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Jack W. TatumSabine River Authority of TexasChair – Sabine and Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake Bay Basin and Bay Expert Science Team
Passed in 2007 by the 80th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature
Created a basin-by-basin process for developing Recommendations to meet instream flow needs
for rivers Recommendations to meet inflow needs for
bays and estuaries Environmental Flow Standards to be adopted by
rule by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)
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Date Event
July 2008 Stakeholder Committee Appointed by Environmental Flows Advisory Group (EFAG)
August 2008 1st Stakeholder Committee Meeting
November 2008 Expert Science Team Appointed by Stakeholder Committee
December 2008 1st Expert Science Team Meeting
November 30, 2009
Sabine-Neches BBEST Environmental Flows Recommendation Report
June 1, 2010 Sabine-Neches Stakeholder Committee Recommendations Report
June 2011 TCEQ Adopts Environmental Flow Standards and Environmental Flow Set-Asides
Stakeholder Committee Develops Work Plan
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Expert Science Team “must consider all reasonably available science,
without regard to the need for water for other uses, and … the recommendations must be based solely on the best science available.”
Stakeholder Committee Reviews Expert Science Team’s
recommendations and considers them “in conjunction with other factors, including the present and future needs for water for other uses related to water supply planning”
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Environmental Flow Analysis Environmental Flow Regime
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Overbank Flows High Flow Pulses Base Flows Subsistence Flows
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Taken from recent instream flows research, Lower Colorado River (BIO-WEST 2008).
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Goal: Maintain a sound ecological environment
Sound Ecological Environment: the Sabine-Neches BBEST adopted the SAC definition
Objectives: to meet the criterion of a sound ecological environment
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Geographic Scope Use of Hydrologic Data Fluivial Sediment Transport
(Geomorphology) Freshwater Inflow Regime Water Quality Biology
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Texas/ Louisiana Texas State Water
Quality Flows (7Q2) Senate Bill 2: Lower
Sabine River Priority Instream Flow Study
Toledo Bend Project Joint Operations (FERC Relicensing)
Sabine River Compact
Lower Neches River Saltwater Barrier
Cutoff Bayou: Lower Sabine River
USACE Sabine-Neches Waterway Feasibility Study
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Hydrology Biology (Ecological Review) Geomorphology (Sediment Transport) Application of Water Quality in
Environmental Flows
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Hydrology (Freese and Nichols, Inc.) Gage Memo, HEFR Memo, WAM Memo
Biology (BIO-WEST, Inc.) Estuarine and Fluvial Focal Species Summary
Reports National Wildlife Federation
Salinity Suitability Analyses of Rangia Cuneata …
Analyses of Satellite Imagery … in Support of Developing Overbank Instream Flow Recommendations … (with the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance)
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Hydrology-Based Environmental Flow Regime (HEFR) Developed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department (TPWD) to efficiently use hydrologic data to populate a flow regime matrix
The Sabine-Neches BBEST selected HEFR as the desktop method to use for developing the required flow matrices for the Sabine and Neches River Basins and the Sabine-Neches Estuary.
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Numerous man-made alterations have influenced the current ecological condition in
the Sabine-Neches Estuary and the lower tidal reaches of the
Sabine and Neches Rivers. These systems are generally
sound, exhibiting good overall water quality and diverse fish
and wildlife communities . The Sabine-Neches Estuary
receives more fresh water than all other estuaries on the Texas
Gulf Coast (next slide) and provides enough fresh water to
Sabine Lake for the focal species studied there (NWF
2009).
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* The latest USACE draft study report indicates just deepening with selectedwidening areas; they do not plan to widen the entire channel length.
Recommendations Recognitions Unresolved Issues Future Studies Adaptive Management
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The Current Conditions of the Sabine and Neches Rivers and the Sabine-Neches Estuary are Sound
Acknowledgement That Flows in the Sabine and Neches Rivers and Inflows to the Sabine-Neches Estuary will Change Over Time
Future Study, Data Gathering, and Adaptive Management are Necessary to Determine Whether or Not Changes in Environmental Flows will Maintain a Sound Ecological Environment
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Jack W. TatumWater Resources [email protected]
Jim BrownRMPD Manager
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Environmental Flows Recommendations Report:
http://www.sratx.org/BBEST/RecommendationsReport/
