By James Rincon

Pflag Reporter

Hidden away in the Windermere neighborhood, behind a storm water detention plant, there is a natural spring in Pflugerville that rivals Austin’s famed Barton Springs.

Despite its proximity to the privately-owned detention plant that services the neighborhood at the corner of Edgemere Drive and Ramble Creek, staff from the city’s planning department said the site may have potential to provide the same kind of constantly cool summertime swimming spot as its likeness to the South, but there are other problems – for instance, it too is owned by Austin.

“We have had intermittent conversations and dialogues with the city of Austin staff and Watershed Protection and other departments about its status, ownership and purpose. The city of Pflugerville has no iron-clad plans about how to utilize it. We’re most particularly interested in harnessing it under our control because it’s city of Austin property in Pflugerville and it just seems kind of odd,” Pflugerville Development Director Trey Fletcher said.

Stephanie Lott, spokesperson for city of Austin’s Watershed Protection department, said the cities have had discussions about transferring the land, but the last meeting about the issue was more than a year and a half ago. She said Austin is happy to continue those discussions.

“We’re happy to transfer the land. We think that’s a good idea. We have to work out the right agreement,” Lott said. “The most recent one was that we would give them that pond and in exchange, we have a storm water management pond and they would operate and maintain that pond for us. But that has just been part of the ongoing discussions.”

One Pflugerville resident said he’s done the research and sees the property’s full potential.

Chris Carmen brought the spring to the City Council’s attention last month during an open meeting about Pflugerville’s comprehensive plan. He said Ward Spring is roughly the same size as Barton Springs and that even with potentially costly drawback, the community could benefit immediately from the spring.

“The city could redirect one of the flows to make Windermere (pool) a cold pool, so people could see where their money was going, and put a filling station for a five gallon thing of water over there,” Carmen said. “My idea is, if the city showed people where their tax money was going and had a free water fill-up for spring water, and we had a cold pool as one of their pools, I think you’d see them be a lot more generous and want to see more of their money do more development.”

Carmen said in his research of the spring, he found that people used to swim it until the detention plant was built.

“People used to swim in this back in the day, but once this got put in and Windermere got built around it, of course, if you see a treatment plant… I was scared to even walk my dog here,” Carmen said. “They didn’t want it to go here – but it was a low cost solution, so they put it here.”

There are two visible free flowing springs that feed into a large pond, which would be the swimming hole. A damn regulates the pond’ height.

“I think the main source in right in (the pond) – underground springs,” Carmen said. “This is called the head of Gilleland Creek, and a spring called the head of a creek has got to be a certain flow. It can’t dry out. It’s go to flow all year round.”

Fletcher said turning Ward Spring into another Barton Spring may make sense geologically, but the city has not investigated what a project like that would cost.

“What Chris is talking about it real good concept. There’s an extraordinary number of hoops we have to jump through at expense, but this is a concept. It’s got some merit, over a period of time in the context of a long range plan, to pursue,” Fletcher said. “Springs are unique geological features and they need to be first protected, second, if they can be utilized for aesthetic or recreation purposes, I think there’s a residual benefit you can get. I wouldn’t rule it out, but I think that that’s a long term proposition.”