The AWU Center for Environmental Research at the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant is a partnership formed in 1989 with the University of Texas and Texas A&M University to support urban ecology and sustainability studies for Austin. Numerous Texas universities along with federal and state agencies now work through the CER to utilize the Hornsby Bend site for education and research on biosolids, soil ecology, biodiversity, riparian ecology, and more. The CER auditorium and classrooms are used by a wide range of academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations for workshops, classes, and meetings.

Hornsby Bend is nationally known as a biodiversity research site and as an ecotourism destination.
    center for environmental research classroom
Classroom in CER auditorium.

entrance sign to Hornsby Bend
The Hornsby Bend site is open to visitors 7 days a week from dawn to dark. Visitors should use the "Public Entrance" that leads to the treatment ponds. See map.

The biodiversity is present both because the sewage treatment plant is managed to encourage wildlife and because of the diversity of habitats at the site stretching along 3.5 miles of the Colorado River. One measure of this biodiversity is that Hornsby Bend is nationally known as one of the best birding sites in Texas – harboring over 370 species of birds and an abundance of other wildlife which is monitored through the CER’s citizen science programs and university researchers. The site is, also, a destination on the TPWD Heart of Texas Wildlife tourism trail.
 

• Investigación
• Medio Ambiente