The Gazette-Enterprise

GERONIMO — Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and two other state agencies are launching an $800,000, three-year water quality study of the Geronimo and Alligator Creek watersheds with meetings in Seguin and New Braunfels next week they hope will attract widespread attention.

That’s because water quality officials hope to invite area residents and landowners to help determine the extent of pollution caused by bacteria or nutrient enrichment, to develop a watershed protection plan — and to perhaps participate in solving the problems.

Local governments including Seguin and Guadalupe County have signed on to partner in the project.

The study will be similar to others in the Kyle and Lockhart areas in which local residents and other stakeholders identified pollution points and helped clean up and restore Plum Creek and the Town Branch.

Texas AgriLife Extension water quality specialist Nikki Dictson said a 2008 water quality inventory conducted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality showed Alligator Creek, which lies in the Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction of New Braunfels, and Geronimo Creek, which cuts through its namesake community and skirts the east side of Seguin on its way to the Guadalupe River, had high concentrations of bacteria likely caused by pet, livestock or animal waste, meaning the creeks can be unsafe to swim or wade in. In addition, nitrogen often associated with fertilizers and ag by-products has also been found.

The problems can only be expected to increase with increased growth expected to come in the Interstate 35 corridor and in the county’s northeastern reaches from the New Braunfels Municipal Airport and Geronimo toward Hays County, Dictson said.

GBRA spokeswoman LaMarriol Smith said the study of the creeks near Seguin and New Braunfels are only the latest in an ongoing, decades-long effort by her Seguin-based river authority to address water quality issues in the Guadalupe River.

“We’ve been working pretty diligently on water quality issues in our basin, and we’ve sought a lot of community participation,” Smith said. “We’re trying to get on the front end and get ahead of the curve on water quality.”

Dictson said what would happen here would be similar to the ongoing work in Hays and Caldwell counties begun in 2005. Last month, more than 325 volunteers removed 500 pounds of trash and nearly 300 pounds of recyclables from a Lockhart park. In all, 485 volunteers hauled out nine tons of illegally dumped trash and household goods over a two-year period.

In the meetings to be conducted Tuesday and Thursday, study partners hope to introduce the community to what they hope to accomplish and invite participation in capacities ranging from field work to membership in a steering committee and perhaps, some time down the road, in helping clean up the Alligator and Geronimo creeks — and create a resolve in the local community to partner in helping keep them clean in what could be a $3.2 million remediation project over the coming few years.

“We’re inviting area residents and landowners to participate in solving these water quality issues by attending one of two project kick-off meetings and joining the Geronimo and Alligator Creeks Watershed Partnership,” Dictson said. “We’re just getting started, and we’re pleading with the public to come to these meetings to hear how they can participate in the process.”

Later, she said, there could be opportunities for locals who wish to help to adopt a hands-on approach as residents of Hays and Caldwell counties have.

“We’ll be bringing a lot of resources, conducting workshops and educating on these issues, as well as community cleanups,” Dictson said.

GBRA Director of Water Quality Services Debbie Magin said her agency, which has monitored pollution levels in the Geronimo Creek area since 1996, was looking forward to what it would learn in the study, which she said would dovetail with a flood mitigation study now being conducted by Guadalupe County.

“We learned a lot in Plum Creek,” Magin said. “The active participation of the citizens and landowners in the watershed is essential to the success of this important project.”

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