(Photos by Jen Biundo)
Kyle mayor Lucy Johnson places a marker on a city storm drain reminding citizens that anything they put in the storm drain winds up in area creeks.The markers are part of an education program designed to help clean up the polluted Plum Creek.
by JEN BIUNDO
Kyle residents will soon start to see bright blue markers on the city’s storm water drains, reminding them that pollutants that flow into the drain are headed straight into local creeks and streams.
The markers, adorned with pictures of bluebonnets and the official city seal, are part of a public education program aimed at cleaning up the Plum Creek Watershed.
“These storm drains do go into the creek,” said Kyle Mayor Lucy Johnson. “They don’t go to some magic place that doesn’t get polluted.”
Plum Creek emerges from the ground in Hays County west of Kyle, flowing 52 miles east through Lockhart before converging with the San Marcos River south of Luling. To the east it’s a small and intermittent waterway, but it gathers strength downstream, providing recreation and drinking water to residents of the Lockhart area.
In recent years, fast paced growth along the IH-35 corridor has polluted the waters of Plum Creek, bringing contaminants such as E. Coli bacteria and harmful levels of nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen. In 2004, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) declared that Plum Creek was no longer recommended for human contact recreation such as swimming or wading.
In 2006, Plum Creek was selected to take part in the Texas Watershed Steward Program, an ambitious pilot program funded by a $1.4 million federal grant and developed by the Texas Cooperative Extension and the Texas State Soil and Conservation Board to protect and restore local waterways.
The city of Kyle found its own $517,000 grant from TCEQ to do its part caring for Plum Creek. Most of the funding was used to retrofit detention and drainage ponds, but the city used $4,000 to purchase 1,000 of the markers that it will place at the stormwater drains in the upcoming months. The city used a GPS system to locate its 1,800 stormwater drains, and will order more markers after the initial set is installed.
A number of pollutants use the storm drains as a route into the creek, including animal waste, yard chemicals and oil dripping from vehicles. If animal waste is left on the yard, rainwater can wash that bacteria into the drains and to the creek, along with excess fertilizers or pesticides applied to lawns.
“If there’s something on the ground and it rains, it goes in the creek,” said Kyle spokesperson Jerry Hendrix.
The city will try to spread the word about the drain markers through the city’s newsletter and other venues.
“The City of Kyle is committed to doing our part to improve and maintain the quality of water flowing through our city,” said Kyle interim city manager James R. Earp, CPM. “There are many things we can do in our everyday lives to improve our environment. Likewise, we can also distress our natural resources if we do not properly manage everyday things like yard chemicals and pet waste.”
