Bay City Tribune

The stakeholder committee for the environmental flows allocation process had its first meeting in La Grange on Thursday, Dec. 18, and began studying the environmental needs of Matagorda Bay.

The environmental flows allocation process was created by the 80th Texas Legislature's passage of Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 3 in 2007.

The process seeks to answer two questions:

How much water needs to flow in Texas rivers and into bays to maintain a sound ecological environment

How to ensure that much flow is protected.

"The environmental folks have been trying to get some attention to the needs for water for both in streamflows to maintain the health of the rivers and for the freshwater inflows to the estuary system like Matagorda Bay," said Haskell Simon, Matagorda County coastal and water issues consultant.

"They were concerned that because of the growth in Texas," and because more water was being permitted for uses other than for the environmental uses.

Senate Bill 3 set up an environmental flows advisory group comprised of three senators, three house members, one TCEQ commissioner, one Texas Water Development Board member and one Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioner.

The advisory group appointed a science advisory committee and 11 bay/basin areas and stakeholder committees to represent them.

Matagorda County sits in the Colorado and Lavaca Rivers/Matagorda and Lavaca Bays area.

Five of the 21 appointees to the bay and basin area stakeholder committee are Matagorda County representatives.

Simon is a regional water planning group stakeholder, Buddy Treybig is a commercial fishermen stakeholder, Joe King is an electric generation industry stakeholder,

Deedy Huffman is a refining industry stakeholder and Frank Lewis is a free-range livestock stakeholder.

Other stakeholder groups represent: environmental interests; river authorities; groundwater conservation districts; public interest groups; chemical manufacturing industry; soil and water conservation districts; municipalities; recreational water users; and agricultural irrigation water users.

Simon said local groups rallied to have a large Matagorda County representation on that board.

"We lobbied very hard to get a lot of Matagorda County people involved because I dont think a sheep and goat raiser from Mills County has the same feel for the relationship for cattle raising and the needs for freshwater inflows as someone from Matagorda County does," he said.

"I'm not sure how much they understand about what the needs of Matagorda Bay are."

The stakeholder committee is charged with appointing an expert science team that will research how much fresh-water inflow is needed to support Matagorda and Lavaca bays.

"Our concern is that the outlook right now is that there will just be a finite amount of water available but the demand is increasing, which will leave less water for the bays and estuaries," said Simon.

"So if we've got to provide additional water for the bays and estuaries, then where's it going to come from?"

"Well it's not going to come from the cities so that means it's going to come out of the agricultural budget," he said.

Simon said the concern in Matagorda County is both providing for agricultural usage and keeping a healthy bay.

"This is a balance we have to achieve," Simon said.

"We need to have the best science available so that, on the one hand, we don't under supply the environmental needs, but on the other hand, if we over supply it could be detrimental to agriculture."

The Lavaca/Colorado Basin and Lavaca/Matagorda Bay stakeholder committee is accepting applications for appointees to the basin and bay expert science team until Friday, Jan. 15.

Applicants should be technical experts with special understanding of the river basin and bay system for developing environmental-flow systems.

The committee will look for technical experts in the fields of biology, hydrology, hydraulics, geomorphology, or the physical process of river systems, connectivity or the exchange of organisms, energy and matter through river systems and water quality.

Appointees will be asked to commit five years to the project and will be compensated for work expenses.

Applications are available online at www.tceq.state.tx.us/permitting/water_supply/water_rights/eflows/group.html; or by contacting Haskell Simon at 979-245-1708; or by contacting Cory Horan at 512-239-4026 or choran(at)tceq.state.tx.us.

An application form and professional resume will be required for consideration.