Festival spotlights water's fun, importance - Austin American-Statesman

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Festival spotlights water's fun, importance - Austin American-Statesman Apr 2nd 2012, 02:23 By Farzad Mashhood AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF As person after person came by to see the tub of water crawling with insects, they each heard this question: "Is the water clean or dirty?" Todd Jackson, an environmental scientist with the City of Austin's Watershed Protection Department, asked that pointedly, expecting many kids and adults to respond that the water was dirty. After all, it had bugs swimming among leaves and some dirt. Drinking the water might not be recommended, but it is clean as far as the ecosystem is concerned and is from one of Austin's healthiest streams, Barton Creek, Jackson said. Jackson was manning one of dozens of booths Sunday at the Colorado River Foundation's Family Water Festival. About 1,000 people gathered at the Lower Colorado River Authority's West Austin campus for the group's fourth year hosting the festival, and for the third year with canoe, kayak and stand-up paddle board races at Lady Bird Lake. The foundation teamed up with other groups, including the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Keep Austin Beautiful, to help people get "a better understanding of the Colorado River and its connection to Austin," said foundation Executive Director Erin O'Neil Franz. "Often, we don't understand, it's where we get our water." Jackson, who checks Austin waterways that feed into the Colorado for their ecological health, said many people were scared by the bug-filled water. But "the real scary thing would be a (stream) without these things," because the presence of life shows the stream is healthy and can protect the land around it. Other exhibits at the festival included an interactive one showing how an aquifer works by using ice cream, cookie crumbs and 7-Up; a presentation on river snakes; and a simulation of how a stream flows. The wide range of activities was meant to help festival-goers relate to waterways, said the foundation's program director, Sarah Richards. "The key to getting people to conserve water and care about the quality of water is to get them to connect with it," Richards said. Contact Farzad Mashhood at 445-3972 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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