Growth springs fears for beloved waters
San Marcos River’s backers warn that development, litter could bring harm
SAN MARCOS — The San Marcos River touches hearts in the fastestgrowing city of Texas’ fastestgrowing county, and threats to it strike a nerve.
Its champions warn that rapid development and the crush of new residents could herald a dark fate for the river’s endangered species and for its critical role in providing drinking water to nearly 2 million people from San Antonio to Austin.
The river draws from the San Marcos Springs and by extension the massive Edwards Aquifer. And as people and businesses pour in, more water pours out, said Miranda Wait, deputy director of Spring Lake operations at Texas State University’s Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.
“The biggest thing is that we don’t overpump the aquifer,” Wait said. “If we overpump the aquifer, then the springs will dry up, and we won’t have the San Marcos River.”
Further threats include increasing development of the land and commercialization of the river as the region attracts more businesses, tourists and newcomers.
Newly built hard surfaces — such as those of parking lots, roads and buildings — prevent rainwater from seeping through the ground and into the aquifer. And too many tubing enthusiasts leave behind cans and other litter, dirtying the pristine waters that endangered plants and animals call home.
“Locals understand, but our visitors and new residents need to understand how important this is,” Wait said. “That’s the reason this town is probably here, because of this body of water.”
Beyond the river’s waters — and what gets into them — lies the problem of what isn’t getting into the ground.
Rainfall has to permeate the land to replenish the aquifer, and it can’t get through the parking lots, roads and buildings that cover more and more ground as developers facilitate an influx of people and commerce.
For the moment, ordinances keep high-rises, businesses and other large structures from being built along the river, placating activists who fear it could turn into a San Marcos River Walk.
But development in the fastgrowing corridor seems inevitable, said July Moreno, who founded the Mermaid Society of San Marcos to encourage stewardship and conservation of the river.
“My personal hope is that when people come here to develop, that they really understand the culture here, the importance of the river and build whatever they build with that in mind,” she said.
Groups such as the San Marcos River Foundation have worked with municipalities from San Antonio to Austin to keep the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone as untouched as possible. The Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan, for instance, funds projects and research and keeps consistent regulations along stretches of the river.
And local activists work with landowners to limit development in the aquifer recharge zone.
“The reason the river is so clear is because it pours out of the ground,” said Diane Wassenich, who served as the executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation for 34 years. “And the land that the rainwater soaks into is mostly undeveloped between San Marcos and Wimberley.”
A great deal of that land is on two large ranches, she said.
“Those vast, vast ranches are undeveloped, and we’d like them to stay that way,” she said. “It’s very important to hang onto vegetated, un-concreted land so that rain can soak in so that we can actually have a spring in the future.”
The San Marcos River is the “bloodstream that feeds the life of our town,” Wassenich said, and it should be protected at all costs.
“It’s the heartbeat of the community, it’s the jewel of San Marcos,” she said. “We want to keep it that way.”