River Systems Institute

Texas State, Rep. Rose Announce San Marcos Water Research Project

Rep. Patrick M. Rose (D-Dripping Springs) and Texas State University-San Marcos leaders announced the San Marcos River Observing System project at the Rivers Systems Institute July 14. "Implementing a long-term plan to guarantee the sustainability of the San Marcos River basin is one of the most important investments our state can make today," said Rep. Rose. "I am pleased to partner with Texas State in support of research that will further the environmental quality and economic security of our region." During the legislative session last spring, Sen. Wentworth, Rep. Rose and Texas State were successful in securing a one-million dollar appropriation for the Institute. Other partners in the San Marcos River Observing System project include the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the National Park Service. "When Rep. Rose and Texas State partner at the Legislature, things get done," said Denise M. Trauth, president of Texas State. "By working with Rep. Rose, we have been able to position our university as an international leader on these important water sustainability issues." Water, and its availability, is key to Texas' economic security. "This project will allow us to design a long-term monitoring program for surface water and ground water affecting the river basin," said Andrew Sansom, executive director of the River Systems Institute. "Rep. Rose understands that for Austin, San Marcos, San Antonio and other communities along the IH-35 corridor to thrive, we must be strategic about this important resource."

Our Upcoming Conference: Land Water People 2009 - November 16-18, 2009 

Details and Registration

As part of its annual conference series and its Initiative for Watershed Excellence program, the River Systems Institute will host Land, Water, People 2009 on November 16-18, 2009 at the San Marcos Conference Center.

In a program of over 75 expert presenters and workshop facilitators, we will explore the potential to more effectively manage and protect water resources, on both a local and regional scale, through applications to these important interfaces within watershed and community dynamics:

• Natural Systems Interface

• Natural and Human Systems Interface

• People to People Interface

As part of recognizing these interfaces,  we will examine the dynamics within four ecological interface zones;

land to water - riparian zone - coastal - groundwater/surface water

and define the role of their ecosystem functions within watershed dynamics and the benefits of those functions to social and economic systems.    As we identify the importance of these interfaces,  we will identify the tools and approaches that promote and support collaboration between institutions and communities in order to more effectively manage  water and other natural resources within our watersheds.

Don’t miss this opportunity to network and collaborate on these important watershed topics!

Initiative for Watershed Excellence Program Update- October 2009

An overview of the Initiative for Watershed Excellence with highlights of current activities is now available. 

Click here to download this update.

San Marcos River Drops to 80 CFS!

Today the river flow is down to 80 cfs and dropping daily.  The flow is given in cfs - which means cubic feet per second. The average flow of the San Marcos river is about 130 cfs. 100 cfs is pretty low. 500 cfs is very good flow.  We all need to do everything we can to limit our water use, more than we ever have before. Stage 2 restrictions are in affect for San Marcos residents once the flow falls to 80cfs. To review the rules about drought restrictions see this link from the city of San Marcos: http://ci.san-marcos.tx.us/departments/WWW/Docs/09apr_DroughtResponseRulesBrochure.pdf

See USGS real time data for current conditions.

Texas is experiencing one of the worst droughts on record and described as the worst drought conditions in the country.   These conditions have not been seen since 1872!

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board Release Report on State Water Quality

The City of Denton developed a watershed protection plan that will reduce sediment into Hickory Creek by an estimated 61 tons per year. Because of improvements to the City of Fort Worth's household hazardous waste facility, along with other activities, people can now eat fish from Lake Como. These are just a few of the highlights from Managing Nonpoint Source Pollution in Texas 2008 Annual Report, released by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board. The full report, available on the Web, is published by the TCEQ and the TSSWCB, who jointly administer the federally funded program. The report summarizes the state's activities to collect data, assess water quality, implement projects that reduce or prevent NPS pollution, and educate and involve the public in maintaining the quality of water resources for current and future generations.

Silent Springs Pose Question of Whether It is Too Late to Save Hill Country Water

Sixty feet below the surface of Jacob’s Well, an artesian spring that for thousands of years has pulsed water from the Trinity Aquifer to the surface, a sophisticated instrument measures the spring’s vital signs. These days the gauge detects only the thinnest of pulses. In 2000, Jacob’s Well stopped flowing for the first time in recorded history. Its source sapped, Cypress Creek came to a trickle in Wimberley, and the state added it to a list of streams with impaired water quality. The spring ceased flowing again in October 2008. As this story went to press, it appeared Jacob’s Well had gone to zero a third time. The cessations confirm what water experts have been warning: that Jacob’s Well is under immense stress from a development boom over the Trinity Aquifer, the primary source of water for much of the Hill Country. The trouble is hardly limited to Jacob’s Well or the Hill Country. Groundwater scarcity is a looming crisis across Texas. Because of drought, overpumping, and the loss of natural recharge, state water planners estimate that groundwater available for pumping will decrease 22 percent by 2060. The state’s laissez-faire water laws and cumbersome regulatory apparatus have done little to help. Conservationists see bad omens in what’s happening to Jacob’s Well and the Trinity Aquifer. Water is particularly fragile in the Hill Country, designated by the state in 1990 as a priority groundwater management area. In no other region of the state, perhaps, are groundwater and surface water so closely intertwined. The science is clear: If the aquifers decline, they take the springs, seeps, streams, rivers, and lakes with them.

A Passage into the Primeval on Caddo Lake

Every visitor to Caddo Lake on the Texas-Louisiana border seems to come away with a profoundly personal impression. Anglers prize Caddo, the only naturally formed lake in Texas, for its trophy bass; canoeists rate its twisting, interlocking bayous among the most challenging to navigate. Environmentalists cherish its 26,000 acres as a rare, if not singular, wetlands environment. Caddo is more of a large bayou, composed of many smaller waterways. It is home to over 200 species of birds; hundreds of kinds of mammals, reptiles and fish; and countless plants, most prominently the towering baldcypress -- some as old as 400 years -- that erupt from its surface like limbs of drowned giants. But what struck this writer from the New York Times about Caddo Lake the first time he saw it was the powerful suggestion of the supernatural that it evoked.

On the Trail of the San Marcos River

Austin American-Statesman writer Michael Barnes wrote about his experience tracing the San Marcos River. "We began to trace the relatively short San Marcos River after an earlier visit to the Texas Rivers Center on the Texas State University-San Marcos campus. That day on bountiful Spring Lake at the Aquarena Springs site intrigued us...we walked as much of the lake shore as possible, watching the novice scuba divers, noting the relics from the amusement-park days - such as the elaborate, organically shaped base of the aerial cable car system - taking the wetlands trail around the slough, spotting a green heron and an Eastern phoebe. Someday, this will all become a nature education center...By car, we crossed to below the dam that impounds Spring Lake, and the little industrial complex that became a series of restaurants - now Saltgrass Steak House - and the thick vegetation under a hidden second dam. Later, we were to realize this was just the beginning of a series of bigger impoundments and weirs on the San Marcos, since the swift, steady flow of water attracted mills and cotton gins during the 19th century, just as the Piedmont region did on the East Coast."

 

Climate Change Countdown: Wild Climate Swings in Amazon May Predict Trouble Elsewhere

Across the Amazon basin, river dwellers are adding new floors to their stilt houses, trying to stay above rising floodwaters that have killed 48 people and left 405,000 homeless. Flooding is common in the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness, but this year the waters rose higher and stayed longer than they have in decades, leaving fruit trees entirely submerged. Only four years ago, the same communities suffered an unprecedented drought that ruined crops and left mounds of river fish flapping and rotting in the mud. Experts suspect global warming may be driving wild climate swings that appear to be punishing the Amazon with increasing frequency. "It's the million-dollar question," says Carlos Nobre, a climatologist with Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. While a definitive answer will take years of careful study, climatologists say the world should expect more extreme weather in the years ahead. Already, what happens in the Amazon could be affecting rainfall elsewhere, from Brazil's agricultural heartland to the U.S. grainbelt, as rising ocean temperatures and rain forest destruction cause shifts in global climate patterns. "It's important to note that it's likely that these types of record-breaking climate events will become more and more frequent in the near future," Nobre said.
 

Universities Partner with Global Environmental Facility and U.N. Environment Program on Rio Grande

Texas State University and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico are partnering with the Global Environmental Facility and United Nations Environment Program to facilitate the sustainable use of the Rio Grande. The Rio Grande is not only a major boundary between Mexico and the United States; it is central to the cultural heritage and history of the border region of both countries. Although a 1944 Treaty between Mexico and the USA controls water allocations in the international section of the Rio Grande, the river's ability to support a formidable range of human physical, social, and economic needs, while also maintaining important ecosystems, is being overwhelmed. The primary objective of this project is to develop and facilitate implementation of an integrated, ecosystem-based, binational management plan to address the serious human and environmental problems confronting this sensitive transboundary river system. Building on the existing legal framework between Mexico and the United States, the project outlines a two-phased approach of diagnosis and action directed to developing a comprehensive, participatory framework for coordinated management of the Rio Grande Basin. 
 

Please check out Earth Day Celebration at Aquarena

Spotlight on Research

 Cypress Creek Project

The goal of the Cypress Creek Project is to ensure that the long-term integrity and sustainability of the Cypress Creek watershed (located in Hays County, Texas) is preserved and that water quality standards are maintained for present and future generations. The project consists of two phases. Phase One (2008-2010) seeks to define the current state of the watershed, gather input from community stakeholders, and develop a science-based tool for local decision makers. Knowledge gained from this three year project will create opportunities to develop a watershed management plan. Phase Two (2010-2012) will involve the development and implementation of a watershed management plan. A watershed management plan approaches water quality and watershed issues by recommending strategies that address more than one watershed and community concern.

The River Systems Institute, through strong Cypress Creek community partnerships, is facilitating this project. The project is paid for by grants from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency Region VI. Strong community ties and partnerships are the backbone of the Cypress Creek Project and will ensure our long term success. Where possible, the River Systems Institute will use existing partnerships to build on their networks, information, and efforts. We gratefully acknowledge the support and dedication of our partners.