Advocacy
Environmental Flows
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's adopted environmental flows rule puts the future of Galveston Bay and its economic and quality of life values at great risk!
On April 20, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, by a 2-1 vote, adopted standards for freshwater inflows for Galveston Bay that will not protect this vital estuary.
The new standards adopt targets for freshwater flows that are so low that they will not actually protect the bay and its important commercial and recreational species - such as oysters, shrimp, blue crab, redfish, flounder, and speckled trout - or jobs and quality of life that are so dependent on these resources. In fact, we believe that the new standards may ultimately do more harm than good for the bay by providing a false sense of security that Galveston Bay will be protected.
If freshwater inflows from the rivers are reduced to the low levels these standards permit – levels far below historic flows – then the bay’s salinities will increase for protracted periods. This has a devastating effect on many bay species, particularly the oysters, because predators and disease that are found in greater numbers in saltier water decimate them. Oysters are the bay’s keystone species, providing habitat for other living things - just ask a fisherman if he likes to fish around reefs - and each filtering as much as 50 gallons of water a day, providing natural water cleansing services. If you lose the oysters, you set up the bay for further losses to the other species so dependent upon them.
Oystermen, seafood distributors, seafood restaurant workers, recreational fishing-related business such as retail and guides, and eco-tourism have been placed in great jeopardy by TCEQ’s action. Indeed, our quality of life down here on the coast, at the end of the freshwater pipe, has been placed in great jeopardy.
With meaningful standards, we would have targets to aim for through more efficient water use or through donation and purchase of water rights so that the water permitted for other purposes could be allowed to flow downriver to the bay as nature intended. Instead, members of the commission expressed hope that the TCEQ standards will be revisited years from now. Protecting Galveston Bay will take more than hope for water to flow to the bay. Protecting the bay requires meaningful standards.
What can you do? Make your feelings on the newly adopted standards known to TCEQ by writing a brief letter to Chairman Bryan W. Shaw, Commissioner Carlos Rubinstein, and Commissioner Buddy Garcia at TCEQ, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, TX 78711-3087.
If you have questions, please contact Scott Jones of the Galveston Bay Foundation at (281) 332-3381 x209 or sjones@galvbay.org.
Freshwater Inflows in the News!Read our September 17 Houston Chronicle op-ed to learn how the low inflows to be allowed in the future by the TCEQ's inadequate standards compare with the historically low inflows caused by the 2011 drought. You can also read prior newspaper articles, editorials, and op-eds by clicking on the following links: May 2 Galveston County Daily News op-ed, February 10 Bay Area Citizen story; GBF's November 1 GCDN op-ed; GCDN’s November 1 editorial; and Houston Chronicle's October 31 editorial. |
Galveston Bay's Health is at Risk!
Galveston Bay is a local and national treasure. In fact, it is the second most productive bay in the United States, producing more oysters than any other single water body in the country and accounting for one-third of Texas’ recreational and commercial harvests of seafood.
The health of Galveston Bay is dependent upon an adequate amount of freshwater flowing to it from rivers, streams and bayous. These flows, called "freshwater inflows" or "environmental flows", dilute the seawater from the Gulf and bring in nutrients that fuel the food chain and sediments that help stabilize wetlands.
However, with the population of this region expected to double in the next 40 years, demand for water will increase, and there is no guarantee the bay will continue to get the water it needs to maintain this productivity. Oysters, which also provide habitat and naturally cleanse the water, are particularly vulnerable since they are decimated in waters of higher salinities.
To respond to this potential loss of flows, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 3 in 2007. The bill called for a team of scientists and stakeholders to determine how much water is needed for Galveston Bay to remain ecologically sound and then provide a flows recommendation to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. TCEQ would then create an environmental flows rule.
However, the process broke down. A group of stakeholders led by the water industry turned in a recommendation with very low freshwater inflow requirements. This recommendation did not have the backing of the majority of the scientists. A second group comprised of conservation, fishing, and recreational users attempted to use the best available science in making a flow determination. Their report suggested larger flows are needed to protect the bay.
Unfortunately, TCEQ chose to use the inadequate, water industry-driven recommendation as the basis for its proposed freshwater inflows rule, placing the future of the bay and its economic and quality of life values at great risk. It recommends extremely low flow levels for the Trinity and San Jacinto Rivers and sets out a vague and hard-to-implement guideline for Galveston Bay. If it is adopted, the Trinity and San Jacinto rivers could slow to a trickle and Galveston Bay would be very vulnerable to increased salinity, particularly during times of drought.
The Galveston Bay Foundation and other conservation organizations, fishermen, and concerned citizens have urged the TCEQ to strengthen the proposed rule by adopting provisions of an alternate rule developed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. This alternate rule was based on the work of the majority of the scientists charged with recommending flows for Galveston Bay.
TCEQ is now considering all public comments and must produce a final freshwater flows rule by June 1st. For the future of Galveston Bay, it is imperative that the TCEQ adopt rules that will actually protect it. The Galveston Bay Foundation encourages you to follow this rulemaking and comment on the final freshwater inflows standards. In addition to calling or writing the TCEQ and governor, you can also sign up to receive periodic updates in the months ahead.
Why TCEQ's Proposed Rule is Inadequate
TCEQ’s proposed rule will not protect Galveston Bay for the following reasons:
- The proposal for Galveston Bay ignores the species-specific recommendations of the majority of the basin and bay area expert science team.
- The proposal sets only a marginally enforceable annual total instead of monthly and/or seasonal inflow targets based on natural rainfall patterns, as intended by the current Texas Parks and Wildlife Department recommended inflows.
- By omitting low flow criteria, the freshwater inflow proposal leaves the bay unprotected when protection is most needed - during droughts.
- The freshwater inflow proposal contains no criteria for inflows from coastal basin streams, which account for 18% of the flows of freshwater to Galveston Bay.
TCEQ's proposed rule will not protect the rivers flowing to Galveston Bay for the following reasons:
- The proposed targets for the rivers are extremely low and would greatly jeopardize water quality and wildlife habitat in the rivers and their tributaries.
- With only six flow measurement points, the proposal does not provide the geographic coverage necessary to protect the rivers.
- The current proposal does not reflect the natural variability required to sustain a sound ecological environment in the rivers.
- The proposal does not provide suitable high flow pulse targets important for many species, channel maintenance, and sediment transport.
Proposed TCEQ Rule Deficiencies Illustrated
Background Information on the Environmental Flows Allocation Process
Article 1 of 2007's Senate Bill 3 created a process to determine how much water is needed to sustain a "sound ecological environment" in rivers and bays across the state. The law was hailed by environmental groups and many in the water development community as a step forward on a long-contentious issue. The law created teams of stakeholders and scientists to come up with recommendations for how much water needs to flow in our rivers (instream flows) and to our bays (freshwater inflows). This part of the process has concluded in the Trinity/San Jacinto-Galveston Bay area.
In this region, neither the Stakeholder Committee nor the Expert Science Team was able to reach agreement on recommendations. The majority of the Expert Science Team called for a full suite of flow protections, covering a variety of flow conditions, at multiple locations up and down the long river basins and for adequate inflows to Galveston Bay.
Graphic credit: TCEQ
A competing recommendation, primarily from the members most closely aligned with entities that sell water, called for lower levels of flows in a limited number of locations (read both sets of Expert Science Team recommendations here).
The statewide Science Advisory Committee (SAC), charged with providing scientific oversight for the overall process, determined that the second recommendation did not meet the statutory requirement of protecting the environment. (Read the SAC's review of both science team reports here.)
Unfortunately, TCEQ leaned heavily on this second recommendation when creating its proposed rule for the Trinity and San Jacinto Rivers and Galveston Bay (online here, scroll down to HB3/SB3: Environmental Flow Standards).
The Galveston Bay Foundation and other conservation organizations, fishermen, and concerned citizens have urged the TCEQ to strengthen the proposed rule by adopting provisions of an alternate rule developed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. This alternate rule was based on the work of the majority of the scientists charged with recommending flows for Galveston Bay.
If you would like to be added to the Galveston Bay Foundation and/or National Wildlife Federation environmental flows mailing lists so you can receive periodic updates, please send an email to Scott Jones (GBF) at sjones@galvbay.org and Jennifer Ellis (NWF) at ellis@nwf.org.
For more information, contact Scott Jones of GBF at (281) 332-3381 x209 and visit the Texas Water Matters Environmental Flows Allocation Process webpage.
