What's the Value of a Clean San Antonio River? (Charles Blank · River Aid San Antonio)

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If we can make clean water, recreation-worthy water, accessible to San Antonio.

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I think that a lot of other cities are going to be envious of a city of our size figuring out how to do that.

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But we can only achieve that dreamer's vision with careful growth, a lot more people getting involved and, honestly, technical knowledge that we hope to invite into our community over the next couple years.

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I want water contact on Salado Creek.

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It's a lofty goal and we can't get there without investment.

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I mean, this would be something that the city would have to invest in infrastructure, but what price could you really put on our next generation being able to be around water and not treat it as radioactive, being able to be around water and not treat it as radioactive?

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At the end of the day, we will be whatever the San Antonio River needs us to be and we'll continue to grow this until our vision is secured A San Antonio River that's living in harmony with the population around it.

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Our San Antonio River is just over 240 miles long.

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Its headwaters start right here in Barrett County, and the river flows through four additional counties until it finally joins the Guadalupe River just 10 miles from the San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico.

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The river's natural mineral waters are fed from the Edwards Aquifer below, and it's home to an incredibly diverse collection of wildlife like the Guadalupe spiny softshell turtle.

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The Edwards Aquifer below, and it's home to an incredibly diverse collection of wildlife like the Guadalupe spiny softshell turtle and the whooping crane on its winter migration route.

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The San Antonio River is the reason San Antonio became San Antonio.

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It was the lifeblood for the city's earliest residents and a refuge for the many indigenous cultures who came before, and as such to me, I can't help but wonder does our relationship now to our river, our waterways, as a city fit that same sort of designation?

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San Antonio wouldn't exist without its river.

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So I question do we celebrate it like we should Appreciate it?

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Do we get to?

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Do we get to enjoy it as we should appreciate it?

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Do we get to?

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Do we get to enjoy it as we should?

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Is this all that's possible for our San Antonio community and its relationship to its river, something to avoid at various times in eyesore, or can it be something much more, not just clean but pristine, inviting a testament to what it means and has meant to this region?

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Can it be a place where we swim, fish and play?

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Of course, because it was, and thankfully there are people trying to get it back to that point, that condition, right now, but they can't do it alone.

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I'm Corey Ames, your host, and I'm thrilled to welcome you to this episode of Ensemble Texas where together we'll challenge what we believe is possible for our relationship to our city's waterways and reimagine the potential for not just a clean but pristine San Antonio River Basin.

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Let's embark with my guest today.

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I'm Charles Blank.

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I'm the executive director of RiverAid San Antonio.

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We're a 501c3 nonprofit that's dedicated to promoting and facilitating stewardship of the San Antonio River Basin, and we do that through volunteer opportunities and, most importantly, community engagement.

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How long have you been in San Antonio and what's that experience been like for you thus far?

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So my family moved here in 96.

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I was about four and a half, so San Antonio is pretty much the only city I've ever known really known, and I've grown here.

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I've watched this city grow tremendously since we moved here.

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But really what I see for San Antonio, and why I decided to stay, is we're at this juncture.

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Right now we have two paths laid out in front of us, and one is learning from these cities that have already developed and a lot of the times, in the wrong way the urban sprawl, the lack of green infrastructure and we can learn from those lessons and use the technology.

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We have to become a smart city, or we continue the plan of yesterday, which is urban sprawl, which is something San Antonio has been really, really good at.

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So I think a lot of people in this city who grew up here probably felt the same call I did about a decade ago when we realized this growth was in front of us.

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If not you, then who?

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If you're not going to stay here and make sure San Antonio gets developed, grows, progresses in the right way, then who?

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I'm always super curious about this particular character of folks that live in San Antonio.

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Many are born and raised A lot of people grew up here and then have this willingness and wanting to stay here and then, not only that do something, I think, in service of the San Antonio community.

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So I'm interested to learn from you if you could say more.

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Why do you think that is and why do you think that is for you in particular?

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If you grow up here or you spent any amount of time here you've heard small town, big city, and I think San Antonio more than any other major city of its size you can really feel a connection with the city, with the different communities in town.

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If you endeavor to actually get around this city, it's hard not to fall in love with it.

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And at this pivotal growth point, I think a lot of people, when they were deciding what to do with the rest of their life at 25, made the same decision I did, which is I'm going to stay in San Antonio and make sure it's the San Antonio I want it to be.

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And so where does the connection come to you, specifically for San Antonio's waterways?

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What's the origin story of that motivation, that connection for you?

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How did we like?

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Where was the earliest inkling of what maybe became the passion for Rasa?

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The earliest inkling of my passion for the environment and specifically our waterways was early memories with my dad fishing.

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Probably one of my earliest passions in life was getting out on a pristine river with my dad watching and learning about the life of the fish and all the other animals just as intricate as our lives and just as worthy of protecting, and that really grew into a lifelong love for the outdoors.

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And during COVID, when there wasn't the response that there usually was, which even in the past has been wanting a response from government staff and it's not because they're not doing their jobs correctly or they're not trying, it's because we're overtaxing our tax dollars, right, we don't have enough staff to take care of our waterways.

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And during COVID that became very, very apparent that there was a vacuum in this city.

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It became very, very apparent that there was a vacuum in this city and those memories from a young boy of pristine rivers and realizing that I want to raise children here and I would like our kids to be able to play in the creeks.

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And it's something that most people, even scientists in our community, would kind of laugh at because they can't see the vision.

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But the vision is there, you know green infrastructure, behavioral changes and action, of course, which is something we've been very good at to date.

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We can change San Antonio together Again.

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If not you, then who?

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You get involved with RASA, it becomes more likely that your kids in a decade can play in Salado Creek, that your kids can go swimming at Davis Lake on the San Antonio River.

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But that's going to take a lot, a lot of work.

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I'd love to hear if you could get nitty gritty for us on River Aid, San Antonio.

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What's the core function and service of the nonprofit?

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So?

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we've always seen ourselves as wanting to be the conduit for anyone in San Antonio looking to protect our river and our river basin right, because it's not just our river, it's our creeks and the land attached to them.

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And we serve to be that conduit, not only to offer volunteer opportunities for people who want to act and get involved, but also the conduit to information, to knowledge and to the awareness of how we can be better stewards of our river through everyday actions.

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You know, cleaning up after your dog, using the right type of pesticides, when you care for your long, even native, plantings, ripping up that long, not using impervious cover all these things affect our river and it's just knowledge keeping people from acting, which will, of course, equal a healthier river acting, which will, of course, equal a healthier river.

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So our purpose is to facilitate and promote stewardship of the San Antonio river basin in all terms.

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Um, and we will always grow into the next facet of the mission.

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Right now we're very focused on mitigating right Our volunteer cleanups.

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We do two to three a month and we run them very effectively.

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We pull out several tons every time.

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At the end of the day, we will be whatever the San Antonio River needs us to be.

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Year after year, our board will reevaluate, decide on new development and we'll continue to grow this into.

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our vision is secured a san antonio river that's living in harmony with the population around it curious if you could say more about what what that vision looks like and maybe it ties into maybe aspirations that you've shared in this conversation thus far.

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You know your kids being able to to enjoy the, the creeks and rivers that the san antonio area has to offer.

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But tangibly, as you're looking at an organization, what are some of the measurements or particular milestones that you feel like y'all are charting to manifest what that vision is for RASA?

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First goals were, as we just touched on, mitigation, getting those numbers up, getting that average per cleanup number up.

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You might be asking oh well, why do you want more trash?

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Because that's the reality that we're living in right now and we will get to a point where we're looking for a goal of a downtick in trash, but we have to have a much higher yield and smarter infrastructure in place for us to be looking for those types of results.

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Right now we need to focus on growing our yearly yield recovered, which we have done healthily, year after year, and in three short years we've had 400,000 pounds of trash removed.

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And now there are spots along the greenway that are unsaturated of litter and, yeah, you might see one or two pieces, but the state of our creeks and our greenway a couple years ago it was hard press where you would go anywhere on the Greenway and not within 100 yards see a swatch that is saturated.

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I say saturated and there's actually a scientific protocol threshold for that with the EPA and it's if there's more than three to four pieces of trash in an average car length that's saturated with litter.

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And since our program started, the majority of the greenways, the creeks that we operate on are noticeably cleaner.

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There are, in fact, portions of the city that are cleaner than they've been in decades and have stayed that way since we cleaned them two years ago.

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I'm talking about Olmos Basin, a specific area of that floodplain, where actually Blue Hole, which is on the Headwaters campus, the headwaters of the San Antonio River.

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It used to backflow a little bit into a wooded area in Olmos Basin and when we found it, this area had so much garbage that high school kids were making Very interesting art installations back there and they were probably pretty upset about it.

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But we cleaned about 10,000 pounds out of there over a three month period and to this day, if you go there, two years later, it's still clean, it's still clean, it's still clean, it's still clean.

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So we're going to be seeing more and more of that as we build to critical capacity with our tactical cleanups, with our volunteer program and at the same time now the next goal is infrastructure is proactive solutions.

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So what we're looking at to achieve that is litter booms solutions.

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So what we're looking at to achieve that is litter booms.

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First and foremost, we have one going in at Comanche Park under the county's supervision and one going in at Martin Luther King Park, both on Salado Creek, which is by far a high-field creek.

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Could you describe what those are?

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Of course, so a litter boom is a lot like the floatable buoys you see in a pool to section off the deep end or keep lanes, except it goes a little bit under the water and it's designed to just catch the lot.

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Smarter, it's going to enable us to put these in choke points with low flow, because there is engineering that comes into play with these, but it's going to enable us to come, service this boom and in two hours get what could have taken those two contractors five or six hours to collect half of that and the other half downstream to the gulf possibly.

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Um, so these litter booms, along with the tactical cleanups the 30 a year that we hold those volunteer cleanups we're gonna start seeing the vision.

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That's actually like one of my side things yeah, fish stuff.

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Yeah, aquaponics and aquascaping Stuff, like that.

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So this is going to be our first site on Comanche Creek with these litter booms from Osprey Initiative, and Osprey Initiative works with their manufacturer to get these tailor-made for each site.

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So here we're going to have a J-hook style boom that will allow us to detach the boom from one side and have all the load, all the litter, all the floatable waste float to this side, where our team of two contractors will come service this area.

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Now we'll be able to get a yield that might take 10 or 15 people hours to get just in 45 minutes with two people.

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So these booms are going to enable us to work much, much smarter and if we strategically place these around our city, we're going to have a handle on this situation that we didn't think possible years ago.

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So this site in particular will set the precedent that these systems are indeed worth investment, and our waterways are definitely worth investment.

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I'm Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert and I am a proud supporter of River 8, san Antonio.

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The county actually gave $25,000 to help with the cleanups all year round in Precinct 4 rivers and streams.

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When you have a buildup of trash in waterways that can lead to flooding.

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We saw in the flood of 98, a legal fill in Salado Creek which poured into neighborhoods like my own, where my father had to break through the fence line to save his neighbors.

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While we might think of the plastic as just a little thing I mean there are people who are illegally dumping cars and all kinds of other things along Slotto Creek and imagine if RiverAid hadn't been picking up thousands of pounds of plastic over the years that they have and the other community efforts we would probably have some serious problems.

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We're really excited about the innovation of not putting Band-Aids on our river solution but getting a more permanent solution to help our rivers be clean with these new booms.

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So we're working to try to get an EPA grant that would help fund this and other county funding.

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What Charlie and River 8 is doing is, through their volunteers, bringing a tremendous amount of awareness about this issue.

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So they now have guardians of the rivers who are helping maybe change the trajectory of someone's volunteerism forever, because they recognize this is a problem.

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So Comanche Park is really a flagship park for San Antonio and Bexar County, so it's really important that we protect this park.

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It's one of the most highly rented parks, used parks not only for recreation but celebrations, right.

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So we don't want scouts to be down at this memorial pavilion doing a workshop and come down to the waterway and see it just sprawled with litter.

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We also have some of our best biological filtration on Salado in this stretch when we have 10 to 15 of these litter booms installed in our city and are operating.

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Our volunteer cleanups at the capacity we do right now, and basura bash are once a year 1500 to 2500 volunteer event where everyone's going to see a noticeable difference and they might not realize it's because of riverhead san antonio volunteers, but I assure you it, 100 is.

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So there there's lots of goals there, there's stages to this mission, but right now we are still very much in mitigation grassroots manpower.

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But we're at the cusp of, you know, pushing into infrastructure, staffing up, grabbing contracts with the city to actually clean bodies of water, like Woodlong Lake, which enables us to get upstream effectively of Alizon and all the Westside Creeks.

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So we're putting together really a comprehensive action plan and it's going to take some time to get the city to buy in, to get the county to buy in, but they already have, and now we need our businesses, our foundations, to buy in.

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This year is critical for us.

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We have a pretty substantial budget set out compared to our grassroots strategy of the last three years, but it was always our intention to grow now and we've put ourselves in this position where, if we can meet this budget, we can grab some of these contracts with the city and bring in earned revenue that will actually sustain our necessary staffing.

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So there's many stages of action and we need everyone to get involved.

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I'm really interested, charles.

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What was it like for you to visit a site like Olmos Basin the first time after cleaning up, maybe a year or so later, to realize that the mitigation effort had really substantial effect?

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Like walking that site looking at it.

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You recall that yeah.

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I absolutely recall the feeling.

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I have goosebumps right now just thinking back on it.

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I mean you instantly want to share it with everyone who was a part of it.

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Many people were called when I was walking through those woods.

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I'm sure many of them will be listening to this.

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But yeah, it's great to see because it's a huge problem and so often we go to these sites and any of our regular volunteers know we go to the same hot spots, you know, three times a year and we've pledged to do that because we understand the nature of this problem that the trash will come back If it rains.

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It's going to come back because the behaviors haven't changed.

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I think you got to hold on to those feelings throughout the year and I certainly do.

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When anyone you know says, oh, didn't we come here three months ago, I said yeah, but downstream from here 300 yards.

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We haven't been there in two-plus years because we've been cleaning this.

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You can always get upstream and that's the thing about this mission.

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Once we have San Antonio really locked in, this template set in, we're going to keep pushing wherever the water takes us upstream, downstream, hill, country, gulf.

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We're talking about litter booms and I'll mention that we actually are in talks to service a litter boom in Laredo, again, you know, realizing that All of this problem is tied Anything coming down Zacate Creek, going into the Rio Grande and Laredo, you know it's going to end up in the Gulf and this then it becomes much, much bigger of a problem to to solve.

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So we're going to continue to develop in any way we need to to solve this problem and this problem continues to get bigger.

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The bigger your solution is, the more of the problem you can get to, and then you need to grow your solution and we're down to keep pushing that battle till we can.

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Let's jump in then to the topic of the viability of earned revenue for RiverAid San Antonio.

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It seems super sensible and obvious to me anyways, that keeping the waterways clean around San Antonio is beneficial for the city tourism residents.

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We want the waterways that we get to enjoy in recreation, or if we're at the Pearl or walking in Southtown along the River King William, you hope that it's clean, that it looks healthy and that it is healthy.

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So what seems to be the potential and viability of earned revenue for River 8 San Antonio?

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Yeah, I mean we think it's a very viable avenue for us.

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One because we know that the city, through their partnership with us, believes in this mission and knows how effective we are.

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But, more than that, we know how much money has gone into developing this greenway right Over a quarter of a billion dollars and that number has grown since it was reported has been invested in this greenway and it's great.

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It opens up access to nature, but also opens up nature to access, so we have to be careful about how we utilize it and we need to protect that investment.

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As a city, we know that the city understands that.

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They're starting to show that because we've shown that we're a partner that can take on the challenge, because we've shown that we're a partner that can take on the challenge really not only of acting when they need us to act when they put an RFP will be very, very important for us, not only because it's another way we can solve this problem, but then it can support our volunteer program, which really, at the end of the day, is going to launch our biggest challenge of our mission, which is the societal change.

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Right, if we can't support our staffing, we can't support our volunteer program, we can't build our community of knowledgeable riparian soldiers ready to, if not act, then change their behaviors.

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We know that city staff sees the vision that we see.

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City staff sees the vision that we see.

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We talk to them about it and you know we plan, we plan.

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So I'm very excited about where Parks and Recreation and the county, who are working with us, now decide to take our partnership, and we're willing to go anywhere.

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the problem is I'd love to hear specifically about the cleanups process.

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How do you all select sites?

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What's the recruitment effort like?

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And then, in execution, on site on the day of cleanup, how does that process go?

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So I'll start with recon site selection.

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So we're always focused on maximum impact.

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We have a ethos where we're never going to hold an event just because a particular person wants it to be in one place or it's the prettiest spot.

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We go where we can have the most effect that week.

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So that's actually why frustrating to some of our volunteers we actually wait to identify our sites two weeks before because we want to ensure that we can get a haul that's at least close to simpatico, to our average, which is over three thousand five hundred pounds A cleanup.

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In that three hour cleanup with, you know, twenty five to sixty people and in that three hour cleanup with you know, 25 to 60 people.

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So I peruse the greenway and, you know, get get off trail and really think like the water flow Right, you've got to go with the meanders, you have to go up into the floodplain, find those hotspots that are going to.

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You know, ensure that we're making the most out of the hands, the hours that people are donating, because you don't want people to come down and you know, have 30 people out there cleaning for three hours and you only come up with a couple hundred pounds of trash and they're looking at the pile, like what did we do here today.

00:26:46.657 --> 00:27:03.994
So we ensure that every time you walk away from a ribbed cleanup, you can look back and you'll see a pile of trash bigger than the vehicle you came in and you will leave with a feeling that you did something with your community, something that you couldn't have done by yourself.

00:27:03.994 --> 00:27:13.075
That's why we host our cleanup so consistently, because we know how daunting this problem can be if you're alone.

00:27:13.075 --> 00:27:18.050
So we want to ensure that nobody feels alone facing this problem.

00:27:18.270 --> 00:27:26.372
I think it's really important that every time we hold an event, we're accomplishing as much as we could together.

00:27:26.372 --> 00:27:34.904
So with planning, it's really all about where the rain, where the storms have taken our trash.

00:27:34.904 --> 00:27:37.558
But there's also seasonal considerations.

00:27:37.558 --> 00:27:44.230
You can't be on the west side in the dead heat of the summertime.

00:27:44.230 --> 00:27:50.750
You can't be on northern Salado when it's been too rainy because you'll be underwater.

00:27:50.750 --> 00:27:55.700
But we try and get all around San Antonio.

00:27:55.700 --> 00:28:00.074
Anywhere in 1604 is kind of our concentration right now.

00:28:00.074 --> 00:28:03.020
We're eager to always adopt new spots.

00:28:03.663 --> 00:28:19.705
I can't be in every offbeat track along the Greenway, so if you do know a site, you can reach out to us at rasariveraidsanantonioorg and give us some GPS coordinates, a photo, and we can select that site.

00:28:19.705 --> 00:28:22.538
Then we go on to recruitment right.

00:28:22.538 --> 00:28:24.196
We post it on our social media.

00:28:24.196 --> 00:28:30.934
We blast our email chain, which is a couple thousand people, social media, we blast our email chain, which is a couple thousand people.

00:28:30.954 --> 00:28:52.394
And we also rely on local groups, local businesses, to organize their own teams, because there's nothing like a good group coming in together that already knows how to work together can tackle those big mattresses, those trash cans, sometimes those dumpsters even in Homos Basin, sometimes those dumpsters even in Homos Basin and operation.

00:28:52.394 --> 00:28:58.461
You know, I got to give a shout out Our cleanups don't just run because of our staff or our volunteers.

00:28:58.461 --> 00:29:03.365
They run because of our city partners at Solid Waste, at Parks and Recreation.

00:29:03.365 --> 00:29:36.951
Solid Waste, at almost every single cleanup is hauling all our recovered trash to the landfill, aside from that which we recycle.

00:29:36.951 --> 00:29:41.942
Pull, for instance, 10,762 pounds of trash on Earth Day in 2023 at Salado Creek, just 100 yards from Churchill High School, one of our most prominent high schools here in San Antonio.

00:29:41.942 --> 00:29:46.906
So that's what a RASA week looks like, and you can be a part of it too.

00:29:47.269 --> 00:29:53.336
And so two to three cleanups every single month seems like a certainly a significant amount.

00:29:53.336 --> 00:29:57.604
What's the volunteer experience like?

00:29:57.604 --> 00:30:00.001
Anecdotally, what do people reflect back to you?

00:30:00.001 --> 00:30:12.923
You know, what are they learning while they're on the ground in these cleanups, like, what have you found over the past couple of years doing these cleanups that people experience most, or surprised by, or something in the participation?

00:30:13.210 --> 00:30:27.416
You know, the number one reaction absolutely if you haven't been down to an event with us before is shock at how bad the problem is If you've only seen our photos and videos on Instagram and never been down.

00:30:27.416 --> 00:30:29.170
Photos don't do it justice.

00:30:29.170 --> 00:30:36.463
You really can't pick up every little tiny plastic white bag on an iPhone camera, as good as they are.

00:30:36.463 --> 00:30:54.452
Beyond that shock of the problem, I think that people are genuinely surprised at how fun and casual we're able to keep the mood while also operating very, very, very efficiently and safely.

00:30:54.452 --> 00:31:05.356
Um, you know, we get straight to work after making sure that everybody knows how we're operating and how to operate individually safely.

00:31:05.356 --> 00:31:15.917
Um, and from there we let the experience help us educate and make aware of those people who haven't been down with us.

00:31:16.539 --> 00:31:32.994
And it's as simple as one of our regulars going next to that person, helping them with the untangling of a bag from a tree and talking about how it got there, how we could fix it, which is a more complicated problem than you'd think.

00:31:32.994 --> 00:31:40.736
When people come down and they knew there was a problem, they learn that it's worse than they thought.

00:31:40.736 --> 00:31:49.290
And then they also learn that they have more power than they thought to actually fix it that there's something they can do to actually fix it.

00:31:49.290 --> 00:31:50.954
Bring a reusable bag to the store.

00:31:50.954 --> 00:31:53.382
Better yet, keep some extras in your car.

00:31:53.382 --> 00:31:57.747
Give them to your friends, you know, give them to your friends and talk to them.

00:31:57.747 --> 00:32:10.565
Have a two-minute conversation with your friends about how illogical it is to be using these plastic bags which, by the way, city of San Antonio Recycling just announced this month, they are no longer recycling plastic bags.

00:32:10.891 --> 00:32:24.564
So, we really need to talk about these problems, but it's these experiences of people coming down realizing what it feels like to be a part of this solution and then taking that home.

00:32:24.564 --> 00:32:32.150
People come down to our cleanups and realize they can be a part of something really meaningful for San Antonio.

00:32:32.371 --> 00:32:33.938
And what about for you, charles?

00:32:33.938 --> 00:32:43.281
What do you feel like you have learned about San Antonio's waterways and perhaps likewise like community engagement around the issue?

00:32:43.281 --> 00:32:49.250
Over your couple of years with RASA, what's changed for you personally, in your own understanding?

00:32:49.509 --> 00:33:02.986
The biggest change for me personally and I think I can speak for a lot of people who have gotten truly involved with River at San Antonio over the last three years was that this is not our government's fault.

00:33:04.109 --> 00:33:22.664
Mark and his Greenway team at Parks and Recreation it's like eight guys eight contract workers or eight staff members to service all the Greenway, and that's not just picking up trash, that's mowing, and everything in between is to get to a solution.

00:33:22.664 --> 00:33:48.902
We need to make sure that we unburden government of this problem Not that we're a microphone to shove this in their face and say this needs to be solved that we are very careful about how we operate to not rely too much on the tax dollars that already aren't enough to solve this problem.

00:33:48.902 --> 00:34:04.798
So that was the biggest thing I learned and I think it was the most valuable lesson for me, outside of River Aide, honestly, even, but for River Aide especially, and I think that's why we have such a strong partnership with city departments.

00:34:04.798 --> 00:34:18.152
But there's so many lessons to be learned still, this this has been the biggest challenge of my life founding this org and running this org but it's uh, it's been the biggest learning experience and the biggest joy.

00:34:18.373 --> 00:34:36.355
So there's a lot of lessons left to learn, but I know there's going to be a lot of people learning them with me and acting on those lessons is there something that we might not expect, like outside of the solid waste that we can, you know, see, uh, intangibly pick up ourselves, you know, in, in the most utopian way of thinking about it?

00:34:36.355 --> 00:34:45.079
What are the you know, threats to water quality, uh, to the waterways that that we may not be keen to, as, just, you know, the average, average person?

00:34:45.420 --> 00:34:48.405
Sure, I mean, the biggest one is E coli.

00:34:48.405 --> 00:34:54.637
That's the biggest threat to human contact when we're talking about water quality.

00:34:54.637 --> 00:35:07.693
That's the reason why it's unsafe for us to get even into the lower parts of the San Antonio River after there's been a bit of biofiltration thanks to the Mission Reach project, which restored eight miles of our river.

00:35:07.693 --> 00:35:14.259
But even that's not enough to filter out all this E coli, which, of course, can make you very, very sick.

00:35:14.259 --> 00:35:41.342
And this comes from, you know, pet waste, this comes from sewage breaks, this comes from the unhoused population, population, um, and it will always be there until our city creates enough breathing room between these problems and our water, with green areas, blue infrastructure, green infrastructure.

00:35:41.342 --> 00:35:48.882
If you have a parking lot right on the edge of a creek, uh yes, it's going to make it much more prone to runoff contaminants.

00:35:48.882 --> 00:35:49.443
But guess what?

00:35:49.443 --> 00:35:58.500
If the city invests for a lid feature there, you can actually treat, you know, a quarter inch of rainfall to an inch of rainfall.

00:35:58.500 --> 00:36:00.815
The investment is worth it.

00:36:00.815 --> 00:36:02.079
It is worth it.

00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:28.603
So you know, beyond that, beyond E coli contamination, things like sediment from construction sites that aren't secure, stuff like mowing excessive grass clippings, our river's more fragile than we realize, any overload of nutrients, you know ammonia, phosphorus, nitrogen they can throw the city out of whack.

00:36:28.603 --> 00:36:42.621
So there's a lot more to consider other than just litter, and there are ways to educate the public, to make sure that the population of San Antonio is letting the city know this is what we care about.

00:36:42.621 --> 00:36:44.414
We're aware of these technologies.

00:36:44.414 --> 00:36:47.802
Why don't we have more stormwater treatment?

00:36:47.802 --> 00:36:55.302
Why aren't we mandating permeable surfaces in our new parking lots, on our floodplains?

00:36:55.302 --> 00:37:10.110
And these are questions we should all be asking our city council members and we should all be asking our county commissioners, and we do have advocates there, but they can't act unless the people are behind them.

00:37:10.110 --> 00:37:18.110
So we have to educate ourselves on these and we need people to lead the way towards these changes.

00:37:25.681 --> 00:37:31.213
Today we're here on Woodlong Lake after another rain event and we do these cleanups routinely.

00:37:31.213 --> 00:37:41.530
But today it's an ad hoc response to that rain, which brings a deluge of trash down into Woodlong Lake from all over the city northwest.

00:37:41.530 --> 00:37:48.764
When it rains it will bring all this litter, it will bring all the grease, it will bring all the E coli and other contaminants.

00:37:48.764 --> 00:37:52.842
So we're getting out here once a month at the very least.

00:37:52.842 --> 00:38:11.945
We're hoping this year to establish a system here at Woodlawn Lake that will be passively working with us so we can provide a smarter service, and these systems will catch floatable waste as it streams down Zarzamora Creek and makes our work here at Woodlawn a little bit easier.

00:38:12.530 --> 00:38:23.300
This service is contracted by City of San Antonio because they know that we need to protect not only our flagship parks but the creeks that are connected to them and flow into our river.

00:38:23.300 --> 00:38:39.518
It's great to see the city buy into this mission, especially this year when we have such big plans about how we can work together with them, with our volunteers, with the citizens of San Antonio, to make sure that Woodlawn doesn't look like this.

00:38:39.518 --> 00:39:17.996
To really execute this mission properly, we need the city, we need the county and we need the population to buy into this on a governmental level contribution, support but we need expertise and we're confident that we can find the partnerships over the next couple years to build the resources, to build the plans that we need to actually protect our San Antonio River and every waterway connected to it.

00:39:17.996 --> 00:39:24.735
But it's gonna take a lot of work, a lot of education and a lot of new relationships before we get to that point.

00:39:24.735 --> 00:39:28.539
So, riveraid's volunteer base.

00:39:28.951 --> 00:39:30.998
You know we consider ourselves very lucky.

00:39:30.998 --> 00:39:41.782
We have a special group of people that really, when you look at our volunteer cleanups, about 25% of those folks that come on any given day are regulars.

00:39:41.782 --> 00:39:48.394
They know the drill, they know how to lead and they know how to get the job done safely and very effectively.

00:39:48.394 --> 00:39:52.820
These people are 100% committed to our mission.

00:39:52.820 --> 00:40:10.264
Most of these folks not only get out here on Woodlawn Lake to help us run these contractor services, but they're the people leading the charge, setting the examples at our volunteer cleanups that enable us to average pulling out 3,500 pounds last year.

00:40:10.264 --> 00:40:33.851
I think they do it because they've wanted to do it for a really long time and they finally found a community that's willing to do that with them and you'd be surprised at how powerful that can be and how that little spark can change things for a city, even this large, for a lake this critical to our city.

00:40:34.431 --> 00:41:23.128
It could change everything so Should we be surprised?

00:41:23.128 --> 00:41:24.349
Encountering a piece of trash?

00:41:24.349 --> 00:41:27.298
Is that available for us at some point in the future?

00:41:27.298 --> 00:41:30.789
Encountering a piece of trash Like is that available for us at some point in the future?

00:41:30.789 --> 00:41:33.791
Like what's in your head?

00:41:33.811 --> 00:41:35.697
and your organization's head as to what is actually possible for San Antonio.

00:41:35.697 --> 00:41:53.539
I think if I'm talking to a pragmatist, someone who's cautious about their expectations, I can tell them we can secure a vision of San Antonio where you can take a two mile walk along a Creek and you're not going to see but a few dispersed pieces of trash that guess what.

00:41:53.539 --> 00:41:56.632
You can easily pick up on your walk and then it's pristine.

00:41:56.632 --> 00:42:04.472
That vision is within three years of of development, progress and action of this mission.

00:42:04.472 --> 00:42:06.297
We can get there Now.

00:42:06.356 --> 00:42:27.099
If I'm talking to the Rastafarian, to the dreamer, to the people that throw in every week, if not every day, to this mission, I want water contact on Salado Creek and you know it's a lofty goal and we can't get there without investment.

00:42:27.099 --> 00:42:33.146
I mean, this would be something that the city would have to invest in in infrastructure.

00:42:33.146 --> 00:42:51.525
But what price could you really put on your kids, your grandchildren, your, your students, our next generation, being able to be around water and not treat it as radioactive?

00:42:51.525 --> 00:43:07.762
You know, it's a shame to me to think that folks who don't have the luxury of leaving our city have never swam in a river, and people might laugh and think that doesn't exist.

00:43:07.762 --> 00:43:08.342
It does.

00:43:08.342 --> 00:43:09.143
It does.

00:43:09.324 --> 00:43:25.614
And I think that if we can make clean water, recreation, worthy water, accessible to San Antonio, I think that a lot of other cities are going to be envious of a city of our size figuring out how to do that.

00:43:25.614 --> 00:43:49.206
But we can only achieve that dreamer's vision with a lot careful growth, a lot more people getting involved with this mission and, honestly, technical knowledge that we hope to invite into our community over the next couple of years as we finish the mitigation phase of our waste problem, our litter problem in the city.

00:43:49.206 --> 00:44:03.222
But RiverAid's loftier goals are beyond just solid waste management, which is one of the biggest looming threats to our river and, most importantly, one that we can solve with action and a few changes.

00:44:03.222 --> 00:44:10.320
And, as I said, this other goal of you know, actually water quality improvements.

00:44:10.320 --> 00:44:14.858
That's going to take a much bigger machine, but we're up to the challenge to grow towards that.

00:44:15.391 --> 00:44:17.117
So what's next for RiverAid San Antonio?

00:44:17.117 --> 00:44:20.481
You mentioned a critical funding period here immediately.

00:44:20.481 --> 00:44:23.860
What's on y'all's mind moving forward here in the near term?

00:44:24.090 --> 00:45:02.960
Right now we have the John and Florence Newman Foundation, who's put up a capacity building match challenge, and that match challenge means that any dollar amount donated's future and San Antonio's future, our mission's future, and if you believe in this vision, contribute, come down, volunteer, ingratiate yourself into this community, because we want you to be a part of it.

00:45:02.960 --> 00:45:05.458
We need you to be a part of it any way you can.

00:45:06.349 --> 00:45:09.492
Not everything seems sensible to have a price tag attached to it.

00:45:09.492 --> 00:45:19.282
But maybe some things which in one context seem invaluable, not worth any sum of money, any currency at all, might benefit from it.

00:45:19.282 --> 00:45:50.297
Getting into water, feeling a sense of refuge and relief and comfort, being near water, enjoying and recreating in and on water, it's something so human, almost seemingly a basic human right, something just about invaluable.

00:45:50.297 --> 00:46:05.351
And, on the inverse, assuming that body of fresh water isn't safe to jump into, let alone touch, absolutely forget about drinking it, that seems extremely inhuman, dystopian almost.

00:46:05.351 --> 00:46:13.422
We and our next generations of San Antonians both deserve and can have better.

00:46:13.422 --> 00:46:18.092
We all already value water, value our San Antonio River, I know that.

00:46:18.092 --> 00:46:20.657
But do our actions align?

00:46:20.657 --> 00:46:26.492
Do our actions as a city and community align with that value?

00:46:26.492 --> 00:46:47.548
Talking about the San Antonio River and the preciousness and effects and impacts of its waters the excitement of what can be I can't help but be reminded of this phrase I absolutely loved from the narration of the nature documentary film about Texas's diverse landscapes deep in the heart.

00:46:47.548 --> 00:46:51.358
This film was narrated by the one and only Matthew McConaughey.

00:46:51.358 --> 00:47:00.853
At one point in the film, commenting on the volatility of Texas's weather patterns, the pace and intensity of which our storms can sometimes move.

00:47:00.853 --> 00:47:08.409
Mcconaughey says water rarely comes peacefully to Texas and on the inverse.

00:47:08.409 --> 00:47:19.016
Since it seems so hard to get here in one shape or another, I can't help but feel we should do anything and everything but peacefully let our water go.

00:47:19.016 --> 00:47:23.367
We must push to make it and keep it pristine.

00:47:23.367 --> 00:47:27.331
Because we can, we must support those doing the work.

00:47:27.331 --> 00:47:36.021
Because we can, we must seek out every opportunity to keep ourselves, friends and family educated.

00:47:36.021 --> 00:47:45.505
Because we can, we must find and invest in the most innovative ways to truly celebrate the water that makes this city what it is.

00:47:45.505 --> 00:47:56.932
It's not just about a future where we have the river, but it's about creating a future where we and our generations to come get to enjoy it, as it seems so human to do.

00:47:56.932 --> 00:48:10.753
The question I believe we take away with us here is not what would it look like if we as a community were to actually value our San Antonio River and the health and vitality of its watershed, because I believe we already do.

00:48:10.753 --> 00:48:13.989
It's innate, it's already within us.

00:48:13.989 --> 00:48:31.027
The question instead is what can it look like if our action, investment, advocacy and stewardship finally aligned with the value we, as a city and greater community born of this river already possess.

00:48:31.027 --> 00:48:55.623
All right y'all.

00:48:55.623 --> 00:48:56.443
That's a wrap.

00:48:56.605 --> 00:49:01.896
Thank you so much for listening to or watching this episode of Ensemble Texas.

00:49:01.896 --> 00:49:07.014
I just want to extend an extra thank you to my guest today, charles Blank of RiverAid San Antonio.

00:49:07.014 --> 00:49:23.280
Truly a young but ambitious organization that I am grateful to share a city with, and since the organization's founding in 2021, rasa has engaged over 52,000 volunteers and has bagged over 1.4 million pounds of trash.

00:49:23.280 --> 00:49:40.619
Antonio's cornerstone program is their watershed cleanup program, which you heard much about already today, where, at least for 30 Saturdays each year, rasa staff organizes high impact cleanups at litter hotspots throughout the waterways of San Antonio.

00:49:40.619 --> 00:49:54.255
Rasa also recently inherited the tradition of Basura Bash, an annual volunteer event, now nearing its 30th anniversary, which each year draws thousands of participants to remove dozens of tons of trash from our city's waterways.

00:49:54.255 --> 00:50:06.976
To get involved with anything and everything RiverAid San Antonio from volunteering at the next cleanup to donating, you can go to riveraidorg or likewise, you can visit our show notes linked in the episode description.

00:50:07.806 --> 00:50:11.148
I want to repeat once more what Charles briefly mentioned in our conversation.

00:50:11.148 --> 00:50:21.617
Until August 31st 2024, the John and Florence Newman Foundation has issued a $25,000 match challenge for RiverAid San Antonio, so donate before that deadline.

00:50:21.617 --> 00:50:25.750
Again, that's August 31st and your dollar will go even further.

00:50:25.750 --> 00:50:31.277
To do so, go to payriveraorg backslash Newman Match.

00:50:31.277 --> 00:50:32.119
Again.

00:50:32.119 --> 00:50:37.797
That will also be included in our attached show notes at podcastensembletexascom.

00:50:37.797 --> 00:50:52.992
Lastly, if you enjoyed this episode, I think you might really enjoy my newsletter, the San Antonio Ensemble, where each week I share with you one story, one thing to eat, one place to go, to help you get better connected to the city we all love.

00:50:52.992 --> 00:51:02.148
My mission is to help all of us learn more about the city we inhabit, to help us build an even better San Antonio, now and into the future.

00:51:02.148 --> 00:51:05.313
Sign up at EnsembleTexascom.

00:51:05.313 --> 00:51:07.559
All right, y'all, until next time.