Helotes Canyon northwest of San Antonio has seen its share of small-scale development, but the water in Helotes Creek still flows clear and plentiful as it makes its way downstream toward the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone.
But with developer Lennar Homes planning the canyon’s densest development yet — a 3,000-home subdivision on a 1,160-acre property — this could all change in only a few years. Could Helotes Creek become yet another dead Hill Country stream, choked with algae and sediment, bearing greater flooding risk, and channeling stormwater runoff from roads and lawns into the Edwards Aquifer?
Read more from Brendan Gibbons with the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance here.