Protecting Freshwater Inflows to Galveston Bay

Galveston Bay needs freshwater! While that may sound strange, the health and productivity of an estuary like Galveston Bay is dependent upon adequate amounts of freshwater flowing from our area rivers, bayous, creeks. Those freshwaters and the salty water of the Gulf of Mexico meet and mix in Galveston Bay, offering a rich habitat in which so many plants and animals flourish – and providing for the enjoyment and economic well-being of millions of people in the Houston-Galveston area.

Not only do the tributaries of Galveston Bay, the largest of which is the Trinity River, provide freshwater, they also bring sediments and nutrients that serve as the building blocks for nearly all marine life in the bay. Without adequate flows, which are known as “freshwater inflows,” the bay could become too salty and cease to provide such a bountiful harvest of fish and shellfish for our recreational and commercial fisheries. In fact, the very location of the bay’s oyster reefs and the survival of juvenile fish are dependent on the amount and timing of freshwater inflows to the bay! Nor would the bay continue to serve as such a wonderful home to other animals, like our wealth of indigenous and migratory birds, that that supports a healthy ecotourism industry.

Although southeast Texas has a markedly wet climate with an average of nearly fifty inches of rain in the Houston area, local population growth and the population growth in Dallas-Fort Worth area of the Trinity River watershed will put a strain on the freshwater resources flowing into Galveston Bay over the next 20-30 years. Balancing human needs for freshwater – for households, industry and agriculture – and the bay’s needs, provides a huge challenge.

To help meet this challenge, GBF has long been a proponent and active player in water planning efforts by participating in the Galveston Bay Freshwater Inflows Group, a consortium of representatives from natural resource agencies, environmental groups, fisheries and agriculture, and water districts since 1996, and the Region H Water Planning Group, established as a result of the passage of Senate Bill 1 by the Texas Legislature to provide local input on the State’s Water Plan, since 1998. And GBF board members now sit on the newly formed Trinity and San Jacinto Rivers and Galveston Bay Stakeholders Committee, established as a result of passage of Senate Bill 3 in 2007. As the Senate Bill 1 regional planning efforts do not recognize the environment as a specific water need – as it does for municipal, industrial and agricultural uses - passage of Senate Bill 3 was critically important because it directs the new stakeholders committee to determining specific “environmental flow” needs – that is, for the needs of the bay and its tributaries.

GBF is taking a further step in helping to determine and protect flows to the bay thanks to a grant from the National Wildlife Federation! With this grant funding, GBF will provide outreach to local citizens and stakeholders groups about the importance of environmental flows to the bay and facilitate their involvement with the Trinity and San Jacinto Rivers and Galveston Bay Stakeholders Committee process over the next two years. Specifically, GBF will make presentations, conduct meetings and provide written and electronic materials through various media about Galveston Bay environmental flow needs, how we all can become involved in determining those needs and how each and every one of us can reasonably reduce our own water consumption to help ensure the bay’s needs are met. Be on the lookout for information, meeting announcements and presentation opportunities in the coming weeks and months.

For more information about environmental flows and how to get involved, contact Scott Jones at sjones@galvbay.org , 281-332-3381 x209, or visit www.texaswatermatters.org .