A potential controversy over land next to a very old gravesite in South Austin appears to have ended peacefully.

A group of concerned citizens said Friday a pre-Civil War cemetery for African-Americans was being used by the city to store construction equipment.  

“It makes me sick that they have construction areas on a possible cemetery over there without doing due diligence of where the cemetery boundaries are,” said Sharon Blythe, a citizen concerned about the cemetery.

The Barton Springs Baptist Church Cemetery is one of the first African-American cemeteries in Central Texas.  

“African Americans were buried here since 1866,” Blythe said.

According to oral history, the land was donated to ex- slaves of the Goodrich plantation. Some of the slaves buried on the land were born before 1840.

The city has been leasing land adjacent to the cemetery to store equipment while laying pipe work for the Austin Clean Water Project.

KVUE News called Austin Water Utility to ask if they were aware of the situation.

It wasn't long before construction crews were moving their equipment 30-feet away from the area of concern.

“We are going to go ahead and identify the areas that Mr. Wood is concerned about, move the equipment and pipe away from those areas,” said Gopal Guthikonda of Austin Water Utility.

De Bon Wood, a concerned citizen, was elated.

“It's so hard to get them to pay attention until we get (the media) out here,” he said.

Citizens are hoping when the city is finished with the site it performs an archeological review.