Conversation overheard at a bespoke coffee/vegan kombucha shop on SoCo:
Him: Hey you wanna go paddle boarding today on Town Lake?
Her: Town Lake, where's that?
Him: You know...that lake in the middle of Austin.
Her: You mean Lady Bird Lake?
Him: Us OG's still call it Town Lake. It's unironically retro.
Her: If you say so, but no I'm afraid of getting some brain eating amoeba if I fall in.
Him: Yeah I hear ya, hard to believe the folks in Pville (IYKYK) use it for their drinking water.
Her: Wait, what? Ewww, that's so gross, I would never drink that water!
Of course this conversation never took place, afterall there aren't any OG's in Austin, but it could have. The ironic thing in this conversation isn't calling Lady Bird Lake, Town Lake. The ironic thing is that if they knew more about where their drinking water came from they might not be so judgy of the folks in Pville.
I've been involved in the water industry for over 26 years the Web3 space for 3 and a member of ATX DAO for a little over a year. Recently I've become convinced that there are tremendous opportunities for Web3 in general and City DAOs like ATX Dao in particular to drive innovation, engagement and overall improvement into the water space. What I'm hoping to do is to bring you along with me as I dive into the different ways that might happen, looking specifically at the Austin watershed. This is going to be a journey of learning, exploring, growing and, ideally implementing real world Web3 applications as a means of providing a path that other communities can follow to improve their local watersheds. So, shall we begin?
Where does the Colorado River start?
It turns out that's a trick question. Not because it starts in Colorado though. The reason it's a trick question is because there are actually two Colorado Rivers. The one that most people think of does in fact start in Colorado, heads to the Grand Canyon eventually making it down to the Gulf of California. I had always assumed (I know big mistake) that a fork of the river branched off and headed towards Texas, eventually making it's way to Austin. It turns out though that the Colorado River running through Austin gets its start south of Lubbock near the town of Lamesa (little known fact; Lamesa has a chicken fried steak festival at the end of April). That Colorado River runs for 862 miles before flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it flows into several reservoirs that provide drinking water for many communities, including Austin.
I, Kuru, created from data originating at the USGS.
A bit of an aside but it's such a Texas thing. You have an electrical grid interconnecting different regions? That's nice we'll do our own grid separate from yours. You have educational metrics known as Common Core? That's nice we'll do our own called TEKS. You have the pledge of allegiance? That's nice we'll do that and pledge allegiance to Texas too. You have a Colorado River? That's nice we'll have one of our own that starts and ends in Texas. Sorry for the distraction, let's return to our story.
So it's this Colorado River then that is the source for Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin. It's impossible for me to imagine Austin without Lady Bird Lake. It forms the heart of the city physically and culturally. In years past the Lake helped with flood control, provided drinking water and also provided feed water to the power plant that used to be downtown. Now it's role is much more focused on recreation, with hiking/biking/jogging paths around it, opportunities to kayak/paddleboard and even fishing (though I hope folks just do catch and release). It does also provide one of the sources of drinking water for the folks in Pville. As a central figure in the identity of Austin then, it's important that we ensure the health and vitality of the Lake moving forward.
It seems to me, and I think other people I've spoken with, that in recent years there has been a big increase in the amount of algae present in the water, leading to large mats of it being visible in different spots, negatively impacting the aesthetics and the perceived health of the lake.
Is the algae a new thing? Is it getting worse? Is it being caused by White Claws, urine and sunscreen coming from Barton Creek? Is it even algae? If it is algae, what can we do about it? I hope you'll join me in my next post as I try to answer these questions.
