Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
infl ux of newcomers, the general awareness is diluted. It's very diffi cult
to keep pace on educational outreach when the population is growing
as fast as it is.”
116
As such, it seems increasingly unlikely that the com-
munity will galvanize their collective energies around Barton Springs as
they did on June 7, 1990. Refl ecting on changes since the 1970s, another
environmental activist notes:
I think the rapid rate of growth clearly dilutes the ability for a community to
remain cohesive and maintain its understanding of its history and identity. When
people come here from Dallas or Houston, they think it's great compared to
where they came from. But they don't understand why we're so upset about some
little development. So there isn't that same appreciation for what made it great
and preserving that. Austin isn't beautiful compared to Houston and Dallas by
accident, it's because everyone got out there and fought for it.
117
In 2007, the Barton Springs pool was closed for a record number of
days due to rainy conditions that caused fl ooding and the introduction of
unsafe concentrations of contaminants into the pool.
118
Most agree that
the water quality of the pool will continue to decline as new upstream
development occurs; a respected local geologist recently made the con-
troversial prediction that Barton Springs will be unswimmable in two
decades.
119
This suggests that degradation of the springs—and, by exten-
sion, the unique culture of Austin—is an inevitable consequence of urban
growth. As sociologist Scott Swearingen writes, “Barton Creek and Barton
Springs are not dead yet, but as Austin gets even bigger and more growth
covers the aquifer, they are more threatened than ever.”
120
The debate over environmental quality upstream of Barton Springs
ultimately revolves around a conventional conception of nature as sepa-
rate from humans. The solution to environmental degradation from this
perspective is to stop urban expansion in the Hill Country, which is re-
fl ected in the all-or-nothing rhetoric of environmental groups such as the
SOS Alliance. A larger dialog on what types of development might pro-
tect water quality in the region as a whole is nonexistent because of a
singular focus on Barton Springs and the creeks and subsurface water
fl ows that feed into it. Nowhere is there a topologic understanding of
landscape that recognizes the interconnectedness of all activities in the
region. In the next chapter, I head downstream from Barton Springs to
see how the environmental politics of the Hill Country have spilled over
into the central part of the city. Urban runoff strategies in the central core
refl ect a markedly different attitude toward human/nonhuman relations
but are also implicated in the water quality activities described in this
chapter.
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