Any Aquarena divers up for salamander work?

[GaryBDavis]

Hopefully, the flow won't get low enought to trigger this:

"If the flows begin to approach 50 in Comal Springs and 75 in San Marcos Springs, wildlife agents and volunteers would collect large samples of the wildlife to add to small captive populations in tanks at the hatchery near San Marcos. "

State prepares to capture, move endangered Hill Country species if drought worsens

 

[PeppermintPaddi]

Texas Parks & Wildlife has certified science divers. I bet they'll be the ones doing the collecting. They are still going to need water from the springs because that's what the SM salamanders and darters are adapted to.

Anyone heard what diving restrictions were imposed when flow dropped below 100cfm?

 

[paulw]

Anyone heard what diving restrictions were imposed when flow dropped below 100cfm?

This is from driftwood who dives there every Thursday:

Most of us know that to dive in Spring Lake, San Marcos you have to go through the Diving for Science : Aquarena Center : Texas State University class. The course was developed to comply with the Habitat Conservation Plan for the lake. One aspect of the HCP that is diving needs to be limited during low flow conditions caused by extreme droughts or over pumping from the Edwards Aquifer.

One of the impacts of our current drought is that the discharge from the aquifer is close a trigger in the HCP. USGS Real-Time Water Data for USGS 08170500 San Marcos Rv at San Marcos, TX

When the flow drops below 100CFS, the HCP directs the staff to reduce diving in the lake by 50%. I don't know how they decide who gets to dive. It is reasonable to assume that weekend divers and shops using the training area will be more heavily impacted. The second trigger is at 75cfs. At that point all diving in the lake is suspended.

The other big issue impacting divers in Spring Lake is the timing for the long planned demolition of most of the buildings/structures associated with the amusement park. They have started construction on the new visitor's center, across the lake from the hotel. The best guess is that the lake will be closed to all diving sometime in October. The Diving for Science program will be the last to shut down and the first to start up when work on the site is completed.

To cut to the chase, if you want to dive Spring Lake, we have about 3 months.

 

[driftwood]

The 75cfs is now a mute point. They are planning to cut the electric service to Aquarena in a couple of weeks. I have one or two Thursday dives left before diving is suspended.

BTW, the current spring flow is 94cfs.

 

[GaryBDavis]

Well crap. I need to get down there to get my fix before they shut things down. And I just completed putting my new BP/W rig together...