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IN THIS ISSUE: Austin Budget and Our Water. SIGN UP TODAY Data Center Town Hall August 17th August Snorkel Tours with Special Guides  Speak Up On Austin City BudgetThis Thursday, July 31 at 3:00 p.m., the Austin City Council will take public testimony on the City Manager's proposed Fiscal Year 2026 $6.3 billion budget. You may sign up to speak here in person or by call-in here until noon Wednesday, July 30 and SIGN UP FOR ITEM #3. The Council will vote on the budget August 13th. While the details are endless, and we are still looking at the details, we encourage our fellow water, land, and democracy defenders to speak up this Thursday against wasteful and harmful spending on "discretionary concrete" -- big construction projects we don't need, do real harm, and/or that can and should be postponed. At the top of the list of projects to be scrapped or postponed are:
 Join Us August 17 in San Marcos for a Data Center Town Hall The last Community Information Session brought together more than 50 concerned residents at the San Marcos Public Library and the message was clear: Central Texas is at a crossroads to protect our water once again. A growing number of industrial-scale data centers are being proposed across our region, quietly pushing forward under the radar of most regulations. These massive AI and cloud-storage facilities run 24/7 and rely on enormous amounts of both energy and water to cool their servers. Some use up to 4.5 million gallons of water per day which is more than 10 times the daily use of the average household neighborhood. For a deeper look at how Texas became ground zero for AI-fueled data center expansion, check out this recent Austin Chronicle feature by Sammie Seamon. Despite the recent devastating flood events, our region is still in the midst of an unprecedented, 7-year drought that continues to push the Edwards Aquifer to record lows. Amid these dangerous conditions, there are currently no statewide regulations in place to limit how much groundwater data centers can pump or waste.  Saturday, August 17 from 2–5 PM at the San Marcos Public Library We’ll hear from a panel of scientists, water experts, and community advocates about the risks associated with these water guzzling operations, as well as what we can do to fight them. Whether you're just learning about the issue or already engaged, this is a critical opportunity to get informed, ask questions, and organize alongside neighbors. If you believe our water should serve people and ecosystems, not unregulated server farms this is your moment to get involved. Follow @DataCenterActionCoalition for updates, tools, and upcoming actions. Together, we can demand smart development, stronger protections, and a water-secure future for Central Texas.  Join us for a guided snorkel tour at Barton Springs and experience the magic of Austin’s most iconic swimming hole. You’ll explore beneath the surface of our home waters fed by the Edwards Aquifer, learn to spot native fish, and hear the deep-time story of the Springs, all while cooling off in 70-degree water. Whether you're a first-timer or a lifelong springs lover, this adventure is not to be missed. Below are some of our upcoming tour dates and guest guides!
 Saturday, August 23rd 8-11am Mariana Krueger, Executive Director, Austin Bat Cave & City Commissioner. Mariana Krueger is a native of the Texas Hill Country currently serving as the Executive Director of Austin Bat Cave, a 501-c3 that promotes greater equity and accessibility in education through free and affordable creative programming to Central Texas public school students. Prior to that, she spent fifteen years working in global health research, education, community organizing, and nonprofit and political campaign management. She is also an award-winning photographer, storyteller, and media producer whose work has been published by National Geographic and has been on exhibit at the Elisabet Ney Museum and UT Moody School of Communications. She attended Duke University for undergraduate and graduate school, where she earned a B.A. in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, and an M.S. in Global Health. Mariana is the Vice Chair for the City of Austin's Environmental Commission, and also proudly serves on the City's Commissions for Human Rights and LGBTQIA+ Quality of Life. She is a Democratic Precinct Chair in East Austin, a longtime volunteer at the Festival Beach Food Forest, and an ardent lover of public lands and natural spaces at home and around the world.  Sunday, August 24th 8-11am Emma Walsh, Development Manager, Austin Youth River Watch. Emma Walsh (she/her) is the Development Manager at Austin Youth River Watch, where she’s spent the past seven years working to make environmental education, youth development, and outdoor adventure accessible to the next generation of environmental leaders. At River Watch, Emma helps develop multi-year after-school and summer programs where high school students learn to test water quality, restore local creeks, and explore the outdoors. As a proud Texan and lifelong lover of rivers and springs, Emma is passionate about ensuring that all young people have the opportunity to connect with and care for their local environment. With city budget decisions underway and data centers eyeing Central Texas, this is a critical time to speak up (and show up!) for our water.
Donate today to power grassroots advocacy, watchdog legal work, and community education efforts that protect our springs, aquifers, and the people who depend on them. With gratitude and determination, SOS Alliance IN THIS ISSUE: City Council Items to Speak On This Thursday. SIGN UP TODAY
 “JAWDROPPINGLY STUPID” -- That’s how the usually restrained and academic national expert on the convention center industry, U.T. - San Antonio Professor Emeritus Heywood Sanders, describes Austin’s new convention center project in the The Magic Hole. Austin Free Press’s 19 minute The Magic Hole documentary featuring Professor Sanders is linked above at the Austin United PAC’s Save the Soul of Austin citizen petition drive webpage. This update and plea to join with us and speak up at this Thursdays’ July 24th City Council meeting is a bit on the long side. Please stay with it; multi-billion dollar commitments that will shape the future of our city forever are on the table. The Magic Hole documentary was shot back in January when the budget for the convention center was “only” $3 billion and counting. City Staff subsequently projected in writing $5.6 billion in revenue requirements for the 30 year debt financing period. The petition drive aims to force a citywide vote on the project—as required by the City Charter—though Council argues that, under state law, voter approval is optional. This Thursday, and in the weeks ahead our esteemed Mayor and City Council are set to dig that Magic Hole a few tens of millions of dollars deeper. We ask and invite our friends who love Austin arts, culture and parks, and/or care about Austin fiscal and voter accountability, to sign up to speak at this Thursdays, July 24th, City Council meeting. The meeting, and public comment, starts at 10:00 a.m. but join us for a press statement at 9:30 in front of City Hall. See further details below on individual items to speak (or donate time) on. Please also speak to our City Council this Thursday, in person or by call-in, not just on the convention center agenda items, but also on the following items concerning the future of Lady Bird Lake and on ill-advised floodplain variances. Sign up to speak here, before noon on Wednesday. And keep reading to learn more about the convention center project we do support!  Architectural Illustration by Stefanie Bower (austintexas.gov) Item 121 – A proposed, rather mushy resolution giving vague guidance to the City Manager when evaluating proposed PUD zoning applications for development in the South Central Waterfront District. While the resolution references prioritizing “environmental features” that protect the riparian zones of Lady Bird Lake and East Bouldin Creek, the majority of the Council has voted repeatedly to exempt or reduce PUD compliance with our watershed and shoreline protection ordinances. Please join us in urging no more PUDs in the South Central Waterfront and “zero tolerance” for variances, waivers or exemptions from the Waterfront Overlay Ordinance all the way around Lady Bird Lake, with or without PUD zoning. Items 130 and 131 – Highlighted in last week’s SOS News, these items propose variances to allow residential development below the floodplain, setting a dangerous and shortsighted precedent. Join us in urging a “no” vote on these items.  Item 87 - Calls for adding $25 million to the previous $30 million contract for project management of the new convention center project. The minimal supporting information tells us that part of this 85% increase is to “procure Phase I and Phase II Environmental Site Assessments for … the Austin Convention Center.” Seriously?? Anyone who cares about environmental protection knows that environmental studies should come first—they're meant to guide smarter project choices and better design from the start. Since 1970 the National Environmental Policy Act has required Environmental Impact Statements be completed well in advance of any major project funded or approved by the federal government. The EIS process also requires rigorous transparency and public engagement. The goal is not just making better decisions for the environment, but also for saving money and evaluating better alternatives. But since the City Council’s rush to commit over $5 billion of our local tax dollars over the next 30 years to the convention center project does not include federal funding and may not require federal permitting, no such EIS has been prepared. The Council long ago initiated the demolition of the existing convention center and funded design and engineering for the giant new convention center. And it's just now taking action to approve an “environmental site assessment”? Did we say “jawdroppingly stupid” yet? Please join us in urging the City Council to stop spending on this $5 billion boondoggle until after the public vote required by the Save the Soul of Austin petitioned ordinance takes place. Just wait, it gets even wackier!! Item 96 is a convention center project we support! Yes, you read that right. It calls for Austin taxpayers to kick in a little bit of money and some legal gymnastics to help the Circuit of the Americas build a 460,000 square foot convention center out at the F1 race track and entertainment complex. This is a great, minimal-cost-to-taxpayers substitute for the $5 billion and counting downtown convention center. And it's consistent with many new convention centers around the country that are being built by the private sector with only limited public subsidies. Just last month, the privately owned Gaylord Pacific project opened 10 miles from downtown San Diego, on the Pacific Ocean. This $1.35 billion project features a 480,000 sq. foot convention center and resort hotel. Public funds pitched in $275 million of the $1.35 billion cost -- Not $5 billion of public funds. And that price tag covered both the 1600 room hotel and the convention center. So think about it: Where would you choose for your convention: On the beach in San Diego? At a resort hotel and entertainment district at COTA? Or in a giant hole under downtown Austin? This convention center proposal for the COTA project is a ready substitute for a downtown convention center. The city staff memo insists, with no documentation, that the COTA convention center will not compete with the downtown convention center because “each facility has separate and distinct target markets.” The simple truth is there’s just one convention center industry and it is shrinking while the supply keeps growing. The $5 billion over the next 30 years rightfully belongs to what makes Austin a place worth visiting and worth living in: arts, parks, live music, and thriving local small businesses. Also, Item 132 calls for up to $5 million in the upcoming year of Tourism Public Improvement District funding for marketing and subsidizing convention center events -- including paying the “rent” for the convention center’s “rentable space” because none of the convention center groups actually pay rent for conventions any more. And Item 129 calls for approving a site plan for the giant convention center project. Yet no site plan is included for review and approval – only a few engineering sheets showing the overview of the project. A few dozen pages in the back-up provide a second round of staff comments on a large range of site plan issues. While many of these staff comments and objections are labelled “cleared,” the actual text states over and over that the issues are not really cleared and that serious issues, including flood plain, stormwater, pedestrian access, and utility issues have not been resolved. Please join us in urging a “no” vote for all of the convention center items other than Item 96. The signup window is short—please register to speak before noon TOMORROW, Wednesday, July 23. Invite your friends, neighbors, and anyone who cares about Austin’s future. Let’s pack the room (and the call-in list) and show the City Council what a true Austin convention of concerned citizens looks like. See you Thursday. Let’s make some noise!  SOS Snorkel Tour Dates for August Join us for a guided snorkel tour at Barton Springs and experience the magic of Austin’s most iconic swimming hole. You’ll explore beneath the surface of our home waters fed by the Edwards Aquifer, learn to spot native fish, and hear the deep-time story of the Springs, all while cooling off in 70-degree water. Whether you're a first-timer or a lifelong springs lover, this adventure is not to be missed. Here's some of our upcoming tour dates and guest guides:
 Even with recent rains, Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District remains in severe drought, and spring flows have dropped back down to 18 cfs (median is 67 cfs).
People often ask us: “How long will the Springs keep flowing?” The honest answer is: that depends all of us. Save Our Springs' tireless efforts encompass legal action to defend the Edwards Aquifer watershed, policy advocacy, and community education programs like our snorkel tours. Everything we do is aimed at protecting the waters, lands, and wildlife that make Central Texas so unique. Please make a donation today to support this critical work. Your gift helps defend the waters that define Austin. In Solidarity, SOS Alliance We need Council to prioritize parks, the lake, and affordable housing!  The South Central Waterfront District is just to the south of Lady Bird Lake from Downtown Austin, near South First and Congress Avenue. This area stands at a crossroads, and we need your help to get the City of Austin back on the correct path. The South Central Waterfront Vision Framework Plan (“Vision Plan”), approved in 2016, set forth a bold vision: a vibrant, inclusive neighborhood with interconnected public spaces, significant parkland, and at least 20% of all new housing units reserved as income-restricted, affordable homes.
Yet, there is still no regulating plan for the area. In the meantime, developers have been rushing to get approvals for “Planned Unit Development” zoning to pre-empt the regulating plan. The current approach to PUDs in this area is undermining these goals and threatening the very character of Lady Bird Lake as a natural oasis in the heart of Austin. There’s a resolution on the July 24, 2025, Austin City Council agenda (Item #121), to discuss what to do about these PUDs. But, as drafted, the resolution doesn’t really solve the problem. We need your help to speak up to demand an end to bypassing the community’s vision. Despite the clear mandate for affordable housing, none of the PUDs approved in the South-Central Waterfront District to date have required the creation of on-site affordable housing. Instead, developers have been granted waivers from the requirements of the PUD zoning code, allowing them to build higher and denser projects without providing the affordable homes our community desperately needs. The resolution currently under consideration continues to allow fee-in-lieu payments and continued waivers to the requirements, rather than mandating on-site affordable housing. Likewise, these PUDs are encroaching upon the setbacks established by the Waterfront Overlay. These setbacks are essential for maintaining public access and views of Lady Bird Lake and for protecting the riparian areas and dense tree canopies that line its shores. These riparian areas help provide natural filtering of pollution and sediment of stormwater runoff before it hits the lake. They also help stabilize the shoreline, provide habitat for urban wildlife, and ensure the ecological health of the entire lake. When these setbacks are compromised, we risk losing the natural beauty and environmental benefits that make Lady Bird Lake one of Austin’s most cherishes resources. The current resolution fails to restore or enforce these setbacks, and it does not require developers to comply with a regulating plan that would guarantee the creation of new parkland and the delivery of affordable housing as envisioned in the Vision Plan. Now is the time for action. We urge you to write to the Austin City Council and demand that they:
Write to City Council and demand real action—restore the setbacks, enforce the vision, and protect Lady Bird Lake! [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] |
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