The Environmental Integrity Index (EII) is a tool developed by the City of Austin’s Environmental Resource Management Division to monitor and assess the ecological integrity and the degree of impairment in Austin’s watersheds. This feature class provides the most recent results from the EII for the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department’s Masterplanning process. Similarly, the Austin Lakes Index was designed to provide a yearly assessment of the ecological integrity of Lake Austin, Lady Bird Lake, and Lake Long.

Index scores (from both the EII and ALI) are an integer between 0 and 100. Excellent 88-100 | Very Good 76-87 | Good 63-75 | Fair 51-62 | Marginal38-50 | Poor 26-37 | Bad 13-25 | Very Bad 0-12.

Problem Scores are an integer between 1 and 100 with 1 being "No Problem" and 100 being a highest priority.

EII Methodology:

Master Plan Problem Score Methodology:

Lake Index Methodology:

These are the geographic boundaries for reaches evaluated as part of the Environmental Integrity Index and Austin Lakes Index . Scores can be found in tabular form: https://data.austintexas.gov/Environment/Watershed-Reach-Index-and-Problem-Scores/vk3r-6prc

Data provided as part of the "Find Your Watershed" viewer on the Watershed Protection pages of http://www.austintexas.gov/

Data collected to assess water quality conditions in the natural creeks, aquifers and lakes in the Austin area. This is raw data, provided directly from our Water Resources Monitoring database (WRM) and should be considered provisional. Data may or may not have been reviewed by project staff. A map of site locations can be found by searching for LOCATION.WRM_SAMPLE_SITES; you may then use those WRM_SITE_IDs to filter in this dataset using the field SAMPLE_SITE_NO.

Data provided as part of the "Find Your Watershed" viewer on the Watershed Protection pages of http://www.austintexas.gov/

Data collected to assess water quality conditions in the natural creeks, aquifers and lakes in the Austin area. This is raw data, provided directly from our Field Sample database (FSDB) and should be considered provisional. Data may or may not have been reviewed by project staff. Data quality (QC) flags have been provided to aid in the assessment of the data; R-flagged data should be considered suspect, but is provided as it represents taxpayer expenditure and the efforts undertaken to characterize the status of our environment. Note that some data over time will be improved and edited for accuracy and that QC flags can change based upon changes in project criteria. Additional data may be availabe from other agencies (USGS, TCEQ, LCRA) and should be requested from them directly; some of this data may appear in those datasets.

These are the geographic boundaries for reaches evaluated as part of the Environmental Integrity Index and Austin Lakes Index . Scores can be found in tabular form: https://data.austintexas.gov/Environment/Watershed-Reach-Index-and-Problem-Scores/vk3r-6prc

Bacteria data for past five years at the time of creating this view (will continue to add data as we update the portal).

About 50% of Austin’s creeks exceed the TCEQ criteria for contact recreation at any given time, based on our historic E. coli data. Contact recreation is an activity that increases the chance of swallowing water, such as swimming or splashing. Note that this is not a standard that allows for the determination of safe or unsafe swimming, but rather a state-level indicator of long-term potential of fecal contamination. The higher the E. coli count, the more likely there is fecal contamination and the higher the risk there is for waterborne illness. Any natural body of water will have some amount of fecal matter due to fish and wildlife, and the fecal matter from warm-blooded animals such as birds, bats, dogs, deer and other mammals will include E.coli.

There are risks for swimming in any natural water body, so best practices are strongly encouraged:
• Avoid swimming after heavy rainfall.
• Do not swim in water that looks discolored, murky, or smells unpleasant.
• Make sure you can see submerged hazards
• Look for posted warning signs and follow the advice on them.
• Avoid swallowing water or putting your head under water if you are unsure about its quality.
• Avoid swimming if you have an open wound or infection.

When assessing this bacteria data for contact recreation please consider these codes:

Data collected to assess water quality conditions in the natural creeks, aquifers and lakes in the Austin area. This is raw data, provided directly from our Field Sample database (FSDB) and should be considered provisional. Data may or may not have been reviewed by project staff. Data quality (QC) flags have been provided to aid in the assessment of the data; R-flagged data should be considered suspect, but is provided as it represents taxpayer expenditure and the efforts undertaken to characterize the status of our environment. Note that some data over time will be improved and edited for accuracy and that QC flags can change based upon changes in project criteria. Additional data may be availabe from other agencies (USGS, TCEQ, LCRA) and should be requested from them directly; some of this data may appear in those datasets.

Data collected to assess water quality conditions in the natural creeks, aquifers and lakes in the Austin area. This is raw data, provided directly from our Field Sample database (FSDB) and should be considered provisional. Data may or may not have been reviewed by project staff.