The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has allocated $1.5 million for a pilot project to determine whether manmade wetlands can help filter pollution leaving San Antonio’s Mitchell Lake.
To combat algae that’s lowering dissolved oxygen levels in the water flowing downstream from the shallow lake on the South Side, the San Antonio Water System is planning to install water-filtering wetland plants and make changes to a dam that will allow the utility to better control water levels.
SAWS owns the roughly 600-acre former sewage dump that in recent times has been transformed into a bird sanctuary known as Mitchell Lake Audubon Center.
U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Helotes), who toured Mitchell Lake in February, and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-San Antonio) announced the funding on Friday. Both worked to secure funding from the Corps in its 2018 fiscal year.
“The hundreds of bird and plant species thriving on site have proven to provide impressive economic, environmental and health benefits to the surrounding community,” Hurd said in a prepared statement.
SAWS’ board of trustees in October approved a $1.3 million contract for designing, managing construction, and operating the project. The utility also paid $4 million for 283 acres south of the lake.
If completed as proposed, the manmade wetlands could eventually cover 125 acres.
What’s happening at Mitchell Lake is impressive. In addition to the Audubon Center programs, for those interested in getting a first-hand view of the eastern side of the lake, an excellent section of the Medina River Greenway runs about 3.5 miles from the Mission Del Lago Golf Course at the northeast end of the lake down to a trailhead at 14171 Pleasanton Road.
Brendan,
I have been following the Mitchell Lake stories. I reside in East Texas and come to SATX infrequently. Who might I speak with about the specific details of the wetlands development project? Thanks
Hi Jim. I would recommend contacting Donovan Burton of the San Antonio Water System. He told me recently that the pilot wetland project will likely experiment with three different flow rates of water leaving the lake and including planting some vegetation in the lake itself.
There’s a contact form here:
http://www.saws.org/who_we_are/organization/governmental_relations.cfm
As a volunteer at Mitchell Lake Audubon Center (MLAC) I am aware that the center is one of San Antonio’s many tourist destinations as it is visited every month by Texans from outside of the San Antonio area, people from other states, and a few foreign visitors. In addition MLAC hosts many school children from San Antonio area schools during each school year providing them with valuable hands-on science that reinforces their classroom learning while giving them an outdoor experience that some would otherwise not have a chance to enjoy. The National Audubon Society, Texas Audubon, the local Audubon staff, the San Antonio Water System, volunteers, and the area birding community have created something wonderful and a great asset to San Antonio from something that once was a disposal site for the city’s sewage.