STS NEWS 12.17.25
As we've already told you, we recently changed our name from Save Barton Creek Association to Save Texas Streams to better reflect the scope and breadth of our work. This year, our work included:
- Stopping a bad wastewater permit on upper Barton Creek.
- Improving another wastewater permit on the Pedernales River.
- Writing and promoting a bill to protect the Hill Country’s most pristine streams.
- Monitoring controversial groundwater permit applications on the Neches and Trinity Rivers.
- Providing assistance for a successful bill to preserve the Devils River.
- Organizing our usual full schedule of in-person events, including our monthly Happy Hour Talks, guided hikes, and collaborative workdays.
We were able to do all of this work because of your generous financial support over the past year. We have an even busier schedule of advocacy and outreach activities planned for next year. That’s why we’re asking you to continue, increase, or start your support for Save Texas Streams with a generous, tax-deductible, end-of-the-year contribution. We’re one of the oldest grassroots environmental groups in Texas, and we’re already planning for our 50th anniversary in 2029. But we can’t continue to protect our state’s streams, aquifers, and watersheds without your financial support.
Biggest win: Stopping the Fitzhugh Concert Venue
In November, we received great news from our friends at Shield Ranch — plans for a massive music venue above Barton Creek were dead. California developer Bill Hirschman finally agreed to sell the property on which he wanted to build his amphitheater to the Shield-Ayres Foundation. Defeating Hirschman’s proposal was a priority for our organization. We publicized its problems, mobilized our members, and submitted written and oral testimony at two public meetings that TCEQ held on a draft wastewater irrigation permit for the project.
Local residents and environmental groups banded together to oppose the proposed amphitheater
Hirschman’s proposal called for a 5,000-seat concert venue — which would have been bad enough at such a sensitive location — but he also wanted to cram an 1,823-vehicle parking lot onto the site. All told, his plans called for blanketing 66% of his property with impervious cover. A project like this might have been appropriate in an urban location, but building it on the banks of Barton Creek — and over the Edwards Aquifer Contributing Zone — would have been disastrous. The large amount of impervious cover in Hirschman’s venue would have produced huge volumes of dirty runoff during storms, and the limited amount of open space would have increased the risk of sewage overflowing from its onsite wastewater irrigation system.
