ALLEN BERTHOLDTEXAS WATER RESOURCES INSTITUTE

Water Quality and Copano Bay Watershed Efforts

Copano Bay and Its Watershed

Purpose for Today: The Clean Water Act

Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) Main goal is to “restore and maintain the biological,

chemical and physical integrity of the Nation’s waters.”

Goal of CWA is to provide water quality suitable for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish and wildlife while providing for recreation in and on the water

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) administers and implements CWA Requires individual states to set water quality

standards

Bacteria in Texas Waters

Texas sets water quality standards on the amount of bacteria that a water body can contain

2 types of use in Copano Bay Contact Recreation Oyster Harvesting

Bacteria Geometric Mean (GM) standards for E. coli in freshwaters are:

Primary Contact Recreation (126 cfu/100 mL) Involves a significant risk of water ingestion

Wading children Swimming Whitewater kayaking/canoeing/rafting Waterskiing, diving, tubing, surfing

Bacteria in Texas Waters

Secondary Contact Recreation 1 (630 cfu/100 mL) Commonly occur but have limited body contact incidental

to shoreline activities that pose less significant risk of water ingestion Fishing Motorboating Incidental body contact from shore

Secondary Contact Recreation 2 (1,030 cfu/100 mL) Activities that occur less frequently than Secondary

Contact Recreation 1 due to physical characteristics of the waterbody and limited public access

Bacteria in Texas Waters

Noncontact Recreation (2060 cfu/100 mL) Activities that do not involve a significant risk of water

ingestion such as those with limited body contact incidental to shoreline activity Birding Hiking/biking Where Primary and Secondary Contact Recreation should

not occur due to unsafe conditions such as ship and barge traffic

Tidal and Oyster Water Standards

Bacteria Geometric Mean (GM) standards for tidal waters are: Enterococci (tidal waters) – 35 cfu/100mL

Bacteria standards for Oyster harvesting waters are:

Fecal Coliform (oyster harvesting waters) - 14 cfu/100mL*

* Applies to the median value of observed data

Sources of Bacteria

Fecal material from warm-blooded animals In other words, anything with hair, fur, or feathers

Bacteria are naturally occurring in the intestinal tract

How does Bacteria get into Creeks?

Direct deposition Animals directly deposit fecal material into the water

Birds above water, ducks on water, livestock & wildlife drinkingNon-Point Sources

Storm water runoff from landscape Fecal material runoff from landscape

Pet waste, livestock, wildlife Failing septic systems

Point Sources Improperly treated waste water treatment discharge Illegal dumping Storm water from cities

What Happens When Water has Too Much Bacteria

CWA requires that all waterbodies exceeding standards be identified

Those identified are placed on the Texas Integrated Report for Clean Water Act Sections 305(b) and 303(d)

Water quality monitoring has shown elevated levels of bacteria within various waterbodies in the watershed

Copano Bay/Port Bay/ Mission Bay first listed in 1998

Methods to Address Bacteria Impairments

Recreational Use Attainability Analysis Ex. one currently in progress on Aransas Creek

Developing a Plan Total Maximum Daily Load and Implementation Plan Watershed Protection Plan

Attempts to Address the Bacteria Impairment

Seven Public Meetings from November 2005 – December 2010

Covered various topics including: Overview of TMDLs Bacterial Source Tracking (phases I and II) Modeling results (and revised results) Additional monitoring results Attempts to form a Watershed Advisory Group (WAG)

Notes and presentations available at http://www.tceq.texas.gov/waterquality/tmdl/42-copano.html#info

Today’s Meeting

Goal – to deliver information to local stakeholders so that an informed decision on how to best approach the impairment can be made

Next presentation will be about: An overview of alternatives to addressing water

quality impairments An explanation of the TMDL and I-Plan process An explanation of the WPP process

Questions?

Kevin WagnerTexas Water Resources Instituteklwagner@ag.tamu.edu979-845-2649

Allen BertholdTexas Water Resources Institutetaberthold@ag.tamu.edu361-318-8780