Growing population, climate change prompt increase efforts to protect river

By Carlota Pulgar News Reporter

With spring break and tubing season approaching, local organizations have increased their efforts of protecting the San Marcos River, specifically in relation to the influx of human activity in the area and climate change. The Meadows Center for Water Environment has received funding for a climate change research initiative that will help protect water sources across Texas.

These combined efforts are to help ensure the longevity of the supply of water and quality for generations to come. The San Marcos River Foundation (SMRF) has been pushing for green infrastructure for future developments according to Executive Director Virginia Parker.

“Developers can have a huge impact on our river in our waterway. So, we feel like that's a really important step to take,” Parker said. “Because we know developments are coming, it's here, it's only going to get bigger, so we feel like the developers are a key at least and protecting water quality and quantity.”

According to Amy Thomaides, the Community Enhancement Initiatives manager for the City of San Marcos who manages Keep San Marcos Beautiful, the biggest threat to the San Marcos River is human activity.

“Human activity and just those minor things that are happening make a big impact,” Thomaides said. “You can just look at people who aren't mindful not just along the river, but wherever they are.”

Keep San Marcos Beautiful has been able to expand its efforts across the upper San Marcos River watershed through volunteer efforts with its annual river cleanups which include litter-heavy areas like creeks and ditches that flow into the river. The 38th Annual Great Texas River Clean Up is this Saturday, March 4.

“When we expanded into the watersheds, we actually found a lot of old dump sites,” Thomaides said. “We haven’t always had this kind of urban development, so they didn’t have garbage services like they have now, they had areas where they just put all their trash. We’re finding those old dump site and cleaning them up with the river clean up.”

Littering can affect the quality of the river, but so can contaminants.

According to Executive Director of the Meadows Center for Water and Environment and Professor of Practice at the Department of Geography and

From Front Service

Environmental Studies Robert Mace, chemicals like pesticides and herbicides used on lawns can make it into the recharge zones, where water percolates into the aquifer and fills back up, affecting overall quality.

“There are trace amounts of contaminants that come out of the springs on a regular basis,” Mace said. “Nothing that has been causing a great deal of alarm but they're there and indicate human impacts on the system.”

SMRF has been working through different mediums to protect the integrity and quality of the river and protect the natural habitat from invasive species.

“We work to get wastewater treatment permits to be a better standard than the minimum because any wastewater that ends up in our river or tributaries of the river, can potentially lead to algal blooms due to increase nitrogen and phosphorus,” Parker said.

The Meadows Center was recently awarded $2.5 million in federal appropriations for climate change research to protect Texas waters. According to Mace, a driving factor for this research is to be able to give policymakers in Texas the information they need to make informed decisions regarding the impacts of climate change.

“What we’re seeing and hearing is that there is a growing concern in the water sector about the impacts of climate change, and that’s different from even five years ago,” Mace said. “The legacy I'm hoping for this work is that at the end of the day, we're going to see much more of Texas understanding what climate change means for water resources and even better responding to that understanding, to make sure we as a state are where we need to be to be resilient.”

Although this research initiative is to help protect bodies of water all over Texas, Mace worries about the effects that climate change might have on the San Marcos River in the future.

“Climate change is highly likely, if not almost assuredly going to result in less water, refilling the aquifer, which means less water coming out of the springs, which means less water in the river,” Mace said. “The surface water sources are highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change both on the supply side because increasing temperatures means greater evaporation, which means less soil moisture, which means less water running off the land surface into the rivers less water percolating into our aquifers to recharge them.”

With this in mind, The Meadows Center is not in a place to start doing attribution science in relation to climate change, Mace said. There are clues to possible impacts of climate change from events like flooding and drought, but these aren’t definitive.

“In general Texas is about two degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was 50 years ago,” Mace said. “And that does have consequences for recharge, which has consequences for spring flow. I should note that, over these winter months, you know, we've been at the lowest level of spring flow since 1996.”

Mace suggests minimizing the use of pesticides, reducing water use, helping clean litter and staying informed on water decisions.

“As San Marcos grows, we got to find we got to get water from somewhere and so there's decisions that are being made to ensure that we're getting enough water. So, pay attention and see if you agree, based on your values, with where that water comes from and how it's being used. Whether you like it or not, share your opinions with your elected officials.”

I understand how powerful of an organization Samaritan’s Purse is in doing good on this earth,” John said.

Based on his first-hand experience of the Ukraine warzone, John said the news had not adequately addressed the violence or the effect of the war on the population they were trying to help.

He remembers seeing signs along the streets of Kyiv warning people of bomb-stuffed teddy bears from the Russian Air Force.

“The Russians were dropping these toys in the city and inside them were explosive devices. So when the children, who were looking for some kind of peace, would pick up these toys, it would explode in their hands, killing or maiming them,” John said.

Karen Meeks, John's wife, was aware of the increasingly dangerous warzone her husband would be in, but she knew it was something he wanted to do and supported it.

“I just felt like we had thought about it, he had it in his heart and for that door to open I just felt like this must be the right path then,” Karen said.

Since John was based in Samaritan’s Purse’s country office in Kyiv, communication with Karen was relatively easy.

“I was fortunate to be able to talk with Karen almost every evening. We were being bombed three or four times each week as Putin pushed to weaponize winter by destroying the energy and water infrastructure of the country,” John said. “During the harshest times, it meant everything to me to be able to just talk with her over the secure communication line we had back to America. She was my rock during my deployment.”

On the trip, John and his team helped internally displaced Ukrainian people by providing them with resources like medical aid and emergency field hospitals staffed with surgeons, nurses and ER doctors, as well as shelter, water, food, sanitation and hygiene resources.

John learned multiple lessons in his efforts to bring humanitarian relief to Ukraine. The biggest one was learning how much the work he was doing meant for the people he was helping.

“First, I got an appreciation for how fragile life is. Second, I learned we are nothing without hope, Ukrainian people lost hope and we were there to give them back that hope. Third,

John found peace in knowing what he was doing was bringing hope to the people in Ukraine even though he was often frightened by the bombing and violence.

He said he had an encounter with an employee when he went to exchange his U.S. dollars for Ukrainian money. When he presented the money, she asked John, in a stern tone, where he was from and what he was doing there.

“When she asked why I was here, I said I am here to save lives and alleviate suffering, and she broke down in tears on her desk,” John said. “She looked up at me, her tears pouring down her face, and said ‘thank you for being here, we are not alone,’ and that is why I went to Ukraine.”

John’s discomfort from the cold and hard work in certain situations worried Karen. In the end, however, she knew he would be safe.

“Mostly I had peace. I feel like the organization he went with was very specific and careful about everything and they told us they were big into safety at the very beginning,” Karen said. “So, I felt like he was in the best place he could be given the circumstances.”

While John was in the Samaritan’s Purse country office in Ukraine, he and the employees worked with other relief organizations such as the United Nations, to provide the most effective humanitarian aid to the displaced people.

“I was a tiny, tiny, tiny part of this enormous effort to get the resources to all these people,” John said. “I realized once I got in the country office that was where I was supposed to be to help in this crisis.”