Tag Archives: Watershed Protection Department
Friday, July 20, 2018 by Chad Swiatecki
Environment
City’s new flood plain maps would affect building regulations
New federal data on Austin’s rainfall patterns will cause the city to expand the size of areas in the 100-year flood plain and likely lead to a change in development requirements for properties exposed to flash-flooding risk.The city’s Watershed Protection…
Monday, July 16, 2018 by Elizabeth Pagano
Radio
Austin Monitor Radio: Environmental Officer Chuck Lesniak
After 28 years with the city, Environmental Officer Chuck Lesniak is retiring. In this week’s show, he sits down with freelancer Caleb Pritchard and editor Elizabeth Pagano to talk about the lessons that he’s learned during his time at the…
Tuesday, June 12, 2018 by Jessi Devenyns
Environment
Watershed Protection budget accounts for approval of CodeNEXT
This year, as the Watershed Protection Department goes through its annual budgeting cycle, things are looking good.At the June 6 meeting of the Environmental Commission, Watershed Protection staff presented an overview of its upcoming projects and the related finances. According…
Tuesday, May 22, 2018 by Jessi Devenyns
Environment
Austin’s cave frontier gets slowly uncovered
Austin is home to a complex of underground aquifers that we know are filled by a system of underground caves. However, if we know that to be the case, why we don’t see caves everywhere?“Basically, because all of them were…
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 by Mose Buchele
Parks
Section of Shoal Creek Hike and Bike Trail suffers massive storm damage
Jessica Zarowitz was in for a surprise while walking her dog, Lady Bird, along the Shoal Creek Hike and Bike Trail on Monday: The trail that had been there for years suddenly wasn’t. Trees had fallen over it, and the…
Thursday, March 22, 2018 by Jessi Devenyns
Environment
Austin’s 100-year flood plain looks more like today’s 500-year flood plain
In Austin, flooding has been a concern for decades, but in the last several years, the urgency with which the city is conducting the conversation has escalated. In the last four years alone, Austin has experienced four federally declared flooding…
Friday, March 2, 2018 by Jessi Devenyns
Land Development Code
CodeNEXT Draft 3 makes significant changes to water-quality and drainage regulations
After months of waiting, last month the third and final staff draft of CodeNEXT was released. After allowing adequate reading time, on Feb. 21, Matt Hollon, the manager of the Watershed Protection Department Planning Division, gave the Environmental Commission an…
Monday, February 5, 2018 by Jack Craver
City Council
Another postponement for Champion case
City Council decided Thursday that a legal and political battle surrounding the Champion tract in Northwest Austin that has spanned two decades will be extended yet another two weeks.Council voted 7-4 to postpone action on an amendment to a settlement…
Monday, January 15, 2018 by Jessi Devenyns
Environment
Environmental Commission recommends Watershed Department issue a middle-of-the-road bond in 2018
The beginning of 2018 marked the beginning of a bond election year. At the latest meeting of the Environmental Commission, the Watershed Protection Department presented plans to ask the public for help conserving Austin’s environment through the acquisition of green…
Monday, January 8, 2018 by Jessi Devenyns
Land Development Code
CodeNEXT: City says few environmental surprises in store
Conversations today about the city run like clockwork: You can guarantee that at some point CodeNEXT will be mentioned.However, although it is spoken about with regularity, there are so many varying opinions, stances and regulatory improvements being presented that it…
Wednesday, December 13, 2017 by Joseph Caterine
Austin
Environmental Commission moves Onion Creek buyout plan forward
Over four years after the 2013 Halloween floods racked the Onion Creek neighborhoods, the Environmental Commission voted unanimously at its Dec. 6 meeting to approve staff’s recommendation to move forward with 128 buyouts of houses at immediate risk of flooding…
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 by Jessi Devenyns
Water
In a gesture of goodwill, the city wants to reward those who are reusing their stormwater
Most Austin residents are aware of the sometimes economically painful reality of fixed stormwater drainage charges adding up on their monthly bills. However, after years of operating under this system, the Watershed Protection Department is changing its approach by rolling…
Monday, September 18, 2017 by Jessi Devenyns
Water
Watershed Protection begins testing to change Waller hydrology
After two years of toying with the possibility of emulating the natural hydrology of Austin’s pre-urbanized watersheds through man-made controls, the Watershed Protection Department is finally putting its theories to the test at Reilly Elementary School.Reilly Elementary sits at the…
Friday, August 18, 2017 by Jessi Devenyns
Environment
Watershed Protection reports on youth outreach successes
Just as it does every year, the Watershed Protection Department came to present a summary of its Youth Education outreach program to the Environmental Commission. Susan Wall, who is the department’s conservation program coordinator, on Wednesday updated the commissioners on…
Monday, July 24, 2017 by Jack Craver
Water
City looks to bond to protect water, reduce flooding
The city needs to do a lot more to protect its water supply from contamination and its residents from flooding, officials from the Watershed Protection Department told members of the Environmental Commission Wednesday. They believe that a bond package that…
Tuesday, July 11, 2017 by Jo Clifton
Water
EPA drops objection to Dripping Springs’ permit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn its interim objection to Dripping Springs’ application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to discharge 995,000 gallons of treated wastewater into a tributary of Onion Creek.Dripping Springs officials have always said that…
Friday, May 19, 2017 by Joseph Caterine
Environment
Environmental Commission calls for investigation into hidden junkyards
In the same way that it’s hard to pinpoint how many pieces of garbage it takes to make a heap, the Environmental Commission deliberated Wednesday night how many instances of localized dumping in the city would amount to a serious…
