Celebrate a unique collaboration between Save Our Springs, Hold Out Brewing, and GoodGood Beer Company on Saturday, July 20th, from 3-6 PM at the indoor mezzanine of Hold Out Brewing (1208 W 4th St, Austin, TX 78703). We're excited to present the refreshing peach gose Hold Out and GoodGood crafted with Fredericksburg peaches and lots of love, raising a glass to water quality and the protection of Barton Springs.
Enjoy the refreshing flavors and support a great cause! Take a dip at the springs beforehand, and show your Barton Springs stamp for a 10% discount on your tab. This event is not just about great beer—it’s about coming together to learn more about and protect the Edwards Aquifer, a vital water source for over 2 million people in Central Texas. Save Our Springs Alliance has been dedicated to protecting the aquifer since 1992, advocating through education, legal action, and community engagement. By partnering with GoodGood Beer and Hold Out Brewing, we aim to amplify the importance of water conservation and highlight the unique challenges facing our precious aquifer. Don’t miss this chance to mingle with fellow supporters, and enjoy educational talks with SOS staff and Executive Director Bill Bunch. Let’s make a toast to clean water and a sustainable future for Austin! As we gear up for the crucial City Council meeting this Thursday, July 18th, we need your collective voices to protect Austin's future. While we understand the items related to South Central Waterfront and residential site plans (drainage review) are likely to be postponed (Items 99, 120, and 100), the stakes are high for Item 96, which proposes anti-democratic amendments to our City Charter that will push us backward. The Charter amendments propose raising the signature thresholds for voter-initiated ordinances and City Council recalls, making it nearly impossible for citizens to initiate change or hold council members accountable. The increase from 20,000 to 3.5% of total voters for ordinances, and from 10% to 15% of district voters for recalls, is a blatant attempt to stifle our voices and dismantle the very mechanisms that have driven transformative change in our city. This move aligns with the current administration's efforts to limit public participation and transparency, allowing more decisions behind closed doors. Voter-led petition efforts have been catalysts for change in Austin policy for decades, bringing together voices and encouraging more citizens to participate in the democratic process. The impacts of these efforts have brought about generational and transformative change, such as the SOS Initiative Ordinance leading to the prioritization of environmental protection throughout the City of Austin and the 10-1 Geographic Representation Charter amendments that led to the prioritization of equity and geographic fairness in the City policy. SOS urges the City Council to reject these amendments. The Council will consider placing a raft of proposed amendments to the Austin City Charter on the November ballot, and now is the time to tell them no. These proposed actions against our local democratic processes are in line with our current Mayor and Council's blatant hostility towards public participation at City Council meetings. We urge you to join us on July 18th to speak out on these critical issues. Please sign up to speak today and make your voice heard. SOS Beer Launch This Saturday, Let's Gose Swimming! Saturday, July 20th, 3-6 pm @ Hold Out Brewery. Local brew heroes, Hold Out Brewing & GoodGood have teamed up with SOS to create a delightful Gose beer made with local hill country peaches and a lot of love. A percentage of all proceeds goes to SOS efforts. Come raise a glass with us to celebrate this unique collaboration! ***Barton Springs stamp gets you 10% off your entire tab*** Upstairs mezzanine @ Hold Out Brewing 1208 West 4th St. Austin TX, 3-6 pm SOS Snorkel Tour This Saturday! Saturday, July 20th, 8 am, Barton Springs. Join us for an exclusive behind-the-scenes Snorkel Tour this weekend and experience the springs like never before. Dive down into the wonders of Edwards Aquifer, marvel at diverse plant and wildlife, explore underwater hydro-geologic features, and discover how we can all help keep our springs clean and flowing for future generations. Perfect for confident swimmers aged 7 and up. Don't miss this underwater adventure! South Gate of Barton Springs, 906 Azie Morton, 8 am The Austin City Council is returning from its summer break, and it’s back to business. Here’s a quick sneak peek at what’s coming up in July.
Austin City Budget The Save Our Springs Alliance is proud to be a supporter of the Community Investment Budget (CIB), a project of over 45 local nonprofit attempting to reprioritize City of Austin investments to meet urgent needs for Austin residents and promote climate resilience. Mark your calendars for July 12th, at 10am—that’s when City Manager Broadnax will unveil the proposed FY 2025 budget. With the draft budget, we’ll see how the City of Austin intends to focus investments for the next fiscal year. SOS will be watchdogging for water-smart policies. That means making sure Austin’s water rates encourage conservation and don’t hit our low-use residential customers with hefty increases. Here are some key dates and opportunities to engage with the Austin City Council:
Austin City Council Meeting, July 18, 2024 On July 18, 2024, the Austin City Council will convene to discuss several items, and here’s a sneak peek at what’s on the agenda. Registration to speak starts Monday, July 15th at 10am. For full instructions on participation in person or by telephone, please visit the Council Meeting Information Center: http://austintexas.gov/department/city-council/council/council_meeting_info_center.htm. Here Are the Key Items We’re Watching
Researched & written by Paul Robbins, May 7, 2024 Part 1 – Six Steps to Year Zero
This is the first of a two-part series on potential, and likely, water shortages that will afflict Austin in the coming decades, and how it will impact the city’s future. Part 1 looks at where are we were in April 2024 with the current drought, and what our future looks like with climate heating and a worst-case scenario. This future worst case is projected in six layers or steps to show the approximate year Austin reaches “Year Zero” with empty lakes if everything goes wrong at the same time, and gives a few examples of other places where it has gone wrong. Obviously, the Lakes have not gone dry yet. But when plausible and likely climate and consumption patterns collide with population growth, the prospect of dry lakes is no longer science fiction. Note to readers: The year 2023 is used as the baseline, but data in this analysis was sourced from the most current years available. These included 2022, 2023, and 2024. The Texas Weather: Where Erratic is “Normal” Texans are privileged to reside in one of the most temperamental regions of the U.S. The state is blessed with hurricanes, tornadoes, numerous lightning bursts, hail, debilitating heat, and even fierce blizzards in the northern part. These extremes have contributed to the character of the people, and by extension, the state’s history, in several major ways, including the massive infrastructure needed for its water systems. There is only one (partially) natural lake in the entire state. The other 196 major stationary “lakes” over 5,000 acre-feet in size are actually man-made reservoirs largely built to slake the state’s thirst. (An acre-foot would have supplied 5 Austin homes a year in 2023.) The collective area of these lakes is about 150% larger than Travis County. There is no other state in the country that has this much land covered with inland water bodies. The Central Texas Highland Lakes are a chain of six reservoirs along the Colorado River created for reliable water supplies in dry times, flood control in wet times, hydroelectricity, and irrigation for agriculture in counties near the Gulf Coast. When the two lakes used for reliable municipal water supplies were commissioned, Lake Buchanan (1937) and Lake Travis (1942), they were viewed by most Central Texas residents as virtually inexhaustible. But a lot can happen in 90 years: an almost 12-fold increase in the population of Central Texas; the growth of major industry; way more water-cooled power plants; sediment deposits that diminish the Lakes’ storage capacity, severe droughts, and increasing severity of drought caused by global warming. On April 17, 2024, the Highland Lakes that store Austin’s water supply were only 42% full. There have only been 4 periods since 1941 when they have been lower. In an attempt to look at the worst case, this analysis attempts to layer on the challenges facing Central Texas water supplies caused by drought, global warming, increasing population, and sedimentation. The Real Drought of Record Of all the extreme weather conditions that afflict Texas, droughts are the most common. According to the NOAA Storm Events database, in 2023, 23% of all drought incidents in the U.S. occurred in Texas. When water supply planners and utilities in Austin and Texas plan for emergency supplies, they generally refer to the state’s “drought of record,” which occurred between 1951 to 1956. In this time period, Central Texas experienced a 25% decrease in precipitation compared to recent history. However, Texas weather data only goes back to 1895. When scientists used observations from tree rings to reconstruct climate history going back to 1500, they discovered droughts in Central Texas were much worse using a similar metric that measures precipitation and temperature together, the “Palmer Drought Severity Index.” The worst, from 1712 to 1717, scored an Index rating 35% worse than the 1950s drought of record. Things Can Always Get Worse: Drought with Global Warming As global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions intensifies, it poses an ironic challenge for Texas. How do you define the new normal in a state where being normal is being erratic, and where the landscape is already scarred by weather hazards? Austin’s water utility, Austin Water, currently has contracts with the University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences to assess how climate change will impact the temperature and rainfall in the not-too-distant future. Though no final conclusions have been made yet, the draft report’s predictions are staggering. The study explored three different internationally-recognized carbon emission scenarios. These have various emission levels depending on the year as described in this chart. Water availability adjusted for the droughts of the 1950s and the 1700s and global warming could be cut yet again by another 13% to 25%. Sedimentation If drought and excessive demand are not enough to threaten water supplies, there is the phenomenon of erosion or sedimentation. All water bodies, natural and man-made, are subject to loss of capacity from erosion as soil is swept into them by rainfall and wind. This is often compounded by runoff from human development. Lakes Buchanan and Travis have lost 11% and 1.5% of their original capacity, respectively, since they were built. And there are those who have it worse. Lake Steinhagen in East Texas has lost 35% of its volume since it was completed in 1951. Reservoirs can theoretically have the silt dredged and removed to restore their original capacity. However, industrial dredging on this scale is humongously expensive. To give an example of the high cost of dredging, a study for restoring Lake Buchanan in 1990, updated to 2024 dollars, was approximately 13 times the cost per acre-foot that LCRA charged for water. While continued sedimentation of the Highland Lakes will be minor from one year to the next, it will also be cumulative and unrelenting. By 2050, it will represent an additional 20,400 acre-feet of water storage loss, equivalent to almost 93,000 Austin homes at 2023 levels of consumption. Increasing Demand: Too Many People Using Too Much Water In 1956, the Austin business community began an aggressive campaign to recruit businesses to the city, and has not stopped to this day. The campaign’s achievements have been so successful that, according to the U.S. Census in 2023, Austin was the 10th largest city in the country. In 2023, Austin’s water utility served 1,146,000 people in a service territory of more than 548 square miles. By 2030, it is predicted to rise to 1.3 million; by 2050, almost 1.7 million, and by 2100, 2.8 million. Based on this growth rate, municipal use of the Highland Lakes for Central Texas cities (not just Austin) will almost triple between 2023 and 2080. Even if all other uses, such as industrial and recreational, remain static, total consumption will more than double. And this estimation is conservative. If water consumption increases at the rate of population growth in Central Texas, total consumption will more than quadruple. Stagnating Water Conservation Effects At the same time, use per person is not falling. Austin Water began an intense water conservation effort in 2007, and saw its per-person water use plummet from 190 gallons per capita per day to as low as 120 gallons per capita per day in 2019. But the progress has flattened and consumption has even buoyed up slightly from this low-water mark. In fact, this stubborn per capita usage, combined with low rainfall in 2022, sent Austin’s total water consumption to a record high of 174,000 acre-feet. And if Everything Goes Wrong… When all these water supply stressors are layered over each other, it shows just how fragile the future of Central Texas could be.
This worst-case drought and global warming scenario (with moderate consumption) shows the Highland Lakes at only 4% of their full (2 million acre-feet) capacity in 2023 and running dry between 2030 and 2040. Some of this residual water would require pumps to remove because the lake levels would be too low for water to flow with gravity. It Can’t Happen Here (But It Happened There) Skeptics of these dire warnings will say it is highly improbable that all these plagues will occur at once – that the odds are so low as to be minuscule. But a relatively short distance northwest of Lake Buchanan, four Texas reservoirs in the Upper Colorado River Basin have crashed several times, and for lengthy periods of time, because of drought and overuse. Skeptics of an Austin water shortage will point out that these reservoirs are in a more arid climate. But that is the whole point of this article: calculating how much water in Central Texas will be available during the plagues of drought, global warming, and over consumption. In fact, the Austin Water utility recently conducted its own simulations with advanced global warming scenarios, indicating a 6% chance of dry lakes under extreme conditions in 2030, rising to a 63% chance by 2080. This did not include using the extreme drought history from the 1700s. Of course, long before the Highland Lakes dipped anywhere close to these dangerous levels, massive and rigid water conservation measures would be enforced. However, as the region’s population increases rapidly and rabidly, even these drastic measures will become less effective at providing a secure supply.
Calculating how much water Central Texas will need during the worst-case plagues of drought, global warming, and over consumption is no longer science fiction. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This is the first of a two-part feature on potential, and likely, water shortages that will afflict Central Texas in the coming decades. Next: Part 2 – The Malpractice of Ignoring Aggressive Water Conservation. Research for this story was funded with a grant from the Save Our Springs Alliance. Stay tuned. On July 1, 2024, Judge Daniella Deseta Lyttle issued a ruling that once again found the Austin City Council’s meeting procedures violate the Texas Open Meetings Act. This marks the third time that Travis County Judge has ruled that the City Council’s restrictions on public speaking testimony fail to guarantee the public’s “right to speak.” Before these recent rulings, the Austin City Council limited public comments to 1 minute per speaker during regular council meetings, regardless of the number of items on the agenda (often exceeding 100 items per meeting). For instance, if an Austinite signed up to speak on four items, they would have an average of only 15 seconds per item to address the council. As a result of a lawsuit filed by SOS (Save Our Springs Alliance), the City Council was compelled to revise its meeting procedures and eliminate these collective time limits. Now, members of the public are granted a minimum of 2 minutes to speak on each item during the City Council’s Thursday meetings. You can find more information in the Austin Free Press (and sign up for AFP news alerts). The July 1st ruling also removed language that the City Council had inserted into their new procedures, which would have nullified the legal impact of these time limits. A separate claim was dismissed by the court challenging the City Council's Tuesday work session procedures that prohibit public speakers. Often, the council discusses and begins to take positions on items scheduled for the regular Thursday council meetings. Unfortunately, this means that having the right to speak at the Thursday meetings comes too late for meaningful input. SOS will be evaluating its legal options concerning this claim. Thank you for your support on this lawsuit. With your help, we have amplified the public's voice at Austin City Hall. City of Austin Proposes to Delete Drainage Requirements
Code changes are headed to the Planning Commission Tuesday night that would remove requirements for multi-unit developments (up to 16 residential units) to install onsite detention (holding ponds for stormwater). These developments would merely need to submit a drainage plan to demonstrate that stormwater runoff is discharged into the street. There would be no requirement for an assessment that existing stormwater drain systems could handle increased flows, nor would there be a drainage review from the City of Austin to ensure that the new developments don’t increase risks of lot-to-lot flooding or harm our creeks.
To assess flooding risks in Austin’s neighborhoods, SOS commissioned a study that looked at flood-related incidents reported to Austin’s 311 call center between January 1, 2020, and November 21, 2023. Over the past 4 years, nearly 600 flood incidents occurred outside known floodplains, indicating local and lot-to-lot flooding. Additionally, approx. 190 reported incidents could be linked to clogged or overstressed drainage infrastructure, posing challenges for the city’s flood management efforts. The Austin City Council recently approved city code amendments under the “HOME” initiative that reduced lot sizes for single-family residential lots across the city and increased the number of units that can be built on each lot. Lots that were previously used for one lot can now be subdivided and used for multiple units. Depending on the size of the original lot or lots, this could increase the number of units and associated pavement substantially. These code changes will undeniably lead to more impervious cover, which means increased flows and volumes of stormwater leaving these properties. All of this leads to the question—why would Austin delete its drainage requirements? Climate resiliency requires proactive planning, and Austin must address its flooding issues--now and into the future. SOS will be back in court Monday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. for a final hearing in our "public right to speak" case against the Austin City Council. The hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the court of the Honorable Travis County District Judge Daniella Deseta Lyttle on the 10th Floor of the Travis County Civil Courthouse, 1700 Guadalupe. The hearing will last approximately 2 hours and the public is invited. Please attend and observe if you are interested and available.
SOS already won much of this case with two prior court rulings and the Austin City Council adopting new City Council meeting procedures that limit public speakers on a "per item" basis. This means members of the public get at least 2 minutes to speak on each and every item on the City Council's Thursday meeting agendas. Read more here at the Austin Free Press (and sign up for AFP news alerts). However, the City Council's new procedures still prohibit public speakers at Tuesday City Council work session meetings. Often, the council will discuss and begin to stake out positions on items set for the regular Thursday council meetings. When they do this, having the right to speak at the Thursday meetings is too late. The Texas Open Meetings Act specifically calls for a public right to speak at the same meeting where there is "consideration" of an action, even if no action is taken. Also, the City Council's new meeting procedures, while adopted by city ordinance as required by the City Charter, state that the procedures are merely "directory" and nonbinding on the council. SOS reads the statute to require an enforceable "rule" on public speaking that is "reasonable" if the council wishes to limit public speakers to a set amount of time. This "right to speak" 2019 amendment to the Texas Open Meetings Act is an important guarantee for public participation in the decisionmaking of city councils, county commissioners courts, and other local governing bodies. With your support we have already set important legal precedent in this case. We will do our best to extend these protections on Monday. Last Friday, the nonprofit Save Our Springs Alliance (SOS) filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in the Western District of Texas. The suit is based upon the USFWS’s failure to make a timely decision on listing the Pedernales River springs salamander as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in violation of the statute’s requirements. The Pedernales River springs salamander, a species endemic to the Texas Hill Country, has only been found in a few locations, most of which were within a 0.5 square mile area. Its survival depends on the clean spring water, spring fed streams, and water-bearing karst formations. Videos and more information about the habitat where the salamanders have been found are at https://roycreekcanyon.org. The Pedernales River springs salamander faces extinction due to its extremely limited range, small population, water quality degradation, surface habitat destruction, and inadequate regulatory protections. The majority of the salamander’s habitat is degraded or in imminent danger of degradation due to increasing urbanization. Proposed developments, such as Dallas billionaire Steve Winn’s proposed Mirasol Springs development and University of Texas Hill Country Field Station threaten to harm the species and destroy its critical habitat. Biologist Crystal Datri, author of the petition to list the salamander as endangered, expressed that “While the area near the salamander’s known habitat is fortunate to have conservation easements and preserve lands, the majority of the salamander’s range is still gravely threatened by groundwater pumping and wastewater pollution from the Winn-UT research station development.” On September 20, 2021, SOS filed a petition, urging USFWS to list the Pedernales River springs salamander as endangered. “The Endangered Species Act is intended to provide species critical protections to avoid extinction,” explained SOS Attorney Victoria Rose, who is the lead counsel for the suit. “USFWS have missed the statutory required deadlines for a response. With so many threats, like the Winn development, occurring right now, the salamanders don’t have much time left.” The USFWS’s delay in making the 90 day finding and failure to make a timely 12-month finding on SOS’s petition to list the Pedernales River springs salamander as endangered constitutes a violation of the ESA and additional delay on the part of the agency further imperils the species. Neighbors to the proposed 1400-acre Mirasol Springs development, located on the banks of the
Pedernales River and immediately across Hamilton Pool Road from Travis County’s Hamilton Pool Preserve and Reimers Ranch Park, joined with Austin area environmental activists today to speak out against the project’s plans to pump groundwater and river flows and to build a sewage treatment facility just above springs feeding the river. The neighbors and activists gathered on Hamilton Pool Road, outside the Mirasol Springs property, as the University of Texas hosted an awards luncheon honoring Mirasol Springs owners, the Steve Winn family of Dallas. The Winns have pledged $50 million to U.T.’s Biodiversity Center to support a reported $200 million plan to develop biological research field stations around the state. The Hill Country Field Station is set to be built on the Mirasol Springs property. University of Texas representatives and Steve Winn claim the Mirasol Springs project is dedicated to sustainable, ecologically responsible development. But the project’s permit applications to pump groundwater, divert river flows, and spread treated sewage just above the river tell a different story. As proposed, the Mirasol Springs project includes a resort hotel, 71 home sites, two restaurants, an irrigated farm, and the U.T. biological field station. To serve the development, the Winn’s have applied for groundwater pumping permits from both the Southwest Travis County Groundwater Conservation District and the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. (The Mirasol Springs property straddles the Travis County/Hays County line.) Mirasol’s application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to divert over 100-acre feet of Pedernales River flows every year has been pending at the TCEQ for over two years without a TCEQ staff recommendation. Austin’s legendary environmental singer/songwriter Bill Oliver serenaded the protesters with several rounds of his latest song, “Not Enough Water,” written for the campaign to protect the Pedernales River and local springs and water wells from the proposed Mirasol Springs project. Staff from both Groundwater Districts have recommended draft permits that scale back the Winn requests substantially. The Districts’ rules also require steep pumping reductions during drought conditions. Winn attorneys have refused to meet the Districts’ staff recommendations, including compliance with District drought protection rules that apply to all pumping permitholders. The Mirasol permit application to the Hays Trinity GCD is set for a preliminary hearing before an administrative law judge on June 11, 2024. Travis County has joined with neighbors and the Save Our Springs Alliance and Save the Pedernales in opposing the Mirasol Springs groundwater pumping permit applications. Travis County wants to be sure the Hamilton Pool spring flows are protected. Like the other protesting parties, the County also wants to assure that the Pedernales River and Reimers Ranch Park water flows and water quality are protected. The 1400-acre Mirasol Springs property surrounds the one-of-kind Roy Creek Canyon. Springs, pools, and waterfalls tumble down through the canyon, harboring the Pedernales River springs salamander and other rare species. Save Our Springs Alliance’s petition to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list the salamander as endangered remains pending. U.T. biologists discovered the salamander and determined it is a distinct, new species, but have yet to publish a peer reviewed paper assigning a scientific name to the species. The endangered and extremely rare Texas Fatmucket freshwater mussel was recently confirmed in the Pedernales River adjacent to the Mirasol Springs property. A third endangered species, the Golden-cheeked warbler, is also known from the Mirasol Springs property, Roy Creek Canyon, and the Travis County parks. Ground water and surface water pumping, pollution, and development, along with our heating climate, threaten the survival of these species. Flows in the Pedernales River have plummeted in recent years. The river stopped flowing for an extended period in 2023. Springs, including those in Roy Creek Canyon, also stopped flowing or fell to a trickle. Area well levels have dropped or gone dry. With the recent drought, the Groundwater Conservation Districts have stopped processing applications for new pumping permits. “In another place, or even here some years back, neighbors and environmentalists would have supported the Mirasol Springs project,” said SOS Executive Director Bill Bunch. “But today, given the unique natural value and vulnerability of Roy Creek Canyon, Hamilton Pool, and the Pedernales River, there is simply not enough water to call the project sustainable or ecologically sound.” “The Winns deserve credit for their generous gift to U.T.. But I don’t understand why U.T. or the Winns would endanger the very things they say they want to protect,” said Lew Adams, one of the Roy Creek Canyon owners. “The science tells us the project is too much,” he added. Preferred Start Date: As soon as possible (negotiable)
Practice Areas: Environmental protection advocacy under federal, state, and local laws. This includes litigation, administrative permitting, policy and legislative advocacy on water, wildlife, land, use, parks, climate, historic preservation, and functional democracy issues. Description: Save Our Springs Alliance seeks a passionate, self-motivated public interest advocate to join our current team of three staff attorneys. Founded in 1992, Save Our Springs combines science, economics, education, and citizen action with legal expertise to protect our Texas Hill Country home. As the only Central Texas nonprofit conservation advocate with a full time legal staff, we represent our members, other groups, and private landowners in strategic actions to protect our home waters and the natural and cultural heritage of our region. See Laura Dunn’s award-winning film The Unforeseen for our origin story, and see here and here on two major victories this last month. The attorney would work under Executive Director and attorney Bill Bunch. We work hard, we have fun, and we go swimming. The swimming is optional but recommended. Responsibilities include:
Qualifications:
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 [email protected]. 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. Date Posted: May 8, 2024. Contact Information: Bill Bunch [email protected] 512-784-3749 4701 West Gate Blvd., D-401 Austin, TX 78745 Last Tuesday, District Judge Daniella Deseta Lyttle ruled in our favor and extended the Temporary Restraining Order against City Council (TRO) until July 1st, ensuring that each speaker at Austin City Council meetings will be granted three minutes per agenda item. This shared win is one for ALL of Austin and would not have been possible without the citizen testimonies and the efforts of our legal staff, Executive Director Bill Bunch and staff attorneys Bobby Levinski and Victoria Rose. During the Tuesday hearing, Bill Bunch referenced James Madison's words, stating that a democracy lacking information “is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both.” Testimonies from Roy Waley (with his decades-long commitment to advocating for water issues), Monica Guzman (a firebrand advocate for environmental justice and Policy Director of GAVA), and Laura Morrison (former Austin City Council Member) presented compelling arguments about the importance of public input in our democratic processes and were instrumental in securing this extension. This ruling reaffirms the principle that no one, not even elected officials, is above the law. It sends a powerful message that community voices must be heard and respected in decision-making processes. As Roy Waley testified “Democracy can be messy and time-consuming.” However, there's a long road ahead to a lasting solution that secures citizen input in public meetings. The City Council may still attempt to amend the City Charter, requiring us to remain vigilant in both legal proceedings and spreading awareness that our collective citizen input and speaking time allotted is at stake. Again, we extend our gratitude to every individual who has attended City Council meetings and spoken out on issues that shape our community's present and future. This lawsuit, initiated by the SOS Alliance, is not just about us—it's about everyone who cares about Austin and believes in the importance of active public engagement. Read more in the Statesman article HERE. If you are able, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our ongoing legal efforts on behalf of our water, wildlife, and the integrity of our local democracy. Your contribution will enable us to continue fighting for a fair and transparent governance that prioritizes the needs and voices of all Austinites. Fact-Resistant Council Refuses to Act for Drought Resiliency Last weekend’s rain will help replenish the storage level of Lakes Buchanan and Travis—somewhat. But the region is still in one of the worst droughts we’ve ever experienced. Current lake levels remain less than 50%, and it would require record amounts of rain throughout this May to put our region back in a good position for water availability. Unfortunately, the Austin City Council mostly ignored pleas from SOS and other water conservation advocates to postpone the City’s water conservation and drought management plans. These new plans go in the wrong direction and diminish the City’s long-standing goals for daily water usage. Updates to the City’s Water Forward Plan are anticipated to return to the City Council by the end of this year. Until then, we will be pressuring the City Council to act swiftly and curtail its water usage. Stay tuned. CAMPO Vote Set for Monday, May 13th on I-35 Funding On Monday, May 13th, the Transportation Policy Board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) will be meeting at 2pm (5330 Bluffstone Lane) to approve a new 3-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The proposal rolls over funding for the proposed expansion of I-35 through Central Austin, despite requests that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) complete certain air quality studies before the project proceeds to construction. According to the new air-quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Austin area has dangerously high levels of air pollution. Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), associated with highways, can cause serious and sometimes deadly illnesses. Under the new standards, Travis County is modeled to be in nonattainment. Both the Austin City Council and Travis County Commissioners court have requested that CAMPO hold off on construction of I-35 until these serious air quality consequences are properly understood through studies and accounted for in potential design modifications. Despite these known serious health risks, TxDOT is proceeding with the highway expansion. To send a message requesting that the CAMPO Policy Board reconsider the funding, click here.
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