Ron Duke, a fierce defender of the Guadalupe River, is among the missing after flood

Ron Duke, a prominent defender of the Guadalupe River who spent months documenting environmental violations and organizing water protection efforts, is missing after catastrophic floods swept away his home in Hunt.

Duke, 80, who worked closely with Guadalupe Riverkeeper, had been leading efforts to address what he called illegal subdivision development that left sediment contaminating the North Fork of the Guadalupe River in western Kerr County. His home was among those destroyed when floodwaters devastated the Hunt area.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had cited a subdivision developer for multiple violations earlier this year after Duke documented bulldozed roads carved down cliff faces to the river and floodplain. Despite the citations, Duke reported that piles of caliche and rock remained on the floodplain, washing into the river during recent rains and turning it into what he described as “caliche soup.”

Duke successfully escalated the issue to federal authorities by involving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing that the sediment contamination threatened newly listed endangered mussel species habitat under the Endangered Species Act.

“State agencies TCEQ and GBRA would not enforce. The Feds will enforce,” Duke wrote in a recent message to fellow advocates. “I trust Federal faaar more than State agencies.”

Most recently, Duke had been organizing community opposition to a proposed private dam on the North Fork, working with the Hill Country Alliance and Kerrville Riverside Nature Center to build a regional coalition of water conservation advocates.

The Llano River Watershed Alliance had been following Duke’s advocacy efforts, with communities from Junction to Austin supporting his environmental protection work.

Search and rescue operations continue in the flood-affected areas of Kerr County.