San Antonio Installs Litter Boom at Woodlawn Lake
A floating barrier now traps trash upstream at Alazan Creek while letting wildlife pass through the lake.
Updated on Nov. 7, 2026 in National Parks
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The City of San Antonio and River Aid San Antonio have installed a floating litter boom at Woodlawn Lake, the third such boom in the city. The barrier is designed to catch litter while allowing wildlife to pass.
Why it matters
Trash in the lake is an ongoing problem that worsens after heavy rain, and the boom offers a lower-labor way to intercept it. Two people can clean the trap, compared with the 10 needed to clean up the entire park.
The installation cost is $10,000, with $12,000 a year in maintenance, and the barrier is a floating black boom with 7 inches of chain net beneath it. The extraction does not report how much litter the boom has collected since installation.
The players
River Aid San Antonio
A local river-cleanup organization that partnered with the City of San Antonio on the Woodlawn Lake installation.
Nancy Smith Hurd Foundation
A foundation that provided the grant funding the Woodlawn Lake boom and five others.
The details
The boom is a floating black barrier attached to each bank of the lake, installed upstream at Alazan Creek. The technology was originally designed to clean up oil spills and was funded through a grant with the Nancy Smith Hurd Foundation that also covered five other booms.
Timeline
November 6, 2026: Article published about the new Woodlawn Lake litter boom.
Seasonal Patterns
The Woodlawn Lake boom is the third of its kind in San Antonio, extending the city's earlier booms at Martin Luther King and Comanche parks to a new site. Two more booms are planned for Brackenridge Park, Elmendorf Lake and Olmos Creek.
Visitors to Woodlawn Lake may notice the floating barrier on the water, which is designed to keep litter out while letting wildlife pass. The boom's presence reflects ongoing trash problems that worsen after heavy rain, so park users may see cleaner water in areas where it is installed.
The takeaway
Litter barriers can cut cleanup labor sharply, since two people can service a single trap that would otherwise require a crew of 10 across the whole park. Readers interested in local waterways can watch whether the city's planned additional booms follow through.
What happens next
More booms are planned at Brackenridge Park, Elmendorf Lake and Olmos Creek, though no dates for those installations are given.
Further reading
Explore more on the National Parks coverage for San Antonio's green spaces and the efforts to keep them clean.
Source note: This article includes information reported by KSAT.
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Should your city spend public money on floating litter booms in local lakes?
