Salamanders Between My Toes

To the untrained eye, Austin's Barton Springs Pool appears to be healthy with it's waters clean and clear. Over the years Austin's many floods have cause debris of all kind to accumulate in the deep end of the pool. The power of the water during these floods has also damaged the pools flood control tunnel. The pool is nothing more than a dammed up creek so storms dump sediment ranging from tiny pebbles to large boulders in the deep end of the pool every time there is a heavy rain in the Barton Creek watershed. All this trash slows the water flow and causes algae to grow at a rapid pace. In the early 90's the City of Austin drained the pool and drove a large crane into the pool removing all the flood trash and basically scooping out the bottom of the deep end of the pool. In 1997 the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared one of the pool's natural inhabitants an endangered spices so driving a large crane into the pool to clean flood damage would never to happen again. In 2006 the City of Austin took a different approach and tried to remove the accumulated flood debris with a giant vacuum truck. That technique did not work very well but the pool's endangered species, the Salamander not only survived the vacuum cleaner but the tiny creature started thriving.
Now it is time to clean the pool again and this time repair the flood control tunnel. The project will cost $4 million and the pool or parts of it will be closed for up to seven months. Closing the pool that long will make the salamanders happy but it is sure to make it's many frequent human swimmers mad enough to protest and Lord knows we love to protest in Austin. We really don't care what the cause is, we just love to march for a cause. I can just see little salamanders being drawn on every thing that's not nailed down and maybe even a few people dressed as salamanders surrounding City Hall.
I swim at the pool several times a year and it is my favorite Austin site. The rocks and sometimes murky water have never bothered me. As one who has swam in large animal watering basins I never give a little algae or unknown structures under my feet any thought at all so I don't see why all this fuss is so critical. But I guess it's like the roof on a house. You can neglect it for a long time but it gets worse and finally becomes untenable.
This week it just so happens that the pools weekly cleaning and Earth Day fell on the same day. The weekly cleaning is only a bandage until the $4 million clean sweep starts this Fall. I'll swim in the pool several times before it closes in the Fall and I'll be sure not to step on any of those million dollar salamanders. Those tiny creatures will take one look at two foot length hair and know I am a born protester who's on their side. They will be so pleased with me, they'll swim between my toes.