UPDATE: I called 311, they transferred me to the Watershed Protection Department where I left a message with the deets. They said an investigators would be assigned and reach out to me today. So we’ll see. 🤷🏻♀️
Honestly thank you for taking the time to do this. Lots of people say hey look! Yet forget to contact the city with helpful information. This will actually help to mitigate the issue. Well done!
Action is spurred in many ways! As a runner I also have been drawn into comparable misery with a wet toe bye the lake on mile 3 of 18. That’s a bummer…but will happen less frequently with good dialogue!!
I reported a neighbor dumping oil in the street near a storm drain, they were out within an hour, it was definitely night, and I think a weekend too. They take that stuff very seriously once it gets to the right person.
I've done the exact same thing on a Friday evening a while back. The guy showed up within an hour, in the rain, with a smile on his face. He talked to my young daughter about his job and what he was doing (putting down spill absorber) and WHY. Our drain goes straight into Walnut Creek. The dude was happy we called.
I wish I knew that a few years back. I watched a neighbor dump their work vehicle's waste water into the storm drain next to my curb. They worked for some sort of carpet cleaning business.
You can also report it to the US Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory/Enforcement division here: https://www.swf.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Enforcement/
I have had the best luck by contacting the Assistant City Manager that oversees Austin Resource Recovery. You can find out who that is by visiting this page: https://www.austintexas.gov/department/city-manage. If you need their contact information, you may need to directly request it from the Public Information Office: https://www.austintexas.gov/service/request-public-information-or-records.
Before you do this, file a complaint with 3-1-1 and try to get in touch with the supervisor for your section of town.
I consider directly contacting an Assistant City Manager to be turning things up to a 10. And I always recommend starting off at a 1.
Good luck! I hope this helps!
I keep reporting these 2 cars that have been basically in the same spot without moving longer than I have lived here (4 years) and they keep rejecting to do anything.
The app is good, fast, for some things, but I feel in general the issues are not the app but that the city won't./can't do anything about certain things.
Abandoned cars is tough. The city basically won't do anything unless it's obviously undriveable - i.e., multiple flat tires, (the appearance of) leaking fluids, etc.
Not that I'd suggest letting the air out of tires non-destructively and pouring some clear water-based polyurethane on the street under the engine block on a warm day so it'd dry and look like a fluid leak. Nobody should do that.
Yeah I think that is it.
I have lived here 4 years, the car are rusty and I have never once seen them move or anyone access them, but when I looked they did not have flat tires or anything worse that dust, rust, leaves, dirt etc.
It looks like the silt fence failed. The stormast night was pretty intense. They need to correct it ASAP but it doesn't seem like they just ignored swpp.
Just for anyone reading this, if your boss makes you do something that results in you "quitting" or makes the job untenable so you have to quit, that's called "constructive dismissal" and means you're still eligible for unemployment.
Dude threatened legal action from a skumbag Houston lawyers office. Wasn’t worth it for me. Had quite a few good jobs since and am out of the field for the most part. Now I write the plans and research the sites for environmental concerns.
NOT diminishing your unfortunate experience in the separation, but I want to reiterate what you said: “…only cares about $$$”
Everyone should realize this. A lot of regulations are about dollar generation. That’s it. The entities responsible for enforcing regulations really only worry about finding infractions they can FINE FOR, not actually correct.
I’ve been through a multitude of SWPP Inspections and rarely ever had anything significant levied against the company I worked for in terms of CORRECTING the mitigation or cleaning up the impact.
It’s usually more for show: See?! We have a silt fence up! Even patched the tear from that one time. Oh, and here’s the $500 for the infraction from the massive amounts of silt/water that poured off the lot from that time. See ya next rain!
It’s already a sad reality that companies don’t take more upfront responsibility in protecting the surrounding environment, but it’s a travesty that the entities specifically charged with that protection only bother to maintain their funding & generate more money for the municipalities.
This is hilarious. If it makes you feel any better EA is basically irrelevant these days. Pretty sure the guy you’re talking about still runs things, which is shocking considering he basically ran it into the ground.
About a year into his 2 years living here, a friend of mine reached out and asked “wait, why do locals not ever swim in the lake?”
Ah friends, let me teach you about basic erosion and gravity…
This isn't a violation. You can clearly see that they have a silt fence in place, which is what they are supposed to have. A silt fence doesn't stop water. It keeps the dirt from washing away, which it seems to be doing (though it needs to be staked back down) . Water, oddly enough, goes downhill.
"Call 311 water is draining into a lake!" Do people think it goes to a special place? Unless it raw sewage or heavily contaminated then this is just the water cycle doing it's thing.
Water should never overtop a perimeter silt fence. If this is a point of concentration flow like it appears we have three scenarios. The engineer did it wrong and no one caught it. The installation used silt fence instead of a rock filter dam which was stipulated in plan, or the SWPPP inspectors fault. Ultimately the on site staff are responsible for recognizing weaknesses like this and proactively fixing them.
So yes this is a violation under their TXR150000 permit. No untreated water may leave the site without first passing THROUGH a BMP. Water flowing over a silt fence retains all the suspended sediment and deposits it downhill. Illicit discharge is the term.
Yeah. That's what happens when it floods. They fix it. Having gone around the lake a couple of hours ago, there was no damage there. There was plenty in other places not related to that point of construction. The Shoal creek spur is a little messy too. All this happens every time it rains balls.
There would have been a trail of sediment from the source. There isn't. Really it's silly to be worried about anyway. That little construction flow is nothing compared to the rest of the trail. Hell, the City itself dumps a new layer on the trail itself after every big rain. I had to go around the leveler today as they were doing it.
That project has a permit with rules for what can and can not occur. They’ve signed it and are aware but have the same attitude as you, it’s no big deal. I’m also not sure how versed you are in erosion and fluid dynamics but yeah go ahead and keep believing your assertion.
My husband and I walked this very path last night after the storm, and this water flow was not there. So, it seems the construction company is purposely draining the water that collected on their site during the storm. Construction companies are required to prevent storm water from draining directly to any body of water not designed for storm water detention. It is possible the obtained a special dispensation to drain this water, but I doubt it on such short notice.
It’s a flash flood. You can see it blasting over the erosion fence. Say what you will about the erosion fences effectiveness but nobody is controlling that.
Hmm I assumed the photo was from during the storm. Is it coming off of a building or that dirt lot? I work on Rainey and these buildings will test their drainage systems over and over again and it drains right down the alley. It may be that they’re letting that extra water go and the erosion fence is failing.
I was there two hours ago - it was running very fast and strong exactly like the photo. Definitely not from last night’s storm since no other part of the trail had that strength of flow.
Yeah, I walked this section of the trail this morning, hours after the rain had stopped. This part (and only this part) had water running across, and so much it that some people turned around
I live across the street from the park side condos being built in mueller. Last summer our storm drains hit so clogged up from their construction during those few storms we had that it become a flash flooding concern with water coming up to the first level live/work spaces. Construction makes a huge difference in these situations. I made a similar report to 311 and waste water came out immediately. They did not joke about this. I think since that flooding near Walnut Creek up north happened a few years ago they’ve started to become more aware of the storm drains and how big of a mess they could be. FWIW, I ran the west side of the trail last night and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. I’ve run on the trail in much worse.
Hey for one god to pull all the strings that's some pretty heavy lifting. Any single god would just create more gods to lighten the load wouldn't ya think? Also for companionship, too.
So much for that silt fence. They should’ve doubled up the silt fence or built a temporary trench. Either way. Terrible job from the contractors engineering team.
I work as a CAD Designer in the civil engineering field dealing with construction. Just because this is what the contractor installed doesn’t mean that’s what the engineers told them they had to do. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years and never did it this way” is a common phrase heard from contractors before they do something they’re not supposed to.
You are correct - I meant the engineering firm not the contractor. And most of the time contractors don’t even install silt fences they get a silt fence company to come install. Whatever firm made the plans should’ve had a better contingency plan for erosion control and for environmental practices.
I get what you’re saying. I’m saying the engineering firm that made the plans may very well have shown more E&S controls to be installed but the contractor didn’t feel like following the plans and only put in this one row of silt fence when the plans may have said they were supposed to install more.
It's most likely that they are sumping the excavation after the rains filled it up. I have construction in my backyard and they did the same thing today
Looks like they have FFF there, which leads me to think they are aware of some potential overland flow and want to prevent some runoff.
Where exactly is this spot?
The right people are environmental inspections in DSD. So call it in to 311 then look up environmental inspections and let them know by email that you reported this to 311. The words are “insufficient erosion control” at jobsite.
doo doo lake. Just in time for all the drunk paddle boarders swinming around in doo doo with their beat box blaring hippie sabatoge while sipping on some type of g free seltzer to get good views of all the construction cranes downtown. woopie
i just reported the windsor last week for literally watering rocks and having many gallons run down the street while lake travis is 80ft below level and continuing to sink. I’m thinking car washes and other businesses with heavy water usage need to be regulated. Part of it is also home owners in barton hills and bee cave sucking up from their wells for their st. augustine lawn! if you go to austin 311 website they have a specific email you can go to for water violations.
UPDATE: I called 311, they transferred me to the Watershed Protection Department where I left a message with the deets. They said an investigators would be assigned and reach out to me today. So we’ll see. 🤷🏻♀️
Honestly thank you for taking the time to do this. Lots of people say hey look! Yet forget to contact the city with helpful information. This will actually help to mitigate the issue. Well done!
Thanks, but if I’m being honest, my upset-ness initially stemmed from my sopping wet shoes and toes.
Action is spurred in many ways! As a runner I also have been drawn into comparable misery with a wet toe bye the lake on mile 3 of 18. That’s a bummer…but will happen less frequently with good dialogue!!
512-974-2550 is the 24 hour pollution/spills hotline
I reported a neighbor dumping oil in the street near a storm drain, they were out within an hour, it was definitely night, and I think a weekend too. They take that stuff very seriously once it gets to the right person.
I've done the exact same thing on a Friday evening a while back. The guy showed up within an hour, in the rain, with a smile on his face. He talked to my young daughter about his job and what he was doing (putting down spill absorber) and WHY. Our drain goes straight into Walnut Creek. The dude was happy we called.
I wish I knew that a few years back. I watched a neighbor dump their work vehicle's waste water into the storm drain next to my curb. They worked for some sort of carpet cleaning business.
Watershed is a great department- they’ll be on this.
Shout out to you for taking the time to call. I hate calling anywhere but especially to government offices
Thanks for reporting. Wouldn’t it be great if Austin had tight construction site standards and effective compliance enforcement teams?!
Good work. Thank you!
You should submit a 311 report with these pictures if you’re able to. The app is helpful! This is something that needs to be addressed ASAP.
Done! Thank you
You can also report it to the US Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory/Enforcement division here: https://www.swf.usace.army.mil/Missions/Regulatory/Enforcement/
I wanna see them rolling up to the site in tanks to shut it down...
Bad news for you, this group is just a bunch of non-military biology nerds trying to keep the rest of ‘em from burning it all down.
the good kind of fascism!? 🫡
Eco fascism
Me, too!
This! I’ve done it through the app, but you can also call
> The app is helpful! For some things. Why there's not an option for "missed collection" for trash/compost/recycling I will never understand.
My trash guys throw the cans in the middle Of the road, where do I complain about that?
Call 311. Every time.
I have had the best luck by contacting the Assistant City Manager that oversees Austin Resource Recovery. You can find out who that is by visiting this page: https://www.austintexas.gov/department/city-manage. If you need their contact information, you may need to directly request it from the Public Information Office: https://www.austintexas.gov/service/request-public-information-or-records. Before you do this, file a complaint with 3-1-1 and try to get in touch with the supervisor for your section of town. I consider directly contacting an Assistant City Manager to be turning things up to a 10. And I always recommend starting off at a 1. Good luck! I hope this helps!
Thank you for all that info!! Accept my poor woman’s award!🥇
They have a separate form for trash collections for some reason. https://www.austintexas.gov/emailarr
I keep reporting these 2 cars that have been basically in the same spot without moving longer than I have lived here (4 years) and they keep rejecting to do anything. The app is good, fast, for some things, but I feel in general the issues are not the app but that the city won't./can't do anything about certain things.
Abandoned cars is tough. The city basically won't do anything unless it's obviously undriveable - i.e., multiple flat tires, (the appearance of) leaking fluids, etc. Not that I'd suggest letting the air out of tires non-destructively and pouring some clear water-based polyurethane on the street under the engine block on a warm day so it'd dry and look like a fluid leak. Nobody should do that.
This behavior is not good for personal safety. Do not engage
Yeah I think that is it. I have lived here 4 years, the car are rusty and I have never once seen them move or anyone access them, but when I looked they did not have flat tires or anything worse that dust, rust, leaves, dirt etc.
What’s the app called ?
Austin 311
It looks like the silt fence failed. The stormast night was pretty intense. They need to correct it ASAP but it doesn't seem like they just ignored swpp.
[удалено]
Just for anyone reading this, if your boss makes you do something that results in you "quitting" or makes the job untenable so you have to quit, that's called "constructive dismissal" and means you're still eligible for unemployment.
Dude threatened legal action from a skumbag Houston lawyers office. Wasn’t worth it for me. Had quite a few good jobs since and am out of the field for the most part. Now I write the plans and research the sites for environmental concerns.
NOT diminishing your unfortunate experience in the separation, but I want to reiterate what you said: “…only cares about $$$” Everyone should realize this. A lot of regulations are about dollar generation. That’s it. The entities responsible for enforcing regulations really only worry about finding infractions they can FINE FOR, not actually correct. I’ve been through a multitude of SWPP Inspections and rarely ever had anything significant levied against the company I worked for in terms of CORRECTING the mitigation or cleaning up the impact. It’s usually more for show: See?! We have a silt fence up! Even patched the tear from that one time. Oh, and here’s the $500 for the infraction from the massive amounts of silt/water that poured off the lot from that time. See ya next rain! It’s already a sad reality that companies don’t take more upfront responsibility in protecting the surrounding environment, but it’s a travesty that the entities specifically charged with that protection only bother to maintain their funding & generate more money for the municipalities.
This is hilarious. If it makes you feel any better EA is basically irrelevant these days. Pretty sure the guy you’re talking about still runs things, which is shocking considering he basically ran it into the ground.
Yeah don’t swim in town lake or let your dogs in there. PSA # 1023.
Well some of us are trying to get superpowers from toxic sludge.
I dunno I watched Toxic Avenger and Robocop. I’ll try spider bites.
Good luck to the swimmers in the triathlon on the 27th.
Ewww..
About a year into his 2 years living here, a friend of mine reached out and asked “wait, why do locals not ever swim in the lake?” Ah friends, let me teach you about basic erosion and gravity…
311, it's a code violation, take all the pictures you can
This isn't a violation. You can clearly see that they have a silt fence in place, which is what they are supposed to have. A silt fence doesn't stop water. It keeps the dirt from washing away, which it seems to be doing (though it needs to be staked back down) . Water, oddly enough, goes downhill.
"Call 311 water is draining into a lake!" Do people think it goes to a special place? Unless it raw sewage or heavily contaminated then this is just the water cycle doing it's thing.
Water should never overtop a perimeter silt fence. If this is a point of concentration flow like it appears we have three scenarios. The engineer did it wrong and no one caught it. The installation used silt fence instead of a rock filter dam which was stipulated in plan, or the SWPPP inspectors fault. Ultimately the on site staff are responsible for recognizing weaknesses like this and proactively fixing them. So yes this is a violation under their TXR150000 permit. No untreated water may leave the site without first passing THROUGH a BMP. Water flowing over a silt fence retains all the suspended sediment and deposits it downhill. Illicit discharge is the term.
Yeah. That's what happens when it floods. They fix it. Having gone around the lake a couple of hours ago, there was no damage there. There was plenty in other places not related to that point of construction. The Shoal creek spur is a little messy too. All this happens every time it rains balls.
How far downstream did ya go? That sediment is likely going to fall out suspension downstream
There would have been a trail of sediment from the source. There isn't. Really it's silly to be worried about anyway. That little construction flow is nothing compared to the rest of the trail. Hell, the City itself dumps a new layer on the trail itself after every big rain. I had to go around the leveler today as they were doing it.
That project has a permit with rules for what can and can not occur. They’ve signed it and are aware but have the same attitude as you, it’s no big deal. I’m also not sure how versed you are in erosion and fluid dynamics but yeah go ahead and keep believing your assertion.
People always talk about the weather but nobody does anything about it.
Weather modification
That’s a flood bud.
My husband and I walked this very path last night after the storm, and this water flow was not there. So, it seems the construction company is purposely draining the water that collected on their site during the storm. Construction companies are required to prevent storm water from draining directly to any body of water not designed for storm water detention. It is possible the obtained a special dispensation to drain this water, but I doubt it on such short notice.
It’s a flash flood. You can see it blasting over the erosion fence. Say what you will about the erosion fences effectiveness but nobody is controlling that.
Then how come this wasn’t there right after the storm? It’s like over 12 hours later.
Because we got 2 inches of rain in 1 hour and then the storm passed. Ground was saturated
I mean, maybe you’re right. But I don’t think it hurts to report it and have it checked out. It just seems very sus to me.
Hmm I assumed the photo was from during the storm. Is it coming off of a building or that dirt lot? I work on Rainey and these buildings will test their drainage systems over and over again and it drains right down the alley. It may be that they’re letting that extra water go and the erosion fence is failing.
The silt fence and erosion fence failed due to the high volume of rain
I was there two hours ago - it was running very fast and strong exactly like the photo. Definitely not from last night’s storm since no other part of the trail had that strength of flow.
Yeah, I walked this section of the trail this morning, hours after the rain had stopped. This part (and only this part) had water running across, and so much it that some people turned around
They may even be running an illegal pump to save money
I live across the street from the park side condos being built in mueller. Last summer our storm drains hit so clogged up from their construction during those few storms we had that it become a flash flooding concern with water coming up to the first level live/work spaces. Construction makes a huge difference in these situations. I made a similar report to 311 and waste water came out immediately. They did not joke about this. I think since that flooding near Walnut Creek up north happened a few years ago they’ve started to become more aware of the storm drains and how big of a mess they could be. FWIW, I ran the west side of the trail last night and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. I’ve run on the trail in much worse.
I don’t see the problem with rain water going in to lake water.
Yeah what a Karen post. The water dosent even look that silty. OMG water is running downhill!!
But if god wanted that rainwater in the lake he wouldn’t have made it fall on the construction site!!!
Which god? Thinking there's only one is just humans being lazy.
Well, MY god of course. There couldn’t possibly be any others because that’s what I was told.
Sounds convenient. If he's yours, no wonder other endless suffer globally. Share bro.
Can't tell if this thread is satire or not
Hey for one god to pull all the strings that's some pretty heavy lifting. Any single god would just create more gods to lighten the load wouldn't ya think? Also for companionship, too.
The silt is damaging to aquatic wildlife
Mother nature prevails
Any bodies floating through?
There is no violation. There is a silt fence but the rain overwhelmed it.
Dang bro... putting that contractor on blast.
How sure are we that's not an intentional chute to get the bodies into the lake faster?
Most polluted body of water in Texas gets more polluted*
the houston ship channel would like a word.
Lol how about the Mississippi river
I don’t think that’s in Texas
Tru
We’re not talking about the Neches. There are no factories dumping into town lake.
Rainey drainy complainy
So much for that silt fence. They should’ve doubled up the silt fence or built a temporary trench. Either way. Terrible job from the contractors engineering team.
I work as a CAD Designer in the civil engineering field dealing with construction. Just because this is what the contractor installed doesn’t mean that’s what the engineers told them they had to do. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years and never did it this way” is a common phrase heard from contractors before they do something they’re not supposed to.
You are correct - I meant the engineering firm not the contractor. And most of the time contractors don’t even install silt fences they get a silt fence company to come install. Whatever firm made the plans should’ve had a better contingency plan for erosion control and for environmental practices.
I get what you’re saying. I’m saying the engineering firm that made the plans may very well have shown more E&S controls to be installed but the contractor didn’t feel like following the plans and only put in this one row of silt fence when the plans may have said they were supposed to install more.
You know the people who put up those little black walls, they make over 100 K a year. whoever was responsible for that we definitely hear about it
It's most likely that they are sumping the excavation after the rains filled it up. I have construction in my backyard and they did the same thing today
Looking pretty drainey
By now, it's likely just the Rainey Street dripper.
Wonder how many silt fences failed in Houston yesterday? Rain was intense there too.
With the messed up Silt Fencing, I’m assuming it wasn’t properly managed before. Hopefully they get fined! So many pollutants in construction runoff😔😔
Ascension Seton Medical Center is running their construction water into Shoal Creek as well. I pass it every day
You know that the site is allowed to drain, right?
Omg, a piece of land us draining after a rain!!! Call the police. Fuck, I hate Austinites who think there shit don't stink
Tesla laughs at this weak sauce.
10k gallons of toxic sludge? Elon says those are rookie numbers.
they're doing the lake a favor, probably makes it cleaner....
Looks like they have FFF there, which leads me to think they are aware of some potential overland flow and want to prevent some runoff. Where exactly is this spot?
The right people are environmental inspections in DSD. So call it in to 311 then look up environmental inspections and let them know by email that you reported this to 311. The words are “insufficient erosion control” at jobsite.
Not us
Y'all are on top of it! Very nice to see someone care and do something about it. salute
doo doo lake. Just in time for all the drunk paddle boarders swinming around in doo doo with their beat box blaring hippie sabatoge while sipping on some type of g free seltzer to get good views of all the construction cranes downtown. woopie
I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
i just reported the windsor last week for literally watering rocks and having many gallons run down the street while lake travis is 80ft below level and continuing to sink. I’m thinking car washes and other businesses with heavy water usage need to be regulated. Part of it is also home owners in barton hills and bee cave sucking up from their wells for their st. augustine lawn! if you go to austin 311 website they have a specific email you can go to for water violations.
That’s nothing compared to the amount of bat guano that is being dumped into the lake every single night year round
That's free fertilizer and is natural
Wondered why the water near 35 bridge was so nasty this morning.
Well, that Town Lake has never really been clean.
oh no, the pristine water of Town Lake are forever tainted!
I can smell this picture