toxic pollutants into the waters of the United States.
Freeport’s waste from its fertilizer plant on the banks of the Mississippi River, not
too far upstream from the water supply intake for New Orleans, was piled high
above the river, uncovered. When it rained, toxic metals from the phosphate slag
heaps washed off, into the river and the City’ drinking water, and out into the
gulf. When it wasn’t running off the fertilizer plant site, fertilizer made from
Freeport’s plant and its phosphate mines in Florida, drained from farmers fields in
the Mississippi Basin, flowing out of the mighty Mississippi to create a giant,
deoxygenated “dead zone” in the Gulf.

Besides being the nation’s top toxic water polluter, Freeport owned the world’s
largest gold mine, in the Indonesian province then known as Irian Jaya. (The
Indonesian controlled western half of the New Guinea island was later renamed
West Papua as a concession to the aboriginal peoples.) The gold mining was
actually an annex to the copper mining at FM’s Grasberg mine. Tailings from the
mine were swept down the river and into the Arafura Sea.

West Papuan peoples had been forced off their lands to make way for the mining
operations by Freeport and the Indonesian military, which served as Freeport’s
security forces. Human rights and environmental violations, including
disappearances of West Papuan community leaders, were well-documented by
human rights activists and anthropologists working in the area. These records
were woefully incomplete though: the military and Freeport made it almost
impossible for outsiders to access the area and monitor Freeport’s operations.

At the time, Jim Bob lived in New Orleans, where Freeport was headquartered. A
brutal legal and PR fight between Freeport and NOLA’s water utility over
Freeport’s toxic runoff had left Jim Bob and FM’s reputation badly scarred. As
rich as he was, Moffett wasn’t likely to be invited into the City’s elite, old money
circles any time soon.

The real estate bust of the mid- to late 80s offered low prices for development
land and what Jim Bob saw as a perfect opportunity to diversify Freeport’s
operations. Diversifying in Austin would also allow Moffett to return to his
football glory days in Austin, free and clear of his New Orlean’s faux pas. Or so he
thought. FM’s Barton Creek Properties subsidiary was incorporated, assembling
most of the 4,000 acres of Barton Creek lands from the bankrupt Barnes/Connally
development company, which had been helmed by former Lieutenant Governor
Ben Barnes and former Texas Governor John Connally.

Jim Bob’s partner in the Barton Creek PUD was no slouch. Robert Dedman was
the Dallas CEO of ClubCorp International, the single largest owner and operator of
private clubs in the world. Country clubs, but also dining clubs. The kinds of
places where deals are made. Dedman was also Chair of the Texas Transportation
Commission, having voted to fast track the extension of Mopac down the center
line of the Barton Springs recharge zone, connecting to Gary Bradley’s Circle C
development.

On June 7 th Dedman and Moffett were represented by David Armbrust and his
young partner, Richard Suttle, the top lawyer lobbyists at Austin City Hall (then
and now). Armbrust and Suttle would not have pushed for a vote that fateful day
if they weren’t assured of a “W” on their biggest game day.

The opposition embodied all that was and is good about Austin. Mothers, fathers,
children, college students, professionals, laborers, slackers, local celebrities, a
former Mayor, and a loose band of environmental and neighborhood leaders
from the Sierra Club, Save Barton Creek Association, We Care Austin and the
rowdy, well-informed upstart pranksters of Earth First!.

Also in attendance: a local press corps eager to tell a story that had blown up
much bigger than any news hound could have hoped for; a pro-business mayor
with six liberal council members, including Austin’s best hippie official, Max
Nofziger; a smattering of pro-PUD chamber representatives; and a roomful of
Freeport-paid supporters, occupying the limited seating in council chambers, all
wearing “Quality Development” buttons.

The city council meeting started that morning. It reached the Barton Creek PUD
agenda item about 3:00 p.m. The Applicants spoke first.

While represented by more than able counsel, Moffett and Dedman felt
compelled to speak on their own behalf. Moffett went first, bringing down the
house with his claim that, as a geology grad with the “highest grades on the UT
football team,” that he “knew more about Barton Creek than anybody else in this
room.” He promised there would be no pollution from the development.

Then Dedman took the podium, seeking to balance Moffett’s hoot-worthy geologist
bombast with liberal arts refinement. Quoting Longfellow’s The Psalm of Life,
Dedman spoke of “great men” inspiring “lives sublime” and “leave behind,
Footprints in the sands of time.” The silver-haired Dedman then turned to
Kipling’s “If,” – “If you can If you can keep your head when all about you/ 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, /If you can trust yourself when
all men doubt you,/But make allowance for their doubting too.”

Dedman’s soft words nevertheless carried a big stick message to the
council: if you don’t ignore these crazy people and join with us as
“partners” in the PUD, we’ll do it anyway – we can run over you.

Then it was time for the citizens to speak, one after the next, through
the night. The emotion, knowledge, wisdom, and love came shone
bright, hour after hour, speaker after speaker. The speakers weren’t
losing their heads, they were finding their voices, speaking truth to
power. The wisdom of crowds was on fine display. Long-time
community activists and leaders Mary Arnold, Shudde Fath, Phyllis
Brinkley, Joe Riddell, Roger Baker, former Mayor Frank Cooksey,
Dorothy Richter, and many others all spoke eloquently against the
PUD. Younger and relatively new-on-the-scene environmental
leaders, including Cedar Stevens, Neal Tuttrup, Brigid Shea, Tim
Jones, Jenny Clark, George “Buzz” Avery, Jack and Jackie Goodman,
Bill Bunch, Jim Bordelon,

Austin Music icon Susan Walker spoke on behalf of herself and her
husband, Jerry Jeff Walker. Esther’s Follies star comedienne
Shannon Sedwick sung “Cry Me a River” with new words urging
council to “run those developers out of town.” Geologists Raymond
Slade and Dan Mueller, who had both researched the vulnerability of
the Edwards Aquifer to pollution from urbanization spoke against the
proposal.

Austin radio legend Cactus Pryor opposed the PUD, while his then
Austin radio DJ son Paul Pryor sided with the developers. With UT
and Jim Bob Moffett football coach Darrell Royal and his son Mack,
the roles reversed, with Mack speaking that night against the PUD.

It was the passion and eloquence of the hundreds of other citizens who
broke with their daily routine to speak out in favor of saving the soul of
Austin from the Barton Creek PUD’s excessive development
schemes.

Finally, at about 5:00 a.m. the next morning, the last public speaker
concluded the public hearing. It was time for the City Council to vote.

While Armbrust, Suttle and company had made a grand exit from the
council chambers many hours earlier, pretending to concede defeat to
the outpouring of community sentiment, environmental leaders knew it
wasn’t over until the council voted. In the days before cell phones,
developer lobbyists could still call in and speak to council members on
the phone in a council-only lounge to one side of the chambers.

Councilmembers George Humphrey, Max Nofziger, and Robert
Barnstone spoke eloquently in favor of doing the right thing. Mayor
Cooke remained mostly silent. Councilmember Sally Shipman, a lame
duck councilmember who had just been voted out of office a few
weeks before, made a motion “to deny the PUD” but to grant
environmental variances that had been recommended by the Planning
Commission. This “motion to deny” sounded good, but taken as a
whole, would have tied the City up in knots. It was almost certainly
crafted by Armbrust.

Thankfully, Council member Robert Barnstone, one of the first Austin
developers to promote the environmental benefits of living central and
supporting environmentalist efforts to limit sprawl over the Edwards
Aquifer, spoke up promptly and forcefully, making a substitute motion
to deny the PUD with no string attached. Humphrey seconded. After
brief comments from all of the council members, council voted 7-0 to
deny the PUD. The council chamber, still packed to capacity, erupted
in whoops and cheers.

That historic night changed the course of Austin’s future. The spirit
and vision of saving Barton Springs and minimizing development in
the Barton Springs watershed continues to guide Austin policies to this
day.

The “lessons learned” from that night are many, but chief among them
is that sometimes citizens must stand up, protest, and demand, loudly,
with many and diverse voices before there is any real change. The
“powers that be” are entrenched, and elected officials are loath to
cross them. Democracy only functions when citizens participate;
simply voting every two years is not enough. The struggle to save our
springs continues, with previous efforts reignited that night 30 years
ago.

Watch an edited 24 minute “highlights” version of the June 7 th 1990
Barton Creek Uprising on this webpage, or watch the entire hearing on the City’s
website here.

If you are not already, please sign up for the Save Our Springs
Alliance email news. If you are able during these trying times, please
make a charitable, tax-deductible donation today to SOS Alliance
here.

Bill Bunch, June 5, 2020.

Click here to read Daryl Slusher’s take on the 30th Anniversary in his new publication, the Austin Independent. 
https://theaustinindependent.org/june-7-marks-the-30th-anniversary-of-austins-barton-creek-pud-rebellion/

​I moved to Austin in 1989 to attend the graduate school in film and television at U.T. Austin. Having moved from the drained swampland of Washington, D.C, I was used to hot and muggy, but the searing sun of Texas was another story altogether. I asked a neighbor how they handled the heat. Not surprisingly, he recommended Barton Springs.

I went. Looking over the fence that first time grabbed my soul. The color, the enormity, and then the plunge, the reset that happens to mind and body is like nothing I had experienced before.

In early summer 1990, certainly while procrastinating the memorizing of f-stops and microphone pickup patterns, I happened upon the City of Austin Channel 6. With the sign language interpreter in the top corner of the screen, I saw many people testifying about something called the Barton Creek PUD. I could not look away and kept watching for the whole night, drifting in and out of sleep. It was singularly impressive how so many people, old and young, came to testify against a massive development on Barton Creek. The people wanted a stronger water quality ordinance, one that would allow for non-degradation of Barton Creek and Barton Springs. Having become Springs afficianado, that sounded like a fabulous idea to me. Where else in the world could one find clear, swimmable water so close to an urban center?

When I communicated to my fellow grad. students that I was going to document the revision of the Comprehensive Watershed Ordinance, they all thought that sounded incredibly boring. Little did they know that this “boring” story of water quality regulation would become one of Austin’s most historically significant movements, Save Our Springs.

My film, Common Ground:The Battle for Barton Springs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkZqUqIe__0 completed as my Master’s thesis at U.T., would chronicle the early days of the movement, culminating in the victory of the Save Our Springs ordinance at the ballot box on August 2, 1992. It was a moment in time that will be with me forever and it all began on that fateful night on June 7, 1990 at the famous “All Night Hearing.”
​
To this day I cannot get away from the Springs and am inspired to explore all facets of the Springs history and culture, good and bad. In many ways, the story of the Springs is the story of Austin. Today, I continue the work begun back in 1989 with the Living Springs documentary series. Barton Springs Eternal!

Bill Oliver, SOS, 1990 People’s Uprising Story for 2020

 Public confession:   I wasn’t at this historical public hearing! 
(Technically, we must’ve been at the pre-rally ‘cause there’s photo evidence, so it must be so.)

 Although often given credit (and good karma) for singing there – I was 100 miles away at the Kerrville Folk Festival. 

 However – to help in our special little way, that morning we were on John Aielli’s KUT show for about two hours urging the populace to arms! (The hearing, I mean.)

By 1990 I’d sung several Springs related songs at Council hearings – humorous and serious – beginning in the mid ‘70s.  One of those live recordings was used on “Texas Oasis,” LP in ’81, featuring comments from then Mayor Carole McClellen and other council members. “Barton Springs Eternal” was a solo live recording from the ‘Dillo which John Aielli often played for such times. 

That morning at KUT we made up new songs and verses for the movement and the moment: “The Battle of Jim Bob Moffett,” to the tune of “Battle of New Orleans” was fun.

“Al Gee Bloom” was made up on the spot, inspired by our algae neckties from Barton Creek (too bad it wasn’t a TV show).    John egged us on and wouldn’t let us stop. 

We didn’t want to leave town, but we were scheduled to play a special ‘Earth Day’ theme show at Kerrville.  This was/is a coveted opportunity in the music world.  We’d been booked for months and had a full band of early Otters, bringing in Glen Waldeck from Philadelphia.  By the last chorus of “Have to Have a Habitat” Peter Yarrow was in the band, singing “Barton Springs Eternal!”

For me, the personal fun and profundity of the day occurred as we pulled up to the stage for sound check.  

ROD Kennedy:  “What are you doing here?! You should be at the hearing!”  

ME: “You scheduled – and contracted – us to be here, now.”  

ROD (seriously): “You’ve sold out!”  

This from a guy who before would say “it’s too big to stop.”

He’d come a long way, as had the movement, and we all enjoyed the irony. 

As it turned out, we could’ve done our set, returned to town, and joined the all-nighter at City Hall!  Austin updates were announced from the stage as the evening program went on, usually by Rod. All were met with waves of cheers. 

No one realized at the time, that, like many great K’ville campfires, it would go all night!