YouTubeAustin: SOS Catches AMD in the Muck

Barton Springs is currently closed after this week's rains flooded the pool. Meanwhile, on the other side of the watershed, the Save Our Springs Alliance points out that recent construction by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and the Hill Country Galleria Mall have left "huge amounts of sediment," much of which washed into the Edwards Aquifer earlier this week:

More photos and descriptions are available on their website.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Allen Y Chen in News on March 28, 2007 3:53 PM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

DJFelix

You've really got to be kidding me, right? We're supposed to be all upset that:

1) It rained

2) The rainwater kicked up dirt, that flowed down hill.

It's dirt right? It's not toxic waste ... just "silt" or "sediment" or "dirt" ...

What's the problem here? Go jump in town lake, kick your feet around the bottom ... stir up some sediment ... It'll look the same.

If you don't want to swim in dirt ... don't swim in a river/lake ... Period.

I don't see the controversy here people. I agree with the first poster ... pure propaganda, nothing more.

I don't support the SOS, I don't support their initiatives, and I certainly don't support politicians who support them. This blatant propaganda only re-affirms my position.

{ yawn }

Anon

Have you been out to that area? Across the street is a Freescale office complex with a semiconductor Fab. There are numerous apartment complexes and well as neighborhoods and other office buildings. Many people think that AMD is the only large development in some pristine wilderness, but that is not the case...

Anon

Lets face it, these building projects just stink. I think the point SOS is trying to make is that the silt fences are breached so easily. If someone dosen't publicly keep these people in check as they build they will run roughshod over the surrounding evironment. It dosen't appear to me that what we're seeing in the video as much directly effects the pool as it does the Williamson creek tributaries which deserve just as much protection as Barton Springs.

Hey AMD - no ammount of PR will EVER make up for the fact that you ignored public opinion and built over hallowed ground. When the springs are closed forever due in part to the crap that washes off your parking lots and into the aquifer Austin will be changed forever. What a legacy...

Anon

Let me be the first to say that I don't like the construction. But let's face it, this is marketing at its best. Of course its going to be all cloudy when you take pictures of water that is coming right off the construction area. The ground has been turned up, vegetation is removed and items are flowing freely.

Now, show me Barton Springs this color and a video of them going up stream to the source and I'll bite. No, I wouldn't seim in that water that's all brown at the construction site, but I will swim in Barton Springs....well, let's say I'd rather. The people and the pee doesn't really do ti for me at the springs either.