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Publication Date
January 2007
Abstract
Karst springs in the Canyon Creek and Avery Ranch subdivisions were monitored before, during and after construction of residential homes with some commercial development. The objective of the monitoring program was to track trends in spring chemistry with changing land use in source area and compare the water quality impact of different water quality regulations after development. Groundwater chemistry, particularly ions, changed in correlation with increasing development. The data seems to suggest that with the exception of one spring, the enhanced water quality controls at Avery Ranch had some success in limiting nitrate enrichment of ground water during the construction of the subdivision. Ion concentrations including strontium are generally higher in Canyon Creek Subdivision springs than Avery Ranch, suggesting a potential difference in source water composition. Piper plots indicate few differences between sites that could identify source waters. A comparison was made between the spring chemistry data collected from a newly developing subdivision that was permitted under enhanced development agreement Planned Unit Development (PUD) and an older subdivision that was built-out under less restrictive Municipal Utility District (MUD) agreement to determine if differences in water chemistry could be seen. Spring data collected seems to indicate that only slight difference was seen in groundwater chemistry results between the two subdivisions. This suggests that water quality benefits provided by surface water quality controls had little effect on groundwater quality within subdivisions. Additional data is needed to test this hypothesis. Open Access - Permission by Publisher See Extended description for more information.
Keywords
Avery Deer Spring (Travis County, Texas, United States), Avery Springhouse Spring (Travis County, Texas, United States), Barton Springs (Austin, Texas, United States), Canyon Creek Spring 1 (Travis County, Texas, United States), Fern Gully Spring (Travis County, Texas, United States), Hill Marsh Spring (Travis County, Texas, United States), United States, Geology
Type
Text
Language
English
Publisher
City of Austin Watershed Protection and Development Review Department
Identifier
K26-01270
Recommended Citation
Herrington, Chris; Hiers, Scott E.; and Pope, Sylvia, "Differential changes in groundwater quality due to urbanization under varying environmental regulations in Austin, Texas" (2007). KIP Data Sets and Technical Reports. 62.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/kip_data/62
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