Saving the Springs: Urban Expansion and Water Quality in Austin - Politics of Urban Runoff: Nature, Technology, and the Sustainable City - page 53

protection to watersheds that did not provide drinking water for Austin
residents. This demonstrated that water quality protection was not only
necessary for human health but was also important for nonhumans. The
1991 Urban Watersheds Ordinance required water quality control struc-
tures on new development in urban watersheds, recognizing that built-up
areas also needed to protect natural resources. 76
The City of Austin's water quality ordinances formalized the munici-
pality's commitment to protecting the region's natural resources and ce-
mented its reputation as a national leader in environmental protection. 77
Moore refers to this period in Austin's history as an era of code building
that transformed the environmental values of residents into local govern-
ment policy. 78 The watershed ordinances are a form of administrative
rationalism that incorporate the evolving attitudes of residents toward
environmental protection, codifying a new interpretation of how nature
and society should relate by translating the latest scientifi c data to land
use regulations. 79
Sending Out an SOS
The aforementioned watershed ordinances were in effect when the All-
Night Council Meeting was held on June 7, 1990, but environmental and
community groups felt that these measures were insuffi cient to protect
Barton Springs from future water quality impairment. Citizen groups were
incensed by the “grandfathering” of less stringent water quality regula-
tions as well as back-room deal making and variances by the development-
friendly city council and planning commission that effectively made the
watershed ordinances as porous as the aquifer they were designed to
protect. In other words, though the ordinances were on the topics, their
existence did not always translate into rigorous enforcement. Citizens
used the All-Night Council Meeting to persuade the municipal govern-
ment to take the issue of water quality protection seriously. Riding on the
momentum of the All-Night Meeting, a number of local environmental
activists formed the Save Our Springs Coalition (later renamed the Save
Our Springs Alliance or, hereafter, SOS Alliance) to focus specifi cally on
protecting Barton Springs and all of the watersheds that contribute to the
Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. 80
The SOS Alliance quickly drafted a new water quality ordinance that
would codify the community's desire to protect the Barton Springs section
of the Edwards Aquifer. The activists wanted to institute stringent mu-
nicipal regulations to permanently prohibit large, unwanted development