Belterra Wants Treated Sewage Sent To Barton Springs

In the wake of a finding by the U.S. Geological Survey showing the highest ever levels of the pesticide atrazine, dry cleaning solvent, and chloroform in Barton Springs, the subdivision of Belterra has requested a permit to expand their sewage treatment plant and allow discharge directly into Bear Creek, which feeds the Barton Springs portion of the aquifer. Maybe this isn't a big deal. The sewage discharged into Barton Springs would be treated to remove most of the recognizable excrement, which seems slightly less distasteful than the motor oil and gasoline runoff that already pours into the aquifer. The entirety of the hill country is now, or soon will be, suburban sprawl, so thinking that we can continue to swim in untreated water filtered through that region is increasingly unrealistic.

Austin Action and Save Our Springs Alliance are organizing protests and petitions, but the larger problem here is not this particular poop in the pool. If we keep expanding the highways and water connections out to the land that feeds Barton Springs, then Raymond Slade (a retired hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey) will be right that "Barton Springs will not be swimmable in 20 years."

Photo by Matt Wright on Flickr