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Jacob's Well ceases flowing, swimming canceled for forseeable future
Officials say this means that Jacob's Well has officially stopped flowing for the fourth time in recorded history.
WIMBERLEY, Texas - A small amount of water flowed into Cypress Creek Thursday from Jacobs Well.
Essentially it was only a trickle and certainly not enough to allow people like Amanda Fiffe who drove from Houston to jump in.
"It is beautiful, peaceful," said Fiffe, who also admitted she would rather be in the water than on the hiking trails which remain open.
Swimming passes, at the popular nature spot near Wimberley, are canceled for the time being. That decision came after the U.S. Geologic Survey measured a zero cfs discharge from the well.
"This would be probably only the fourth time that this is happened in recorded history, so it is kind of a huge deal and cause for concern," said Hays County Parks Specialist Katherine Sturdivant.
A few months ago, Jacobs Well was filled with water. Now, there is little water but a lot of rocks, pockets of slime and algae.
"We have not found any toxic algae, we do not have any concerns at this point in time, but low flows can always correlate to water quality concerns," said Sturdivant.
A picture of Jacob's Well in 2021, with lots of water (Katherine Sturdivant)
The water hole, where the cold spring water emerges from, is 137 feet deep. It’s a clear opening down to a cave that’s a little more than a mile long.
"The spring going dry limits swimming, but it is also telling us that groundwater levels in the aquifer, the water supply for the region, is very, very low, in fact critical," said environmentalists Robin Gary.
Gary said she is with a group called the Watershed Association. She noted the Spring was flowing Thursday, but said it’s not enough.
"From the fish standpoint, and the aquatic vegetation, conditions need at least 4CFS, 4 cubic feet a second, for it to be healthy or acceptable, 8CFS, or 8 cubic feet a second to be healthy."
The condition of Jacobs Well is not an isolated situation. What's happening there is taking place all across Texas.
A picture of Jacob's Well in 2022, with little water and rocks. (Katherine Sturdivant)
Thursday morning, the National Weather Service in Houston posted on social media satellite imagery. It showed how the south-central Texas region was much greener last July than it is at the same time this year.
The wait for Relief and Recharge, according to Sturdivant, could be long and dry.
"It’s going to take a lot of rainfall. This Spring is very tied to the rain that we receive in our recharge zone, we missed that big push of rain in May, that we typically receive here in central Texas, and so we are still going to need a lot of rain to get into the recharge zone and get that aquifer level up to where the spring will flow," said Sturdivant.
With a new and stronger glow visitors will be able to get back into the Well.