October 2007 Archives

SOS Alliance has collected some letters to the editor of Austin American Statesman, about the degradation of Hamilton Pool.

The battle of the last two decades has preserved Barton Springs, so far. The urbanization of Travis County has sprawled out here so that now, we really need to focus some attention on Hamilton Pool. And a dozen wonderful water resources out here most people don't even know about.

This is fun. Trinity University in San Antonio beat Milsaps on this amazing last play. There's already even a Wikipedia entry about it:

The county and TCEQ have sued Coldwater over the degradation to Hamilton Pool and Hamilton Creek:

The lawsuit does not seek a specific dollar amount, but high-ranking county officials — who asked not to be named because of the pending lawsuit — say cleanup costs could easily exceed $2 million.

Note to developers: When you fuck up, just buckle down and make a real effort to clean up your mess. Don't continue to slide silt into the creek and hope nobody will notice. "The lawsuit states that government inspectors saw 'silt-laden runoff' flowing into Hamilton Creek as recently as September."

And you thought $85,000 was bad.

Errrm... that's bad, isn't it?

Dear Commissioner Daugherty,

I apologize for interrupting your speech Tuesday night at the meeting about Hammett's Crossing. I'm glad nobody else at the event behaved as I did, and that we otherwise had an informative meeting. Most of all, I'm sorry to have prevented your expressing your opinions on the proposed bridge.

I lost my temper, and went out of bounds, when you dilated on supposedly unreasonable cycling advocates, rather than discussing our bridge. It seemed you were trying to unite your listeners around a common bogeyman, those cyclists always getting in our way. I was frustrated during your speech because this meeting was not the time to spin off into a cycling discussion.

I live on Hamilton Pool Road, and I ride my bike several times a week throughout western Travis, northern Hays, and eastern Blanco counties. I wish you had instead described how you had made Hamilton Pool Road safer for cyclists.

But that's no excuse for disrupting a public meeting. Sorry.

Regards,

Hugh Winkler

Now and then the Power makes a show of "listening to the people". Tonight, the people of Hamilton Pool Road spoke overwhelmingly against any new bridge! It was exhilarating. But from personal experience: Temper that exhilaration with the recognition that (near) unanimity and solidarity alone is not enough; we have to keep fighting because the Power is inexorable and will have its way if we let our guard down. .

Mighty few people from the west side of the Pedernales River seemed to be in favor of a new bridge. Sure, guardrails if you must. But nobody wanted anything that would increase traffic or decrease peacefulness.

There was a palpable turning point when the Travis County roads guy impressed on everyone that Hamilton Pool Road west of RR12 is scheduled to be a four lane highway by 2030. You could hear little gasps. Nobody out here wants that.Nobody.

So here's the deal: there's federal money TxDot can spend to improve bridge safety. They have $1.3M budgeted for this project. They are surveying the area so they can assess the needs of this old crossing. The crossing is currently "safe" and rates 64 out of 100 on some scale they have. It's not about to slide away, and the county guy (Steve Manilla, Director of Engineering) even mentioned that it can take a full 36 ton load. Still, it's an old bridge, and the guardrails are low, and it's narrow, so it's on the list for possible improvements.

That's TxDot's perspective. The county has a different agenda: Precinct 3 Commissioner Gerald Daugherty's plan to put a dense subdivision on every square inch of western Travis County. That's why the real estate development corporations put him there. County staff now has a mandate from the Commissioner's Court, CAMPO, and The Gerald, to plan for a four lane arterial where Hamilton Pool Road used to be. So the bridge they want is going to be substantially bigger than the one TxDot can build with its $1.3M and the federal limitation that the funds be spent to improve safety.

So TxDot and the county will collaborate to plan a bridge that satisfies the mandate to improve safety, and will also satisfy the CAMPO four lane mandate. The county, though, will have to come up with the extra money for the non-safety, CAMPO-compliant "improvements". That means a bond election.

The TxDot engineers at the meeting didn't say this, but it's obvious. A bridge that meets the requirements of an eventual four lane highway has to stretch high over the canyon. No more cute little winding switchbacks down to the river. That's for pedestrians, cyclists and other non-productive communities . That's not for the gravel trucks and schoolbuses full of cul-de-sac kids. They'll fly over the river and never know it's there. Same as zooming west on 71, you never see the river. It's just a little green road sign.

A guy named Bob Ashcroft chaired the meeting. He was facilitator, or moderator, and did a great job. He lives "three counties and ninety miles away" so he's disinterested in the outcome.

The meeting was very orderly with one brief outburst by a troublemaker. Me. The Gerald was the first speaker, and he began in the manner of a loquacious politician, broadly embracing his audience, gathering us into his fold: Western Travis County residents are a diverse bunch, ha ha. But you know, there are some things that unite us all, out here. Just to show you how crazy some people are, let me tell you a little story. The other day I met with some people from the Texas Bicycle Coalition. I asked them for just some simple common sense cooperation Can you just, please, explain to your people that cycling on Hamilton Pool Road is dangerous? But practically before I could finish, these fellows were leaning over the desk, pointing out specific lines in the Texas Transportation Code that said they have as much right as any vehicle to ride on this road! [Shrug] What can you do?

Loud voice from the back: Make the road safe, and let's talk about the bridge! (That's me)

Gerald: Huh?

Me: Talk about the bridge!

A lot of people don't know this about me, but I am all about safe cycling on Hamilton Pool Road. To come out here and trump up a common enemy Gerald thinks we can all unite around -- cyclists -- is pathetic. He imagined there would not be one cyclist in the audience? There were several.

And then: He never says one word about the bridge. He wraps it up in a hurry, stays through some of the engineers' discussion, and leaves before the citizen comments.

Our Commish.

Let me say one word for Gerald, in all sincerity. Despite my profound differences with him, I respect that he showed up tonight at all. Being County Commissioner is hard thankless work, and I wish someone else were doing it for us; but I think you're probably not all bad if you will do it, and participate at some level in all kinds of events at all hours with a bunch of pissed off citizens. It wasn't fun for him.

We can put him out of his misery real soon now, you know.

Video: We are all expecting Ric Sternberg to post the video any minute now at Neighbors in Paradise. He taped the whole meeting. Not to mention: he sort of energized this whole thing by noticing the survey crew and asking all the right questions. Thanks Ric.

Public Comments: The organizers captured all citizen comments on paper tablets. Click "read more" to see photos of all the comments.

I had no idea there's new gorge at Canyon Lake carved by the floods of 2002. This link has good Google Earth/Maps views. Photos here and here.

Who knew Blanco had a free citywide bike project?

The Hill Country Alliance is tracking the Hamilton Pool degradation story , including the full text of Judge Biscoe's letter to TCEQ. He says:

Based on their site analysis, the consultants have concluded that the Agreed Order to remove visible accumulations of sediment from Hamilton Creek and its tributaries is insufficent. Effects of the site pollution have been documented on a 4 ½ mile stretch between the project site and the confluence of Hamilton Creek with the Pedernales River. There is no mention in the Agreed Order of any remediation of Hamilton Pool. In addition, the Agreed Order does not address site access to affected parties downstream, controls to address the biological and ecological effects of the sedimentation pollution and/or any assesments of remediation alternatives and associated effects downstream.

Go, Judge B!

The Statesman has a unique take on Perry's new appointments:

It's happening.

From Pam Reese:

October 23rd, Tuesday

7:00 pm

Westcave Preserve

Our guest speakers will include Joe Perez, the TXDot design manager for the new bridge, and Gerald Daugherty, Travis County Commissioner. Following comments from these two guests, there will be an open discussion period.

This is going to be a verrrry interesting meeting.

Hamilton Pool is a uniquely valuable resource in Travis County, and by the developer's admission, current development rules are inadequate to protect it.

TCEQ, Travis and Hays counties, and LCRA need to come together right now to devise rules that protect this one of a kind resource. And until they do, there needs to be a moratorium on development in the watershed contributing to Hamilton Pool.

Quoth Coldwater:

"Our erosion controls and silt fences were approved by Hays County and were inspected prior to construction and after this disaster," said Cosmo Palmieri, the project manager for Coldwater Development. "We were in full compliance."

I'm going to remember this next time during some consensus process, developers complain that they need prescriptive rules, which, if they comply with those rules, vaccinate them against liability. Fortunately, we don't have such rules in place, and the county should sue their pants off.

Our vigilant sympathizer South Texas Chisme has been following the story:

Apparently, they were under the impression that under Republican regimes, polluters were handed flowers. Hey, this is election season and the 'we make our own reality' party is trying to look like they care a tiny bit about our environment. Hence, the small fine instead of flowers. Take heart: It wasn't a real fine.

Added to Planet HPR!

Somehow back in June I neglected to post these heartbreaking photos taken by Mara Eurich of the damage done to Hamilton Pool by the runoff from The Ranches at Hamilton Pool development:

TCEQ has fined the developers $85,000, but Travis County considers that inadequate, and may sue for the full cleanup of Hamilton Pool and Hamilton Creek, which are still coated with chalky sediment.

Considering what to do is on the Commissioner's Court agenda for October 16.

Update: here is the TCEQ complaint.

Check out Planet HPR, an evolving and frequently updated compendium of blog entries somehow, at least in my own mind, related to HPR.

Sal Costello, in a comment yesterday, reminds us that Gerald Daugherty is up for re-election next March. And we really need a candidate to replace him!

It's kind of amazing how large an area Precinct 3 covers: Hamilton Pool Road, Spicewood, Bee Cave, Lakeway, and also Lago Vista and Jonestown! Not to mention West Austin and West Lake Hills.

Democrats have done poorly in this precinct, but we could beat him in the Republican primary. The most viable opponent would be a Republican who favors planned growth and conservation of the Hill Country, and opposes toll roads. There are lots of Republican voters madder than hell about toll roads, and Gerald has put himself in a spot of bother.

I know we have several sympathetic Republicans along HPR here -- are any of you mad enough, and energetic enough, to take on this burden? You will get tons of help, says Sal:

Our Political Action Committee has a campaign strategy that works, but we need funded viable opponents to contact me at sal at austintollparty.com ASAP. Most deadlines to run for office are at the first of the year. Most viable opponents announce from September to November. A viable opponent is someone who already has a base of supporters and can raise large sums of money to support a full campaign office, an experienced campaign manager and equally important - the money to put forward a political advertising campaign to communicate with voters.

Ric posts a detailed report about TxDOT plans to "improve" Hammett's Crossing, the low water bridge across the Pedernales. The crossing floods several times a year, and the switchbacks on the east side catch an unwary tractor trailer every year or so (in spite of warning signs).

As a resident of the east side of the crossing, the flooding never inconveniences me. I love this scenic place where you can cross inches above the water.

If west side residents wanted the bridge improved, I would have to defer to that. When the bridge is closed (usually a day or so at a time), their drive to the grocery store goes up a good twenty or thirty miles (via Fall Creek Rd to 71). I think it would be possible for TxDOT to build a better bridge and to preserve the existing crossing as a pedestrian walkway (as Ric's article mentions is the intent). The county already owns the adjacent park land on the southeast, so that would be suitable parking, and could make this little crossing more accessible.

But two points.

1. Ric is a west side resident and gladly puts up with the occasional inconvenience. He doesn't want a bridge, and I don't need one, so I'm on his side.

2. The county commish, Gerald "The Gerald" Daugherty, is probably conniving as we speak to drum up his developer base to press for "improvements" to HPR making it just one more arterial in his vision of Western Travis county as a cul de sac community. If I trusted my elected representative just wanted to improve the lives of Ric and Annie out there, I could be persuaded; but I know this is just a windfall, federally funded opportunity for him to open up the west side of the Pedernales to development by his political cronies.

Texas was founded as a real estate speculation, and that spirit lives on. Not much effort goes into real economic development -- manufacturing, jobs, sustainability. The local real estate agents don't really make money that way. Not in the near term. What this town needs is a few dozen cul de sac subdivisions and a Home Depot. Get rich, or get out of the way!

Here's a typical blurb from this month's Dripping Springs Outlook:

Have you noticed the excitement in the air around Dripping Springs lately? As you drive into town and approach the intersection of Ranch Road 12 and Highway 290, bulldozers are zipping around the new Home Depot site on the southeast corner. The Sonic is packed; it’s hard to find a spot at noon. There are folks rushing in and out of City Hall and the County Commissioner’s office as new development is springing up in all four directions. Some days it feels like we are a sleepy little town, stretching, yawning, and waking up to a brand new day, full of new sights and sounds and lots of activity. Everyone wants to know what’s going on and when things are coming.

With the bustling growth in Dripping Springs, word is spreading quickly around Austin, the entire state and the nation. Buyers are coming from other parts of Texas as well as from California and all the way to the East Coast. Everyone wants a piece of the Hill Country and the area around Dripping Springs is at the top of the list.

Heck, I bet they're talking about us in New York City!