It happens every two years to maintain it, and the city finds all sorts of objects in the water.
SAN ANTONIO — Cell phones, chairs and dolls. Those are just a few of the items found every few years when the San Antonio River is drained and cleaned for ecological health and safety reasons.
We took a look at the muddy and murky mire with all of the water withdrawn.
The city found shopping carts, wedding rings and even e-scooters! Anything old, new, used or even thing that are brand new in a box have been found in this river that is drained and cleaned every two years.
“Anything that you would see in the downtown area being used, commercially. probably at some point or another, it’s found it’s kind of just rushed into the river,” said Adrian Reyna Arroyos who is an Aquatic Biologist with the San Antonio River Authority. He says making sure every inch of infrastructure is performing properly is a big reason too. “To help draw the river down in order to do maintenance on, any repairs or maintenance for the gates. Any of the flood control infrastructure that we have in place to kind of help protect the citizens of San Antonio.”
Here’s one collection of crud public works pulled from the Alamo City’s most well-known waterway. It included a mound of metal, if you will, containing a pole for a street sign, what we think is part of a chair, and a few public works employees standing by, ready to dispose of the mud-covered and sludge-soaked stuff, including invasive species like these giant apple snails that get the in the way of.
If you’re thinking, the fish that frolic here must be freaking out without their typical helping of H2O, you can stop stressing. The scaley swimmers are actually relocated. Arroyos told us, “We care about the native aquatic life within the river, and we don’t want them to struggle for the long week that it’s drained.”
The final product, a river we humans can all relish, without all of the metal even a mackerel would say is well, meh.
The San Antonio River Authority says do your best to toss your trash in a timely manner, so the river remains as rubbish free as possible.