The Hill Country, Cypress Creek, and you

Early European, Texian, and American explorers made a point of staying away from the Hill Country. This is why Del Weginer, in his book The Explorers’ Texas— The Land and Waters, reports few to no early descriptions of Hill Country streams except when they poured out of the hills and onto the Gulf Coastal Plain. The terrain was difficult for horse and wagon, Comanches roamed its ridges and valleys, and bears beckoned amongst the briars. With the Comanches and the bears driven out of the hills and trails cleared for transport, the Hill Country opened up to settlement and growth.

For decades, human impact on the Hill Country was minimal and sustainable. The springs kept flowing, and clean water continued to gush down clear streams. But sandwiched between Austin and San Antonio and bordered by the Interstate-35 Growth Corridor, population in the Hill Country is booming. In Hays County alone, the population grew from 146,439 in 2010 to 213,366 in 2019, a jaw-dropping 45 percent increase in less than a decade. And the people keep coming, with a population of 633,000 projected for Hays County in 2045. Unfortunately, we are starting to see that the growth—at least the current way it is being done—is not environmentally sustainable.

As a consequence of more people and more human impact, we are finding more environmental impacts. The Cypress Creek watershed is, unfortunately, a case study of what is happening across the Hill Country. As pumping has increased in the Trinity Aquifer, one of the Hill Country’s gems— Jacob’s Well—has stopped flowing or declined to a trickle during droughts. Similarly, other springs that feed Cypress Creek have declined in flow. And water quality in the creek—especially with respect to e. coli—has declined between Wimberley and the creek’s confluence with the Guadalupe River, increasing the risk of illness for waders and swimmers.

Decreasing springflows, stream flows, and water quality are particularly unfortunate because accessible springflows and stream flows are a big reason people want to live in and around Wimberley and visit the village. Ironically, as more people move into the area with current or imported ideas about how to live in the Hill Country, we are inadvertently strangling the golden goose. As Sky Jones-Lewey, former board member and past president of the Hill Country Alliance, has said, “In a way we are loving the Hill Country to death.”

Fortunately, Cypress Creek has its share of folks who love it (but in a good way). The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District established a groundwater management zone for Jacob’s Well’s springshed to preserve flows. Hays County is providing funds to place more of the Hill Country under conservation easements, not only providing future park space but water quantity and quality benefits. The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, with support from the Texas Commission on Environment Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has been working with the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association and other stakeholders to reduce water use and improve water quality in the watershed. The Wimberley Independent School District, with assistance from the Meadows Center and the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association, designed and built the state’s first One Water school where smart use of rainwater, air conditioning condensate, and onsite water reuse has resulted in a facility that uses 80 percent less groundwater. The City of Wimberley is building a centralized wastewater treatment plant to replace many creekside septic systems, something that will improve water quality in the lower reaches of Cypress Creek. And Wimberley and Woodcreek have updated their water quality ordinances last year to limit impervious cover and establish riparian setbacks.

Despite all this good work, more needs to be done, and it involves everyone. You can strive to reduce your water footprint as much as possible through efficiency, xeriscaping, and rainwater harvesting. You can also strive to reduce your contaminant footprint by minimizing (or, better yet, eliminating) the use of yard chemicals and fertilizers, and picking up after your pooches (a major source of e. coli). Those with septic systems need to ensure those systems are maintained at the highest level to minimize releases to the aquifer and the creek. In fact, everybody and every level needs to think about how each and every decision in the watershed affects the quantity and quality of the springs and stream and chose the path of minimal impact. It truly takes a village to raise water quality.

I often hear that the solution to the Hill Country’s water woes is to simply keep people out. My inner pragmatist says, “Good luck with that.” Whether you like it or not, more people are coming. A lot more. Now’s the time to get the golden geese in a row and create a top-to-bottom local culture focused on preserving Cypress Creek. If nothing else works, maybe we need to bring back the bears.