This is a mixed media painting though it is primarily watercolor. It was inspired by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. In the lower right of the painting you can find a page from that book that describes a fish kill that occurred in Austin, Texas. Though people still fish in Town Lake, they are warned not to eat what they catch there. Run off into Town Lake and Barton Springs continue to be a very political issue in Austin where the Barton Springs Salamander is a threatened species whose survival is threatened by increased development in the aquifer's recharge zone.