 One of the most important votes in decades for our parks, Lady Bird Lake, and our tax dollars is set for this Thursday at the Austin City Council. We need your help to tell the City Council “No Special Deals for Billionaire Developers” looking to shred our Lady Bird Lake, water quality, and park land protection rules.
The owners of the old 19-acre Austin American Statesman property, located on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, next to the Congress Ave bat bridge, are asking for literally dozens of variances and waivers to standard city ordinances while also demanding tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies to build their private streets and parking garages. (It’s really true; we are not kidding.) Please join with us to tell Mayor Adler and the City Council to vote “NO” unless the special “PUD” (planned unit development) ordinance does the following: 1. Protects 9.2 acres of public park land along the Lady Bird Lake shoreline; 2. Maintains full access to the Hike & Bike trail; 3. Complies with the Waterfront Overlay setbacks and development regulations; and 4. Removes all public subsidies to the billionaire developer. Without your voice and hundreds of others, the City Council will approve this terrible deal on behalf of the wealthiest developers and landowners in Texas. We will be stuck with it forever!! And then every other developer will demand the same variances and giveaways. Here’s what you can do today:
 Action Alert 🚨 : Sign Up to Oppose Lady Bird Lake Developer GiveawaysWe need your help! Please sign up to speak to the Austin City Council in opposition to Items 131 and 132 on this Thursday's July 28th agenda: https://cityofaustin.formstack.com/forms/austin_city_council_speaker_signup
You must sign up to speak at the link BEFORE NOON tomorrow, Wednesday, July 27th. With tens of millions of general fund dollars and several acres of lake front park land on the line, we need all hands on deck. As you may be aware, the owners of the Statesman Property (305 S. Congress Ave) plan on building five high-rise towers up to 525 feet tall, along the south shoreline of Lady Bird Lake. To do this, the developer has asked the Austin City Council to grant it a special zoning ordinance, in conflict with the City’s long-range planning efforts for the area. Normally, these special zoning ordinances known as “Planned Unit Developments (PUDs)” require the developer to achieve a “superior” project than what would be developed under existing city code, such as providing enhanced community benefits. But, this developer wants US (the taxpayers) to shoulder this burden. This proposed PUD does not meet minimum standards for parkland dedication, right-of-way dedication, or the affordable housing requirements under the applicable ordinance. The developer wants the City Council to shift these costs onto taxpayers and city future budgets, via a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, which earmarks general fund dollars to be spent in this small area of Downtown Austin and with waivers to required fees. Enough is enough! Downtown has had enough. The City Council needs to require all the park land called for by the South Central Waterfront Plan and preserve city funds to invest in parks, libraries, and affordable housing across the entire city. Please, help us tell the City Council prioritize park land, our general fund dollars and Lady Bird Lake for the needs of all Austin residents. Please sign up to speak and call in in Thursday to speak at the council hearing remotely (or attend in person).  We wrote a few weeks back on one of the very worst Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning cases since the infamous Barton Creek PUD of 1990. The so-called “Statesman PUD” is back on the city council agenda for next Thursday, July 28, Items 131 and 132.
The Statesman PUD tract is 19 acres on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, on the east side of the Congress Ave bat bridge. If approved as proposed it would include 1300 units of ultra-luxury condos, 1 hotel, 1.5 million square feet of office, and 150,000 sq. ft. of retail in a set of towers reaching up to 525 feet in the air. In effect, downtown would jump across the lake, with more development of a similar kind to follow along Barton Springs Road and Riverside. Neighbors, environmentalists, park advocates, and fiscal conservatives are not really opposing the massive increase in density. Rather the owners—some of the richest people in the world—are demanding tens of millions of taxpayer subsidies for the project. They also want to cheat us out of park land that would, under standard city rules, be required to be dedicated to the public. To compound the outrage, they want to retain management control of the too-little-park-land they are dedicating while cutting off existing public access to the lake along the Congress Ave. sidewalk. With your help and action by Councilmember Kathie Tovo the matter was delayed in June because there was no draft ordinance and a giant haystack of staff backup documents contained almost none of the needles of important details stitching this “welfare for the ultra-rich” scheme together. Its back now on next Thursday’s agenda and we need your help again to have it delayed and then denied in its current form. Please take a few minutes to send an email to City Council to insist that it be (a) postponed again until all of the public’s questions are answered,(b) all of the taxpayer subsidies are removed, and (c) all of the park land dedication normally required is granted to the public without the private developers’ retaining control and limiting access to this “public” park land. Please also share this with friends, neighbors and family who might join in to fix this mess. Stay tuned and we will provide the link to speak at the meeting, in person or remotely, starting on Monday. Here are the email addresses for the Mayor and council. Steve.adler@austintexas.gov Natasha.madison@austintexas.gov Vanessa.fuentes@austintexas.gov Sabino.renteria@austintexas.gov Mackenzie.Kelly@austintexas.gov Leslie.Pool@austintexas.gov Kathie.Tovo@austintexas.gov Ann.Kitchen@austintexas.gov Alison.Alter@austintexas.gov Chito.Vela@austintexas.gov Paige.Ellis@austintexas.gov  Last week we asked you to email Austin’s Mayor and city council to remove a proposed extension of SH 45 SW that would have connected the south end of Mopac to I35 that was slipped into the draft city mobility plan. Many of you did. Council Member Kathie Tovo moved, and CM Ann Kitchen seconded, to remove the road from the City’s plan. The motion passed unanimously, minus CM Renteria’s abstention. Thank you to all who wrote, to CMs Tovo and Kitchen, and to all of the council for taking prompt action to keep I35 interregional truck and car traffic off of Mopac and the Edwards Aquifer. Now we need your help again! One of the very worst Planned Unit Development (PUD) zoning cases since the infamous Barton Creek PUD of 1990 is on this Thursday’s city council agenda. With PUD zoning, the applicant and City Council can throw out the City Code and write special rules for the specific project. It’s the worst kind of “let’s make a deal” that hides under the idea that a proposed PUD must be “superior” to development that actually complies with City code. Almost every time the proposal is inferior to standard compliance. Please take a few minutes to read our letter to council (below) on the “Statesman PUD,” which covers the old Austin American-Statesman property on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake and next to the Congress Avenue bat bridge. Then email the Mayor and Council and tell them to vote “NO” or postpone the Statesman PUD until a date at least two weeks after the draft PUD ordinance is posted to the public. Also, please consider telling them NO subsidies of any kind; NO water quality variances; and full dedication of park land required by city ordinances (and “land” that is under the surface of Lady Bird Lake is not actually “land” and does not count). The only way a PUD won’t be a massive giveaway of both taxpayer dollars and standard city rules protecting water quality of the lake and dedicating required park land is if the PUD ordinance states explicitly there will be (a) no City subsidies of any kind (e.g. fee waivers or credits, tax refunds, etc.), (b) no water quality variances, and (c) all 9 acres of required park land on the lake are dedicated to the public and public management to mitigate the increased park land demand of building over 1300 units of ultra-luxury high rise condos, 1.5 million square feet of office, a hotel and 150,000 sq. ft. of commercial, with towers reaching up to 525 feet. Here are the email addresses for the mayor and council. Steve.adler@austintexas.gov Natasha.madison@austintexas.gov Vanessa.fuentes@austintexas.gov Sabino.renteria@austintexas.gov Mackenzie.Kelly@austintexas.gov Leslie.Pool@austintexas.gov Kathie.Tovo@austintexas.gov Ann.Kitchen@austintexas.gov Alison.Alter@austintexas.gov Chito.Vela@austintexas.gov Paige.Ellis@austintexas.gov    32 YEARS OF CITIZEN ACTION! AND NOW THIS . . . Thirty-two years ago today, on June 7th, 1990, over 700 people packed City Hall to oppose the 5,000-acre Barton Creek PUD development. Mayor Lee Cooke heard everyone who wanted to speak. Speakers spoke all night long, and at 6:30 the next morning the Council voted 7-to-zero to deny project. That all night “Barton Creek Uprising” triggered the Save Our Springs movement, which led to voter approval of the SOS ordinance two years later, on August 8th, 1992. Watch highlights from the Barton Creek Uprising here. Sing a few rounds of Barton Springs Eternal with Bill Oliver and friends here. Beat the record heat with a swim in the Springs today!! The pool is open until 9:50 p.m. Celebrate 32 years of citizen action to Save Our Springs!! Eternal Springs require eternal vigilance. We need a little vigilance today!!. This Thursday City Staff want the City Council to sneak through approval of an extension of SH 45 SW that would link South Mopac to Interstate 35. This road link is buried in the details of the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan, Item 52 on the council agenda. If built, this SH 45 SW extension would instantly convert Mopac from a local commuter highway into an alternative to Interstate 35 interregional and interstate car and truck traffic. Please take just 2 minutes to read our letter to City Council below and then email the Mayor and City Council (especially your own council member) and tell them to remove this roadway from the City transportation plan. This is a simple thing to do and should not be controversial. Here are the email addresses: Steve.adler@austintexas.gov Natasha.madison@austintexas.gov Vanessa.fuentes@austintexas.gov Sabino.renteria@austintexas.gov Mackenzie.Kelly@austintexas.gov Leslie.Pool@austintexas.gov Kathie.Tovo@austintexas.gov Ann.Kitchen@austintexas.gov Alison.Alter@austintexas.gov Chito.Vela@austintexas.gov Paige.Ellis@austintexas.gov Thank you for taking action, once again, to keep Barton Springs clean and flowing!!    Save Our Springs Alliance does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.
These positions will be considered for part-time, contract, or full-time. Please submit your resume for the following positions to: sosinfo@sosalliance.org Job Title: Administrative Assistant & Database Manager Database Management: Responsible for directing or performing all activities related to maintaining a successful database environment. Includes: data entry of membership addresses and financial information; cleaning up old data; creating thank you letters and lists through the system; making sure our crm system its related applications operate functionally and efficiently. Requires experience with Salsa CRM, Engage or other similar system. Administrative Assistant: In charge of phone system; light bookkeeping; ordering supplies; managing work room; filing; and other office responsibilities. In addition, assist with SOS and Barton Springs University events. Job Title: Marketing Coordinator Save our Springs is in search of a Marketing Coordinator to support the planning, tracking and execution of brand marketing initiatives. Reporting to the Executive Director and Managing Director, the coordinator will play a key role in communicating the Save our Springs brand, increasing membership and expanding outreach initiatives. For over 30 years, Save our Springs has served as Austin’s water watchdog, providing education, advocacy and legal support in order to protect the Central Texas watershed. This mid to entry level role is well suited for a marketing professional with member building skills, a passion for environmental causes and an eagerness to help a small nonprofit expand marketing efforts. The Marketing Coordinator can work remotely and/or at the SOS office. Major Job Functions
Requirements:
 KXAN recently published a wonderful 5-part TV news series on the wonders of Roy Creek and the threats posed by “Mirasol Springs,” a developer proposal that would surround the small Roy Creek canyon. The creek emerges from springs and tumbles down a steep canyon to enter the Pedernales River very near Hamilton Pool Preserve. We remain hopeful that the Mirasol Springs developers will withdraw their plans in favor creating a nature preserve that would protect Roy Creek and its unique freshwater ecosystem.
Last year SOS filed a petition to list the Pedernales River Springs salamander as endangered in significant part in response to the threats posed to the species by the Mirasol project. The small aquatic salamanders are found in the Roy Creek springs and a few others nearby. Your generous support makes it possible for us to bring the very best of science, law, and citizen advocacy to protect the unique and vulnerable waters and wildlife of the Texas Hill Country.  Last week the developers of the “Violet Crown Amphitheatre” and mega-project proposed for 71 acres above Barton Creek near the SH 71 W/Southwest Parkway intersection withdrew their request for the extension of City of Austin water and sewer service to serve the project. The withdrawal followed shortly upon a unanimous vote of the Austin Environmental Commission recommending against the extension requests. That vote, in turn, came in response to an aggressive campaign by a coalition of conversation groups, including SOS, against the project.
The project may not be completely dead, but it is in big trouble; the sponsors are not likely to find alternatives for water and sewer service for such a massive project. Many thanks to everyone who helped us fend off this scheme. It was one of the worst we have seen in many years. We’ll let you know if it resurfaces.  HAYS COUNTY RESIDENTS-- CALL TO ACTION-- FIGHT THE FM 150 EXTENSION THAT THREATENS ONION CREEK! Please take two minutes to contact your county commissioner using this simple online form letter linked HERE.
  RSVP at info@ SOSAlliance.org
Make your donation for tickets here: Check Yes under the Legends of South Austin question on the donate page.  Please go to this link right now and register for the February 15th, 6:00 p.m. Virtual Meeting #4 on the Zilker Park Vision Plan. Even if you have not kept up, this is the perfect time to catch up and hear firsthand the City’s park consultants proposed scenarios for the future of our flagship park. Please also invite friends and family. This is a critical meeting in the park plan process. If you haven’t already, check out the Rewilding Zilker Park proposal, which is now endorsed by SOS, the Austin Group of the Sierra Club, and six South Austin neighborhood associations.
If you like it, please urge the park planners to make Rewilding Zilker Park, with at least seventy acres of underutilized, treeless Zilker fields reforested as the green, people-and-climate-friendly foundation of Zilker Park’s future. You can do that at the Feb. 15 meeting and in an updated survey that will run in the weeks following the meeting.  Water, water everywhere, . . .: With Saturday night’s boil water notice, and now 3 days without safe water, Austin Water Utility customers are shown, yet again, how mismanaged our City water and wastewater utility really is. AWU Director Greg Meszaros was scarcely qualified when he was first hired in 2007. He then proceeded to sell a bare minimum majority of the Austin City Council on building the Billion Dollar Mistake on the Lake, aka Water Treatment Plant No. 4, a plant we didn’t need and that won’t do what it was claimed to do; it cannot make water, nor make it rain, nor fill in when our other water treatment plants have problems.
How did Meszaros sell the Council and gullible local media on such a huge project? With an argument that we needed a third treatment plant to provide “redundancy” and “resilience,” that having only two water plants was too risky in light of the rise of terrorism and the growth of the city. SOS did our research on these claims and rated them “Pants on Fire!” Plenty of other large cities operate safely on two plants, or even one. An SOS public information request to AWU found that, in fact, the Utility’s own internal risk analysis identified power outages and the need for reliable back-up power as the top threat. Having only two plants was not even mentioned among the threats identified. And, lo and behold, in the years following the completion of WTP No. 4, we have seen multiple water supply outages for large parts of the City: from a “turbidity” problem when a flood hit the Llano River Basin – that somehow didn’t disrupt water delivery at other cities drawing from the Highland Lakes; when chemical fire retardants sprayed by the AFD somehow got into the water system in South Austin; and then, last year, during Winter Storm Uri, when the power went out AWU couldn’t figure out how to turn on the backup water supply for the Ullrich treatment plant. In none of these instances did WTP4 help; and AWU failed to do the one thing its own analysis told it to do: keep the power on!! Now we have a treatment upset at Ullrich and the Utility waits 12 hours to issue a boiled water notice. Meszaros admits it was “operator error” but will not give details. Like a true failed leader, he will likely blame his underlings again for the most recent chain-of-errors rather than take responsibility and resign (or retire). Along the way Meszaros fought tooth and toenail against the City Council-appointed Austin Water Forward Task Force members’ recommendations for water conservation, water reuse, and more distributed, local, and small-scale “net zero” water solutions for Austin. He even declared he did not “have to listen” to the Task Force, storming out of a key meeting when he didn’t like the commonsense solutions offered by the Task Force to meet our future water needs. And that’s just a short list of the problems at the Austin Water Utility. If City Manager Cronk won’t fire Meszaros, or demand his resignation, then the City Council needs to fire Cronk and hire a City Manager who will make it clear that we need, first and foremost, basic integrity and competence from all our city departments. And that competence and integrity must start at the top.  Barton Springs University
In September, we had to cancel for the second year, BSU Day at Barton Springs due to Covid-19. The BSU team has continued growing our Educational Programming throughout 2021. The Austin Parks and Recreation Department leadership has allowed us to expand our educational programs at Barton Springs, on the creek, and in other Austin parks. This will include desperately needed kid camps during the summer months. We have also worked on producing new video and classroom materials, including a class about “the weirdest fish in Austin”, the American River eel. Barton Springs University is now a year-round series of educational events, snorkeling eco-tours, and summer camps, highlighted by a full day of outdoor learning at Barton Springs Pool in September. Visit BartonSpringsUniversity.org for more information. Protecting Our Public Parks from Overdevelopment and Privatization SOS has taken a leading role in advocating for keeping our City of Austin parks open to the public for connection with nature and outdoor recreation, and for managing and restoring our park lands and habitats. Zilker Park and Lady Bird Lake in particular have been targeted for excessive development and commercialization. SOS commissioned the Rewilding Zilker Park plan, prepared by restoration ecologist and park planner Elizabeth McGreevy. You can view the plan here. We are now working with Zilker, Barton Hills, Bouldin Creek and other neighborhood associations to advocate for a greener, healthier, more accessible, and more climate-protective future for Zilker Park in the context of the City’s ongoing Zilker Park Vision Plan. Working with SOS members, lifeguards, and swimmers, we kept the City from selling alcohol at the new Barton Springs concession stand/cafe. We also kept the proposed new Dougherty Arts Center from being located in the middle of Butler Shores and on top of the hike and bike trail (which would have converted this natural part of the trail into an urban setting). Keeping Wastewater out of Central Texas Streams Barton Creek SOS, along with a coalition of landowners and local environmental organizations, successfully fought off a permit to discharge partially treated sewage into Long Branch, a tributary of Barton Creek. After hearing significant community concern, developer Stephen Cleveland voluntarily withdrew his permit application. San Marcos River SOS attorneys represented the San Marcos River Foundation and Texas Rivers Protection Association in two cases where developers sought to discharge wastewater into the San Marcos River. SOS successfully negotiated settlements in these two cases; committing the permittees in each case to reuse 75% of their wastewater for irrigation and other purposes; and treat any water that is discharged to the highest standards. Cibolo Creek SOS attorneys are currently representing landowners in challenging a permit to discharge nearly half a million gallons a day into a tributary of Cibolo Creek in Kendall County. Onion Creek SOS is still defending Onion Creek from the City of Dripping Springs’ application to discharge wastewater into this pristine recharge source for the Edwards Aquifer. After our October 2020 victory in Travis County District Court, TCEQ and Dripping Springs filed an appeal, which is still pending. Oral argument will be heard in 2022. Blanco River SOS continues to work with local residents and city officials to help shape the future of wastewater in the City of Blanco. Blanco had originally sought a permit to discharge nearly 2 million gallons of wastewater a day into the Blanco River. But that permit application has been put on hold while Blanco evaluates its options, including land irrigation and beneficial reuse, to dispose of wastewater. All Texas Rivers & Streams SOS joined 20 other Texas organizations in asking the United States Environmental Protection Agency to take away the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s (TCEQ) authority to administer the Clean Water Act. As the district court found in the Dripping Springs decision, TCEQ has failed to correctly apply the Clean Water Act and acknowledge the science documenting the harm that wastewater discharges inflict on pristine Hill Country creeks. The petition to EPA also documents statewide impacts from TCEQ’s failure to prevent water pollution. In April, SOS attorney Kelly Davis presented a talk entitled, “Beyond Yuck: Wastewater Discharges in the Hill Country and Beyond,” on a national platform as part of the Baylor University Aquatic Science Series. The talk was viewed by classrooms across the country and is accessible at https://nepris.com/app/videos/beyond-yuck-human-waste-clean-water-central-texas-beyond-83563 Protecting Vulnerable Environmental Features from Highway Impacts SOS attorneys represented Save Barton Creek Association and other environmental and neighborhood groups in a suit brought under the National Environmental Policy Act to challenge the Oak Hill Parkway, a 12 to 16-lane mega-highway to be built at US 290 and SH 71. SOS argued on behalf of SBCA that traffic could be alleviated without building such a Although SOS secured a short reprieve for the trees, the district court ultimately sided with the Texas Department of Transportation. Working with community activists, SOS was successful in keeping a concrete batch plant (to generate the massive amounts of concrete needed for the Oak Hill “Parkway”) off of the former Austin Community College Pinnacle campus in Southwest Austin. SOS attorneys are still engaged in a lawsuit brought under the Endangered Species Act that challenges TxDOT’s determination that the Oak Hill Parkway project will not harm the federally endangered Barton Springs salamander and Austin blind salamander. SOS attorneys rallied community members and submitted comments on the Hays County Transportation Plan and the Dripping Springs Transportation Plan. Both plans included proposed new roads that would slice through untouched Hill Country landscape, inviting more traffic and development while causing runoff pollution. SOS has joined with Dripping Springs residents to oppose several of the roads in the county and city plans, including most notably the proposed expansion and extension of FM 150. Through coalition-building and commenting, SOS is working to defeat or scale back the resurrected proposal to build a double-decker toll road over Zilker Park, Lady Bird Lake, and Austin High School known. We defeated the MoPac South toll road project in 2015, and with your help we can do it again. Ensuring Responsible Development In 2020, SOS, along with Kyle residents, sued the City of Kyle for approving a development agreement for a huge development on the banks of the Blanco River. The City resisted the suit and initially won in having the suit dismissed, but on a Motion to Reconsider, the district court reversed its decision. The City promptly appealed, and oral argument on jurisdictional issues will be held in 2022. Chief among SOS’s arguments is that the City cannot bargain or give away zoning and development authority to private developers. Shaping Water-Related Legislation During the 2021 legislative session, SOS worked hard to support HB 4146, the “Pristine Streams Bill,” which would have prohibited domestic wastewater discharges into the clearest and cleanest rivers and creeks throughout Texas. The bill passed the House and although it never made it to the Senate floor for a vote, this is the furthest such a bill has ever made it in the Legislature. SOS continues to work with the No Dumping Sewage coalition to oppose new wastewater permits and work towards a holistic, proactive solution. Protecting Endangered Species SOS joined with local scientists to petition the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list the Pedernales River springs salamander as endangered. This action was prompted when developers last summer announced a large project on the Pedernales River, just across from the spectacular Hamilton Pool Preserve. SOS is working with a coalition of environmentalists and landowners to scale back a proposed Violet Crown Amphitheater, a 20,000-seat venue and entertainment district on the banks of Barton Creek. The site is surrounded by preserve land that is home to the endangered golden-cheeked warbler. Safeguarding San Antonians’ Petition Rights When the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) attempted to prohibit any citizen-petitions related to SAWS’ management, SOS attorneys blocked the maneuver in court, ensuring that citizens could continue to initiate ordinances to implement much-needed reform of SAWS. Please help us continue our work in 2022 by making a year end donation to SOS.  We had enormous fun at Barton Springs on New Year's Day. (click on Read Full Article link below to access the photo links). The Polar Bear swimmers were out in force and with such warm weather folks were happy to hang around and enjoy the day. We do have some t-shirts left over. If you would like one or more, please make a donation to SOS here for $23 each shirt and we will mail them to you asap. You can put the sizes etc. in the comments section on the donate page. We will also open our office for pick ups. Please email sosinfo@sosalliance.org to schedule a time. You can view the photos on our facebook page here or on the photographer's website here.
 Initial comments of the Save Our Springs Alliance on CTRMA’s “Virtual Meeting” for the restart of its proposed Mopac South project
Extend the comment period at least 30 days. The comment period fell entirely over the holidays. CTRMA’s MopacSouth.com website for the project says in bold at the very top “Latest News 08/08/2017”, which of course tells the reader that nothing is going on worthy of attention. Much of the remaining information on the site is also confusing. Extending the comment period and correcting the misinformation will help ensure robust and full public input. Prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). As proposed, the project would add 16 to 32 lane-miles of impervious cover within the Recharge Zone for the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. The project will have substantial adverse impacts on Barton Springs, the Edwards Aquifer, Zilker Park, Lady Bird Lake, the Hike and Bike Trail, Austin High School, the Barton Creek greenbelt, and the endangered Barton Springs and Austin blind salamanders. Given the size of the project and ecological sensitivity of the area, the project will have unavoidable and significant environmental impacts. Preparing an Environmental Assessment in pursuit of a “finding of no significant impact” demonstrates bad faith for the entire environmental review process. Do not build a double-decker bridge over MoPac, Zilker Park, Lady Bird Lake, and Austin High School. Avoid taking any park land or encroaching on Austin High School property. Fully evaluate a “no build” or “very limited build” alternative that improves traffic flow using the existing pavement, including dedicating an existing inside lane to rush hour “high occupancy vehicles” (HOVs) and public transit, utilizing ramp metering, and updating traffic modelling that recognizes a post-covid world where tele-commuting, flexible work schedules and other technological and societal changes have largely eliminated the necessity of spending more than half of a billion dollars trying to accommodate previously predicted “single occupancy vehicle peak hour demand” increases. Update the traffic modeling data and give the public another opportunity to give input before selecting a “preferred alternative.” The Open House materials indicate that the traffic data uses the 2009 model that supported the long-range 2035 CAMPO regional plan. The materials further state that it will be updated to 2045 data at a later point (presumably after the initial public comment period has ended). CTRMA should update MoPac information with current data and a functional traffic model—and allow public comment on that analysis. The 2035 model, now more than 10 years old, was problematic then and virtually useless now. Updated traffic modeling should include COVID traffic counts and the best current information on projecting traffic flows, recognizing that improved transportation technology will greatly increase efficient use of the existing pavement. The giant leap forward in telecommuting means a different world in the future. Neither the 2035 Model nor the 2045 model has any conception of this new world. Both also ignore the “induced demand” problem that has shown, time after time, that expanding roadways in urbanizing areas fails to reduce congestion to any significant degree. Analyze real alternatives to added toll lanes. The six “alternatives” offered are all variations on one concept—adding toll lanes to MoPac South. Analyze a range of alternatives that make better use of existing pavement and take into account changing traffic patterns. Specifically, analyze an alternative that involves converting inside existing lanes to rush hour HOV lanes with little or no additional pavement as an option in the analysis—and pursue in the interim as a test solution for very little money. Do not ignore the challenge of getting Mopac traffic from the off and on ramps at Cesar Chavez all the way into and out of downtown. Analyze the climate change impacts of building more capacity for single-occupancy vehicles, as well as climate change impacts of increased concrete. Buy mitigation land to offset increases in impervious cover from the project and from induced impervious cover from secondary development. TAKE ACTION NOW!! The comment deadline for the initial comment period is this Friday, January 7th. (Of course, CTRMA was so respectful of public comment that it played the standard trick of setting the public comment period to run over the holidays.) Please take a look at the above comments and then please write your own official comments here or email MoPacSouth@ctrma.org, using ours for guidance. Most importantly, please ask that the comment period be extended for at least 30 days following the publication of current relevant traffic data and analysis. This resurrected really-bad-idea is being pushed forward with traffic data and analysis that is more than 10 years old. If built, it would convert Mopac from a local commuter highway into a western alternative for I-35 (think I-35 West). Its construction and operation pose a major threat to Barton Springs, Zilker Park, Lady Bird Lake Park, the Butler Hike & Bike Trail, Austin High School, and the Barton Creek greenbelt. We fought it off once and with your help we can do it again.  Organization: Save Our Springs Alliance
Location: Austin, Texas Preferred Start Date : As soon as possible (negotiable) Practice Areas: Water, endangered species, land protection, and historic and cultural preservation under federal, state, and local laws. Policy and legislative advocacy on land, water, wildlife, and climate issues. Description: Save Our Springs Alliance seeks a motivated and dedicated public interest environmental protection advocate to join its teams as a Staff Attorney. Save Our Springs is a small nonprofit using education, advocacy, and litigation to protect the Edwards Aquifer Ecosystem, which includes all of the largest springs in Texas, the major water supply for the Austin-to-San Antonio corridor, and dozens of threatened and endangered species that live here and nowhere else in the world. Since 1992, Save Our Springs has combined science, economics, and citizen action with legal expertise to protect our Texas Hill Country home. The attorney would work under Executive Director and attorney Bill Bunch. Responsibilities include: • Managing a project load with a variety of litigation and non-litigation advocacy projects. Typically, an attorney’s docket will include projects for which he or she has primarily responsibility as well as cases on which he or she works in a supporting role with other attorneys. • Participating in all aspects of litigation in state and federal court, including factual investigation, legal research, discovery, briefing, witness preparation, and oral advocacy. • Submitting comments orally and in writing to federal, state, and local governmental agencies. • Attending and speaking at various meetings and hearings of governmental entities, including the Texas Legislature. • Participating in coalition building on interdisciplinary policy issues; collaborating with other organizations on strategies and work product. • Drafting FOIA and Texas Public Information Act requests. • Aiding in the selection and supervision of legal interns. • Supporting various outreach events throughout the year. Qualifications: • J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school. • Membership in the Texas bar or willingness to waive in or sit for the Texas Bar Exam. • Demonstrated interest in and commitment to environmental protection and/or public-interest law. • Excellent research and writing skills. • Ability to work independently and in a small, collegial environment. • A strong work ethic, sense of initiative, and creativity. Salary is commensurate with experience, on the non-profit scale. To Apply: Send a résumé, cover letter, law school transcript (for lawyers practicing five years or less), writing sample (preferably a legal brief or memorandum), and a list of references to kelly@sosalliance.org. Please put “Staff Attorney Applicant” in the subject line. We intend to fill this position as soon as possible. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Contact Information: Kelly Davis kelly@sosalliance.org 512-477-2320, ext. 6 4701 West Gate Blvd., D-401 Austin, TX 78745  Jump in on January 1, 2022! The Polar Bear Splash is a go!! We are excited to report that we will once again embrace this New Years Day tradition in '22 after having to miss the fun in '21 due to COVID. Save Our Springs will be set up at the front gate area from 8am - 4pm selling our commemorative t-shirts and providing hot coffee and donuts as long as they last! If you would like to volunteer at the SOS tent please email us at sosinfo@sosalliance.org. Hope to see you there!
 Help Shape the Future of Zilker Park Today – The City of Austin’s Zilker Park Vision Plan Survey #4 remains open. If you have not already, please take some time (up to 20 or 30 minutes) to take this survey. The survey is jumbled and often vague, with a bias towards building more stuff in the park, but it’s important for everyone who cares about the park to participate.
Here are a few suggestions to consider when answering the questions. Please add your own individual comments and be sure to hit “save” on the comment boxes.
 November 2021 Dear Friend of the Hill Country, While we have been blessed with recent rains, the threats to our Hill Country home waters seem never-ending. Our hands here at Save Our Springs Alliance are full. Please, if you are able, make a generous tax-deductible donation to SOS today. Now, perhaps more than ever, we need your support for our work protecting our water, our parks, and the native wildlife that depends on them. Our small team of advocates, educators, and scientists are working right now on these projects to protect our home here in the heart of Texas. *Earlier this year we won a landmark court ruling prohibiting treated sewage from being discharged to Onion Creek and the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer. But lawyers for the State and Dripping Springs have appealed. If we win again Barton Creek, Onion Creek, and all of our Hill Country streams will be protected from wastewater discharges. The appellate briefs are filed, and the case will be argued in January. *Meanwhile, SOS joined with 21 other conservation groups last month to petition the EPA to force the TCEQ (our state EPA-equivalent) to stop it’s systematic failure to protect our state’s high quality and pristine waters, from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico. TCEQ’s consistent failure to protect our crystal-clear Hill Country streams and springs is Exhibit A in this petition to EPA. *This summer Austin launched the Zilker Park Vision Plan process – which will determine if Zilker becomes more park, and less pavement, or is further paved and privatized. Special interests are pushing hard to convert Zilker and our other parks into profit centers. To counter these pressures, SOS, with support from the Zilker, Barton Hills, and Bouldin Creek neighborhood associations, commissioned a Rewilding Zilker Park plan. This plan would restore riparian woodlands and shaded areas to large areas of Zilker Park that are mostly unusable during hot summer months. And we are working with allies across the City to protect our public trust park lands from further development. Check out the Rewilding Zilker Park plan on our website – and please donate to help us protect Zilker Park from further commercial development. * We are growing our Barton Springs University Educational Program with a new "Park-nership" with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. Barton Springs University is now a year-round series of educational events, snorkeling eco-tours, and summer camps, highlighted by a full day of outdoor learning at Barton Springs Pool in September. Your donation will help us educate and activate the next generation of activists and stewards of our local environment. You can learn more and view our 2020 Virtual BSU Day at www.BartonSpringsUniversity.org. *Just two weeks ago our local toll road authority resurrected its 2013 proposal to add 4 toll lanes to south Mopac, from Cesar Chavez to Slaughter Lane, with a double-decker toll bridge over Zilker Park, Lady Bird Lake and Austin High School. With your help SOS defeated the original (ghastly) plan, and with your help we will do it again. *In September Austin scientists detected toxic cyanobacteria in a pool at Sculpture Falls. With warming temperatures, SOS’s legal and policy advocacy will help keep nutrient pollution that feeds toxic algae growth out of our lakes, streams, and springs. *SOS staff attorneys, working with the San Marcos River Foundation, Texas River Protection Association, Protect Our Blanco, and others have just this year stopped or slowed proposals to discharge treated sewage into the Blanco and San Marcos rivers, Barton Creek, Onion Creek, and other Hill Country streams. *When developers this summer announced a large project on the banks of the Pedernales River, just across from the spectacular Hamilton Pool Preserve, SOS joined with local scientists to petition the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list the Pedernales River springs salamander as endangered. The salamander is only found in small springs along the river, most of which are near or within the proposed river front development. Pollution and pumping of surface and groundwater to serve the proposed project threaten both the salamander and a freshwater mussel found in the river. And other threats, like the proposed 20,000 seat Violet Crown amphitheater project above Barton Creek, seem to pop up every week. We know what to do, but we literally cannot do this work without your continued and generous support. Please donate today either with a one-time or a recurring gift. Use the enclosed envelope or donate online at SOSAlliance.org. Please also consider donating appreciated stock and/or including SOS Alliance in your planned giving. Thank you for your consideration and if you have any questions, please feel free to email Bill@SOSAlliance.org or Pat@sosalliance.org. With our warm wishes for a happy holiday season, Bill Bunch Pat Brodnax for SOS Alliance Board and Staff P.S. Please view and bid on locally sourced arts, crafts, and services offered in our new Virtual Silent Auction, which opens on November 15th and closes on December 6th. Go to: www.32auctions.com/saveoursprings P.S.S. With the pandemic we will again miss our annual holiday party, but please join us at Barton Springs for the New Year’s Day Polar Bear Splash. The pool was closed last year, New Year’s Day, but we will make up for the lost fun this year with a covid-safe plunge and our traditional coffee, donuts, event t-shirts, and general merriment.   Bid now on your favorite items or join in for the first time! There are still some awesome items remaining. The auction ends at exactly 5 p.m. today. Please see the detailed instructions below on how to receive the items you won. Thanks everyone for making this first online auction a successful and fun experience!
Pick Up Instructions for Your Silent Auction Item Here are the instructions on how to pick up the items or certificates that you win through the SOS silent auction: If the item you win is a gift certificate or gift card, we can happily mail the certificate to you! Simply email sydni@sosalliance.org with your name, the certificate you have won, and your mailing address. We will get it mailed out to you ASAP. -If you win a physical item or would just prefer to pick up your gift card or certificate in person, please follow the instructions below.
Many thanks to all of our awesome local donors! 512 Organics ~ Larry Akers ~ All Water Guides ~ Antone's Nightclub ~ Mary Jane Appel Arbor Vitae Tree Care ~ Austin Bouldering Project ~ Austin Events Calendar ~ Barbara White Wellness ~ Barley Pfeiffer Architects ~ Helen Besse, BFREE Yoga Austin ~ Ave Bonar BookPeople ~ Bouldin Creek Cafe ~ Capital Cruises ~ Dorsey Cartwright ~ Ed Crowell ~ Casa Garcia's Mexican Restaurant ~ Carol Dillard ~ Sandy Dunn, LMT~ Filter Flow RO Good Flow Honey ~ Barry George ~ Independence Barber Co. ~ Scott Johnson ~ Peggy Lamb ~ Sydney Lambert, Charles Lohrmann ~ Magnolia Cafe ~ Cindy Philips ~ MaryAnn Reynolds, MS, LMT ~ Myo Massage ~ Natural Bridge Caverns ~ New Origin Shop ~ Onion Creek Fly Co. ~ Patagonia ~ Alex Reichek ~ John Russell ~ Russell Sports ~ Peach Reynolds/Kaleidovisions ~ Hal Strickland ~ Sun Dragon Martial Arts ~ Terra Toys ~ Tesoros ~ Texas Aloha Massage ~ Texas Climbing Adventures ~ Texas Rowing Center ~ The Eureka Room The Great Outdoors ~ The Natural Gardener ~ The Soup Peddler ~ Tillery Street Plant Co. ~ Ben Thompson ~ and more being added daily!  SOS Alliance and 20 other conservation groups filed a formal, 40-page petition asking the U.S. EPA to revoke the authority of Texas’ environmental agency, the TCEQ, to approve permits authorizing the discharge of pollutants into public waters. The request to either revoke or force TCEQ to fix its water pollution control powers rests largely on TCEQ’s chronic and systemic failure to prevent degradation of Texas waters, as required by the Clean Water Act.
TCEQ’s approval of a permit allowing Dripping Springs to discharge up to 822,500 gallons per day of treated sewage into Onion Creek, which SOS had thrown out by a Travis County District Judge, is one of several examples cited in the petition where TCEQ ignored mandatory Clean Water Act standards in reviewing pollution discharge requests. Read our press release and the complete petition and/or watch yesterday’s press conference here. Read the San Antonio Express-News coverage, quoting SOS attorney Kelly Davis, here.  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 27, 2021 CONTACT: Bill Bunch, SOS Alliance (512)784-3749 Read the Petition here Last Monday a group of Austin area environmental scientists and the conservation group Save Our Springs Alliance filed a formal petition with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list the Pedernales River springs salamander as “endangered” or “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. Filing the formal petition triggers an initial 90 day review period under the Act. If the Service finds the petition presents “substantial information” that the species deserves protection under the ESA, a formal listing process would take place over the next two years. The small, fully aquatic salamander was only discovered in springs near Travis County’s Hamilton Pool Preserve in 1989. It has yet to be formally described, but genetic and other analysis by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and at U.T. Arlington have confirmed its status as a distinct species. The salamander has a limited range focused on springs and water-filled, underground spaces in the area where Travis, Hays, and Blanco counties converge near the Hamilton Pool Road crossing of the Pedernales River. The petition documents that the species requires a reliable supply of clear, clean Hill Country limestone waters. It further documents threats to both the quality and quantity of the salamander’s spring habitats. A recent development proposal, dubbed “Mirasol Springs” by its sponsors, triggered the petition filing. Located across Hamilton Pool Road from Hamilton Pool Preserve, the 1400 acre Mirasol Springs project would place buildings, roads, and an artificial lake directly above and surrounding key salamander springs. Water wells and a diversion from the Pedernales River to serve a proposed commercial-scale poultry coop, hotel, farm, housing, and a proposed U.T. biological field station would draw on already very limited surface and groundwater supplies in the area. Other planned developments in the area, developments following Mirasol Springs to the area, and increased pumping for weekend homes, rural developments and agricultural operations also threaten the survival of the salamander species. “Given the Mirasol Springs proposal and the exploding growth of the Austin area, the Pedernales River springs salamander is at grave risk of near-term extinction,” said Crystal Datri, an endangered species biologist and lead author of the petition. “The salamander’s home waters along the Pedernales River corridor above Lake Travis need to be protected, not polluted or pumped dry,” Datri added. “Thankfully the Travis County parks (Hamilton Pool Preserve and Milton Reimers Ranch) and several conservation easements on private ranches in the area provide substantial protection to fish and wildlife habitats along the river,” said Bill Bunch, Executive Director of Save Our Springs Alliance. “But all of that good work will not protect the salamander’s spring habitats from pumping, pollution and pavement like what is now proposed for the area.” This area along the Pedernales River is particularly rich in biological and habitat diversity. This is most obvious from the spectacular springs and grottoes at Hamilton Pool Preserve, Westcave Preserve, Deadman’s Hole, and Roy Creek (in photo). Last month the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service proposed listing as “endangered” the Texas fatmucket mussel. The Service’s proposal would also designate the entirety of the Mirasol Springs project’s river frontage as “critical habitat” for the mussel. A water pump placed in the Pedernales River by the Mirasol Springs developer is located within the proposed mussel critical habitat. Other unique species, including the endangered Golden-cheeked warbler, live here as well. “Now is the time to protect the springs and the unique flora and fauna of the Pedernales River corridor, before it’s too late; with this petition the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has a legal mandate to help us do that,” added Datri.  Check out this hot-off-the-press proposal, Rewilding Zilker Park, by restoration ecologist, park planner and owner of LandSteward.net, Elizabeth McGreevy. The proposal is sponsored by Save Our Springs Alliance, with support from the Zilker, Bouldin Creek, and Barton Hills neighborhood associations.
The proposal calls for reforesting more than 75 acres of Zilker Park for people, wildlife, climate protection, and reducing the urban heat island effect. If you like it, join us next Tuesday at 6:00 pm. for the City of Austin's next virtual meeting on the Zilker Park Vision Plan. Register for the meeting here. Tell them you support the Rewilding Zilker plan, along with any other comments you might have. Also, there will be a public comment period for a few weeks following the Tuesday virtual meeting. You'll have time to comment on whatever the City's park planner consultants may propose at the Tuesday "Design Alternatives" meeting. We'll keep you informed as well. Read the press release here on the new Rewilding Zilker Park report, and please consider a tax-deductible donation to SOS today to help us pay for this powerful proposal for the future of Zilker Park. The next month or two will be crucial for shaping the future of Zilker Park for decades into the future. With your voice and your support we can make Zilker the beautiful and more natural public park that we need it to be for everyone.  The SOS Alliance Board has voted unanimously to oppose the upcoming Prop A ballot measure. SOS joins Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Austin Parks Foundation, The Trail Foundation and many others who oppose this measure that would force Austin to cut essential services. You can view the list of those opposed and learn more at www.nowaypropa.com. Committing funding to expanding the police force will only further reduce funding available for parks, watershed protection, and a range of other public services supported by the City's general fund. Our parks and environmental protection efforts are drastically underfunded: Prop A would make things much worse. Early voting begins on October 18th. Early voting lasts through October 29th and Election Day is November 2nd. Polling locations, a sample ballot, and more are available here on the Travis County Clerk website. Join us Tuesday at 6 p.m. for the City of Austin's next virtual meeting on the Zilker Park Vision Plan. Register for the meeting here. Tell them you support the Rewilding Zilker plan, along with any other comments you might have. View our new Rewilding proposal here Rewilding Zilker Park, by restoration ecologist, park planner and owner of LandSteward.net, Elizabeth McGreevy. The proposal is sponsored by Save Our Springs Alliance, with support from the Zilker, Bouldin Creek, and Barton Hills neighborhood associations.
Also, there will be a public comment for a few weeks following the Tuesday virtual meeting. You'll have time to comment whatever the City's park planner consultants may propose at the Tuesday "Design Alternatives" meeting. We'll keep you informed as well. The next month or two will be crucial for shaping the future of Zilker Park for decades into the future. With your voice and your support we can make Zilker the beautiful and more natural public park that we need it to be for everyone. |
