A Green Austin in a Red Age
By Sol Chase

“Keep Austin Weird” is an everyday phrase around the city, but efforts to keep Austin green are just as pervasive, despite national efforts to curb environmental programs.
“This community has a really amazing David and Goliath story,” said Brigid Shea, Travis County Commissioner. “Twenty-five years ago, the ordinary citizens in Austin defeated the company that owned the world’s largest gold mine. That’s the reason we can still swim in Barton Springs today.”
Since President Trump took office in 2016, he has enacted numerous cutbacks to environmental policies, including withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and urging investment in coal power. However, because of Austin’s historically liberal climate and action by its citizens, the city’s various green initiatives have remained largely unchanged.
In 1992, the city council passed the Save Our Springs ordinance, a citizen authored plan that severely limited development near Barton Springs in an attempt to protect natural habitats and clean water.
Shea said the passage of the ordinance began a wave of environmental action that “profoundly altered the political landscape” of Austin.
More than 20 years later, local officials remain dedicated to protecting and advancing Austin’s green movements.
When Trump announced plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement in June 2017, Austin mayor Steve Adler joined dozens of his counterparts in pledging to hold his city to the emissions targets outlined in the plan.
“Austin will not stop fighting climate change,” Adler said in a public statement June 1. “Worldwide, cities will lead in achieving climate treaty goals because so much of what’s required happens at the local level. Regardless of what happens around us, we’re still Austin, Texas.”
Shea said cities are in a powerful position to affect emissions because city-run power plants are often the primary producers of greenhouse gasses. She said coordinated efforts by local governments could counterbalance federal leniency on pollution standards.
“[Trump’s] actions are almost irrelevant,” Shea said. “It’s the cities that are so important, and they’ve got some very aggressive and achievable goals.”
Nathan Bendik, a senior environmental scientist at Austin Watershed Protection, said national policy has had little impact on day to day operations.
“We have not experienced any challenges recently from the federal government,” Bendik said. “They are very supportive of our program here.”
Bendik’s department oversees a captive breeding facility for two species of salamander that only exist in Barton Spring. The program was designed as a failsafe, ensuring the two species live on in the event of catastrophic damage or pollution to their tiny habitat.
“What we have here is probably not replicated anywhere else in the world,” Bendik said. “We’re unique in terms of the staff and resources we have that are dedicated to protecting several species that live in a city.”
Hayley Gillespie, who studied the Barton Springs salamander for her doctorate thesis, said the politics of neighboring counties have stopped similar conservation efforts from taking root there.
She said when the Jollyville Plateau salamander, whose habitat straddles the Travis and Williamson county line, was discovered, a political battle ensued to determine its classification.
“Williamson county is much more politically conservative,” Gillespie said. “There’s a contingent of people that actively fought that species being listed as endangered, whereas the city of Austin and Travis county residents were really positive about it.”
Gillespie said she has seen few changes to Austin’s scientific community since Trump’s election, because at the regional level, the staff has remained the same.
“All the folks working at the regional office of the US fish and wildlife service — a lot of them are from here,” Gillespie said. “They’ve been working in this region and on these salamanders for a really long time.”
David Foster, the director of Texas Clean Water Action, said the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle environmental protections have spurred an increase in citizens’ desire to fight back.
“It’s easier to organize now, and to do the kind of work we do,” Foster said.
Clean Water Action canvasses door-to-door and lobbies the state legislature on issues relating to water quality and conservation.
“I canvassed in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s victory,” Foster said. “It was incredibly easy. People were really angry, disappointed and motivated.”
To be sure, Austin’s environmental activists have faced some challenges since the change of administration.
Bill Bunch, the executive director and general counsel for Save Our Springs Alliance, said the state legislature is now more reluctant to cede control of environmental regulations to local government.
He said before the 2017 legislative session, the Republican Party embraced local control, but that Trump’s stance on the environment has shifted their focus.
“It has gotten harder to do our job, because of the hostility from the state,” Bunch said. “The city of Austin has been reluctant to be as aggressive as we have been.”
Bunch said Trump’s attempts to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency have made legal defense of conservation efforts harder.
“The federal environmental protection laws should be there to protect us,” Bunch said. “If we had a federal administration that was committed to protecting air, water and wildlife, it could absolutely make a difference.”
Foster, who first joined Clean Water Action in 1995, said many other politicians have tried to cut back environmental standards, but that Trump has taken it to another level.
“It’s not new,” Foster said. “The polluters always come after these regulations, but it’s never been this blatant before, or even this comprehensive before.”
Non-political factors also threaten Austin’s clean water and air, Foster said.
He cited population growth and an increased demand for housing development as the most serious challenge to the aquifer and surrounding ecosystems.
“Just when it seems like we’ve got a handle on things, more people come,” Foster said. “The sheer pace of growth makes it hard to consolidate some of the gains we’ve made.”
He said the reality of climate change would eventually force policy makers to address environmental problems.
“Nature is going to force us to do something about this,” Foster said. “These problems are real and they manifest themselves in terms of drought and wildfires, and hurricanes and floods, and cities have to get ready for that.”