Spring Lake, Texas

The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, formerly the Aquarena Center, is an educational center in San Marcos, Texas, dedicated to the preservation of the unique archeological and biological resources of Spring Lake. Visitors can take glass-bottomed boat tours of Spring Lake and view live native animals and fish in the Discovery Center.

The function of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment is to develop and promote programs and techniques for ensuring sustainable water resources for human needs, ecosystem health, and economic development. At Texas State University-San Marcos, the Meadows Center serves as an integrating mechanism for the university’s multidisciplinary departments that are involved with aquatic resources. Texas State is home to several departments and research centers engaged in critical scholarly work on water management issues. The Meadows Center at Spring Lake Hall houses the Texas Stream Team, a volunteer program that monitors the water quality of freshwater systems through the state.

Aquarena Center was established in 1994 when Southwest Texas State University purchased land previously used as an amusement park, including Spring Lake, an artificial freshwater reservoir which contains several of the San Marcos Springs.

The San Marcos Springs are the headwaters of the San Marcos River. The site contains more than 200 springs with water from the Edwards Aquifer and that discharge an average of 123 million US gallons (470,000 m³) of water daily, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in North America. Artifacts discovered in digs conducted from 1979 to 1982 date back 12,000 years.