Several months ago, I began volunteering at a new State Natural Area under development outside of Boerne named the Albert and Bessie Kronkosky State Natural Area (ABKSNA). The Kronkosky’s purchased the land during the 1940’s as one of many investments, which included steady purchases of stock in a little company in New York named Merrill Lynch. Their investments did very well.
Over time, the Kronkosky family increased their land size to around 3,900 acres, and to prevent it from ever being developed, they willed it to the State of Texas to become a state natural area. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department accepted the donation of the ranch in March 2011. Moreover, the Kronkosky family used their substantial assets to form the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation that is focused on producing tangible and measurable good in Bandera, Bexar, Comal, and Kendall counties. Their foundation has given $327.4 million in grants to non-profits in our area. It is one of the premiere philanthropic foundations serving our area.
I stumbled upon the existence of ABKSNA while researching rare plants for AAMN’s Butterfly Learning Center. Several species were found on their ranch within the borders of the SNA. I volunteered to work at the SNA through their website, and while I was there completing their volunteer paperwork, I found myself on a geology walk led by Dr. Kathy Ward. Her husband, Bill Ward, was one of the key geologists who defined the geology of the Canyon Lake Gorge. If you haven’t been to the Gorge on the AAMN Field Trip, go. Or go on one of the tours led by the docents at Canyon Lake Gorge. It is extraordinary.
During my walk on the ranch with Dr. Ward, another volunteer found on the ground an intact, perfect arrow point, and I learned that the ABKSNA was once a Native American work area, which dates back hundreds of years. I was in heaven. Ancient artifacts, rare plants, wandering around an old ranch undisturbed? Sign me up!
So, I began volunteering there. That is how I became aware of their need for trained, water quality monitors and riparian evaluators, and I then signed up with the Texas Stream Team to become a certified water quality monitor.
Water monitoring led me to Lennar Homes and the Gualojote Ranch housing development west of Gray Forest. One million gallons per day of treated effluent will be going into Helotes Creek and flowing downstream into the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. This waste will flow into the aquifer supplying water to over 2 million people. I thought this was an important thing to monitor.
I coordinated with Texas Stream Team to create an approved monitoring site downstream of the projected water treatment plant. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved the use of Helotes Creek as a drain for waste water, and I think it is important for someone monitor it. I plan to test weekly, which is a rate in excess of the once-a-month testing that is considered “standard”, and I will publish the values I find during testing, subject to validation from the Texas Stream Team. I plan to watch and sound the alarm in the event of something bad happening upstream.
We can test weekly rather than monthly because we are “citizen” or “community” scientists. We are volunteers and less expensive than professionals and use less expensive, but still accurate, testing kits. We are trained to use scientific protocols in our testing, with checklists and validation of our results. We are trained to a professional level set of standards.
The study of riparian areas is something relatively new in science. We’re still learning how they work. The use of riparian areas, particularly arid ones like Helotes Creek, to receive outflows from water treatment plants is even newer. What will happen when an ephemeral, or occasional, stream that is dry most of the time turns into a perennial stream with constant water flow? What will the erosion pattern be like when there is little to no vegetation in the stream or on its banks? And, worst case, what happens if a spill occurs upstream and less than optimally treated wastewater gets into our aquifer? This is an opportunity to monitor, observe, record, and learn. Science is about learning and then, hopefully, applying the lessons learned.
When I became a Master Naturalist in November of 2022, I never imagined I would, nine months later, be starting a program to measure water quality in a dry creek outside of Helotes, Texas. Or observing what happens when the valves are opened upstream and a million gallons of treated effluent begins to flow down that creek. There are truly no limits on what you can learn, do, or accomplish in this program.
