Dickinson Bayou Water Quality Report

Title: Dickinson Bayou Water Quality Report
Location: Galveston County Consolidated Drainage District, 1605 Whitaker Drive, Friendswood, Texas 77546
Event Link: Click here
Description: At the end of June, TCEQ Commissioners unanimously decided NOT to lower the bacteria pollution standards for “primary contact recreation” streams (those streams where people swim, wade, etc.). However, TCEQ Chairman Shaw made it clear that he wanted the TCEQ staff to work to “streamline” the process (called “recreational use attainability analyses” or RUAAs) by which a stream could be reclassified by the new categories of “secondary contact recreation” (less likelihood of ingestion of water by humans than swimming) or even “noncontact recreation.” Reclassification to these other categories allow realtively elevated levels of bacteria (for which E. coli is the indicator) in the such streams, which means those streams may be subject to less rigorous clean-up requirements by TCEQ.

Last week the TCEQ Commissioners met again and received a report from their staff on the “streamlining” of these RUAAs. The staff reported that RUAAs for 53 streams have already been completed and have been reviewed by or under review by TCEQ staff, and they intend to complete RUAAs for another 56 steams this year and 15 next year. Moreover, they have identified other streams where they want to do RUAAs in the future. Dickinson Bayou is among the streams that has been reviewed.

Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2010-08-16
End Time: 19:00