Deer Lane Mobility Improvement

Zara Environmental is currently working for the City of Austin to ensure that a mobility improvement project will be in compliance with permitting requirements related to the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan agreement with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.  Construction activities will improve road alignment, add bicycle lanes and significantly improve traffic flow.  Zara’s role is to conduct background water quality monitoring, unsaturated zone groundwater tracer tests, and fauna surveys in three caves near the proposed roadway alignment.  The tracer tests will use safe dyes and chemical tracers to simulate how contaminants from roadway runoff might move through the soils and into cave drips and the aquifer.  The results of the study will help engineers implement water quality measures to ensure that impacts to the caves, cave fauna and groundwater are minimized.  Zara Environmental was selected for this project because of our unique experience with groundwater tracing of cave drips and our expertise in safely working in difficult cave environments.