Half Of Austin Waterways Contaminated With Fecal Matter

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Stop reading now if you're squeamish and/or planning aquatic activities this upcoming Labor Day. For the rest of you: A study released on Thursday by a state environmental group found roughly half of Austin waterways were contaminated with fecal matter and should be deemed unsafe for swimming, as test results last year showed.

Titled “Swim at Your Own Risk,” the study was conducted by Environment Texas Research and Policy Center. It involved taking samples from freshwater streams and the Colorado River within Austin’s city limits last year, including creeks flowing through Austin parks and green spaces.

The upshot: 46 of 76 freshwater sites had unsafe levels of bacteria at least once in 2017, the study found.

Out of the various sites tested, Blunn Creek, East Bouldin Creek, Walnut Creek, Waller Creek and West Bouldin Creek all were found to frequently have unsafe bacteria levels, according to the study. Moreover, testing sites at the Colorado River east of Lady Bird Lake were found to have high levels of bacteria two out of the four times they were tested, researchers found.

All told, more than 700 freshwater sites tested as having levels of bacterial contamination that would have made them unsafe for swimming in 2017, researchers wrote as part of their executive summary. Tests at 708 freshwater sites across Texas revealed levels of bacterial contamination that made them unsafe for swimming on at least one day during 2017, out of 1,450 freshwater sites tested. Many of these sites, researchers noted, are not currently used for swimming, sometimes because of unsafe pollution levels.

So, maybe head to the beach instead? Think again before strapping on those swimming trunks or stringing up that bikini, researchers inferred. The study also analyzed beaches along the Texas coast, finding 63 percent were deemed unsafe for swimming.

The three beaches with the most unsafe water days in 2017 – Ropes Park, Cole Park, and Emerald Beach – are all located in Corpus Christi, on the southern shore of the bay. All tested as unsafe on more than 10 days. At Ropes Park, one sample site was unsafe for swimming on 24 days (42 percent of the days on which testing took place). At Cole Park, one sample site was unsafe for swimming on 20 days, and the Emerald Beach sampling site tested as unsafe for swimming on 14 days. Because each beach was tested fewer than 60 times during the year, there may have been many more days on which swimming was unsafe during the year.

The levels of fecal pollution were blamed largely on storm water runoff. Researchers recommended cities in the affected areas implement infrastructure requirements to mitigate the fecal-infused runoff. One solution, analysts said, might be permeable pavement.

Another recommendation was implementation of public awareness campaigns designed to warn people of the dangers posed by pet waste on area waterways. Swimming in water contaminated with fecal bacteria can cause myriad unpleasant symptoms including eye infections, gastrointestinal illness, respiratory disease and skin rashes.

The results were drawn using water testing data from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), researchers noted in the report. To view the full report, click here.

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