Please take a few minutes to send an email to the City of Blanco City Council before next Tuesday asking them to call a “time out” on their pending permit application to increase the City’s authorized wastewater discharge to the Blanco River.  The Blanco City Council is set to have a work session on its wastewater application next Tuesday, August 25, at 5:30 p.m. 
Here are the key facts on this urgent and important issue.
Currently Blanco treats about 225,000 gallons per day of municipal sewage.  Sometimes this treated sewage is discharged to the river just above the FM 165 bridge (aka the Henly cutoff).  When this happens, nasty algae blooms take over the river downstream, under the 165 bridge and downstream.  (If you have 34 minutes, watch this science report on what nutrient pollution from treated municipal sewage does to our Hill Country streams.) 
Mostly, however, Blanco has irrigated its treated wastewater on pasture land, keeping its sewage out of the river.  The City has applied for a state permit that would authorize it to discharge up to 1.6 million gallons of treated sewage every day into the river.
The Blanco River is a major source of Barton Springs flows during drought conditions; it supplies critical recharge flows to San Marcos Springs under higher flow conditions. 
Save Our Springs Alliance has been working with the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association and Protect Our Blanco to convince the City to abandon its expanded discharge permit proposal, to reduce its request to only that amount needed to serve near term development within Blanco, and to commit to a “no discharge” and “total reuse” future for its treated wastewater.    The Blanco City Council has new membership and we are encouraged by their willingness to reconsider the City’s push for a river discharge permit. 
Science News Flash -- In response to Blanco’s permit application, last year SOS commissioned a biological and nutrient study of the Blanco River at Blanco by Baylor University professor Dr. Ryan King.  You can now watch Professor King’s presentation of his Blanco River research results here. 
Professor King is the leading scientist researching the effects of nutrient pollution (from municipal sewage and agricultural runoff) on aquatic ecosystems in Texas.  King’s 34 minute presentation on his Blanco River research is the best science primer on why we must keep treated sewage out of our crystal clear Hill Country streams. 
It’s actually not a hard thing to do.
The most common method for managing municipal sewage in the Hill Country for decades has been to treat and then irrigate the wastewater on fields, golf courses, or other landscaped areas.  It’s only been in recent years – when TCEQ and EPA have shown they don’t care what the law or science says about discharging treated sewage into our creeks and rivers – that developers and small cities have sought TCEQ approval to dump their sewage into our Hill Country streams.   
SOS is committed to making the Clean Water Act and science matter, once again.   (Make our rivers clean again!)  We have appealed the TCEQ permit that approved the City of Dripping Springs discharging its sewage into Onion Creek to the courthouse.  Now we are opposing the Blanco discharge proposal with the best science, law, policy, and collaborative advocacy that we can muster. 
With your help we can convince the Blanco City Council that a “no discharge” future is the best for its residents, its river, and its ratepayers.  Please send an email to the Blanco City Council, watch Professor King’s presentation, and, if you are able, send a tax-deductible donation to SOS Alliance today so that we can continue our work keeping treated sewage out of our rivers, springs, and aquifers.   

Two weeks ago President Trump signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act, which will provide $9 billion over the next 5 years to address the backlog in repairs and upgrades to national park and wildlife refuge facilities and $900 million annually to the Land and Water Conservation Fund.  The LWCF provides funding for the acquisition and expansion of national, state, and local parks.  The new law has been recognized as the most important land conservation legislation in decades. 

The Act won overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate (75-23) and the House (310-107), although both Texas Senators Cornyn and Cruz and Central Texas Congressmen Chip Roy, John Carter, and Michael McCaul voted against the Act. 

The bipartisan win reflects the solid public support that our national parks have across the nation, but especially in the west, and also the importance that voters of all stripes place on getting outside and connecting to nature, with or without a pandemic. 

Then, last Tuesday, the Hays County Commissioners Court voted to place a $75 million bond on the November ballot that would fund the acquisition of parks and conservation easements and the construction of parks facilities.  THANK YOU!! to everyone who contacted Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra and the County Commissioners to urge their support for this ballot measure. 
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Please spread the word to all Hays County voters you may know to “vote yes” on this ballot measure in November.    Several of the projects the bond would fund will, together, preserve forever a few thousand acres of Edwards Aquifer recharge and contributing zone lands. 
Tesla Gigafactory Invites Colorado River Protection Plan – Read Austin sci-fi writer Christopher Brown’s op-ed calling for the Tesla project to spur the creation of a protected Colorado River corridor from Longhorn Dam to Bastrop County. 

On July 29, 2020, the Austin City Council, led by District 10 City Council Member Alison Alter, voted unanimously to proceed with eminent domain proceedings to acquire 11.39 acres of land along Bull Creek, near Spicewood Springs Road. During last week’s meeting, SOS joined with other environmental groups such as Clean Water Action, Save Barton Creek Association, Environment Texas, and the Sierra Club to encourage the council to act quickly to protect this environmentally sensitive property.

From an environmental perspective, this is a unique property. It is located entirely within the Critical Water Quality Zone and Water Quality Transition Zone of Bull Creek (one of Austin’s drinking supply watersheds), and it is also almost entirely encumbered by floodplain. By acquiring this property, the City Council will help mitigate future flooding risks downstream and avoid increases in stormwater runoff contaminants and erosion that might occur if the site were to be developed with the proposed hotel use.
 
City-ownership of this land will also be a huge benefit for endangered and threatened species habitat. Although this parcel will not officially be part of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve (“BCP”) system, it has been on environmental advocates’ radar for many years as an important acquisition to help complete the goals of the BCCP habitat conservation plan and permit. Completing the acreage preservation requirement of the Bull Creek macro-site is one of the last remaining requirements of the BCCP masterplan and the City’s obligations under the BCCP permit.  After acquisition, SOS will encourage the City’s Parks Department to work with the BCCP to restore some of the tree canopy that once existed on the property for the benefit of the golden-cheeked warbler and black-capped vireo; however, even without these habitat restoration activities, preservation of the land would be a huge benefit to protect the springs that are immediately downstream of this property, which is habitat for other threatened species, such as the Jollyville Plateau Salamander.
 
We would also like to take a moment to re-thank Rep. Erin Zweiner, whose last-minute parliamentary skills, during the last legislative session, helped kill a harmful bill (HB 3750) that would have removed the City of Austin’s ability to regulate water quality on sites like this one, in the City’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Without Rep. Zweiner’s action, this site would more than likely be a large-scale, luxury hotel, with buildings scattering the creek’s edge.
 
As Austin’s water watchdog, the Save Our Springs Alliance will continue to promote the protection of Austin’s watersheds. We are appreciative of every member of the Austin City Council for recognizing the opportunities of acquiring this property, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Council to protect creeks all throughout Austin.