SMRF has long worked to improve local ordinances in order to protect the recharge zone of the Edwards Aquifer which feeds the springs of the San Marcos River.
As a member of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, SMRF works with a coalition of over 50 community, environmental, business and neighborhood organizations stretching from Del Rio to Austin to protect and preserve the aquifer, its springs and its hill country watersheds that sustain it.
For the past decade, SMRF has served on the steering committee of the Habitat Conservation Plan and prepared a plan with the entire aquifer region to keep the springs flowing. The plan is being implemented now, encouraging water conservation, leasing and storing water in the aquifer for future use and paying regional farmers to forego water intensive crops during droughts.
