Barton Springs

[K-Man]

I've been swimming at the springs for 18 years, and I knw many of you have been going much longer.

It has gotten really nasty in the last few years. I don't want this to be a west mall thread, but what is wrong and what will fix it?

There are algae clumps all over the surface and it is getting almost unpleasant to swim laps.

 

[mishatx]

They say the development upstream has caused algae-friendly nutrients to build up in the water. Then of course there was the article in the statesman a year or two ago that said that an apartment complex in Barton Hills was a far larger source of pollutants than any upstream development.

Worse than that, though, the drought this year has caused the water not to flow through the pool quickly enough to inhibit algae growth, and when the water is flowing this slowly they can't drain the pool to clean it.

 

[big_fat_horn]

Until a few years ago, the pool was drained on a regular basis and was scrubbed and cleaned with brushes and blasted with big high pressure hoses to clean it out. Now casue of the salmanders they dont do this anymore.

 

[austintexas]

they still do it, just not as often.

 

[TheTresLeches]

This year the flow hasn't been enough for them to completely drain the pool when they close it on Thursdays. When the flow is as low as it is this summer, they can only partially drain it and clean what they can.

Combined with the algae producing contaminants from development, it leads to the messy situation we're having this year.

There is a volunteer group that goes in on Thursdays to help the lifeguards clean the pool, but with the reduced flow, they can't clean the bottom of the pool.

When there is enough water flow, they completely drain the pool on Thursdays and scrub the bottom.

 

[TheTresLeches]

Town Lake

 

[mishatx]

Here's how you can help:

Take a baggie full of these babies with you and dump them in the shallow end.