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The Environmental Flows Allocation Process Water is the lifeblood of our Texas landscapes. Texas rivers provide water and habitat for fish and wildlife throughout the state and provide the freshwater to coastal estuaries that keeps them functioning and healthy. Unfortunately, we haven't done a very good job of protecting our rivers. Most water use permits were issued without any consideration of how much flow should be left in rivers to protect water quality, fish and wildlife, and human recreational activities. With our population continuing to boom, and more and more water being withdrawn from our rivers to meet increasing demands, this has left the future health of our rivers and bays at risk. But times are changing and there is a new opportunity to correct this shortfall. Recently the Texas Legislature took actions to formally recognize the importance of our natural heritage and the economic engine that healthy river and bay systems support. In 2007 a new state law was passed that finally lays out a comprehensive approach to addressing the issue of environmental flow protection that is so critical to Texas' water resources and all who depend on them. The new Environmental Flows Allocation Process addresses a contentious issue of long standing in Texas: How to ensure that enough water continues to flow in our rivers and streams and into our coastal bay systems to keep them healthy and productive for current and future generations of Texans. The process will address two key issues: determining how much flow is needed to maintain a sound ecological environment, and how to go about ensuring that flow is protected. The Process On September 1, 2007, Senate Bill 3 and House Bill 3 took effect, beginning the Environmental Flows Allocation Process. At first take, the route created to reach the final goals of the process may seem complicated, but determining how much water each of Texas' unique systems needs and when, and how to go about protecting that water is no small undertaking. Care must be taken to ensure the effective participation of all interested parties so that we arrive at the end of the process with meaningful results that everyone can stand behind. The process began with the creation of two new statewide groups. The first is the Environmental Flows Advisory Group whose members were appointed by the governor, lt. governor and speaker of the house. The Environmental Flows Advisory Group then appointed nine individuals to the Texas Environmental Flows Science Advisory Committee.
Next, the Environmental Flows Advisory Group divided the state into eleven areas: seven areas for each of the seven major bay systems of Texas and the associated river basins that feed each of these bay systems (A-G), and four more areas for the major river basins that don't have an associated bay in Texas (H-K). Eleven Bay/Basin Stakeholder Groups and eleven Bay/Basin Expert Science Teams will then be formed-one pair for each area depicted on the map. The Environmental Flows Advisory Group appoints members to the Stakeholder Groups, and the Stakeholder Groups will then create their area's Bay/Basin Expert Science Team (BBEST). Then each Bay/Basin Science Team will have one year to answer the question of how much flow is needed to ensure a sound ecological environment. They will use the best available existing science to develop recommendations for an environmental flow regime. The Bay/Basin Expert Science Team then submits these recommendations to their Bay/Basin Stakeholder Group and to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. These recommendations are solely science-based. Each Stakeholder Group will then have six months to take their science team's recommended environmental flow regime, add their associated policy considerations, and develop strategies to meet the flow recommendations to answer the question of how to ensure that flow is protected. The Stakeholder Group submits their comments and recommendations to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. These are a composite of science- and policy-based recommendations. With the Bay/Basin Expert Science Team recommendations and the Stakeholder Group recommendations in hand, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), through a public rulemaking process, will then have one year to use these recommendations to legally adopt environmental flow standards-the state's requirements for flows in the river basin and inflows to the associated bay system. The final step laid out in the process is for the Bay/Basin Stakeholder Groups, with assistance from their Bay/Basin Science Team, to prepare and submit a work plan to address adaptive management issues, such as periodic review of the bay/basin environmental flow analyses, regime recommendations, and standards and strategies to meet those standards. Rather than take on determining environmental flow standards and recommendations for the whole state at once, the process unfolds gradually. The dates below reflect the timeline from Stakeholder Group appointments to the adoption of environmental flow standards. The first two areas (August 2008 - June 2011): A. Sabine & Neches Rivers/Sabine Lake Bay Area The next two areas (May 2009 - April 2012): D. Colorado & Lavaca Rivers/Matagorda & Lavaca Bays Area The next three area (May 2010 - April 2013): F. Nueces River/Corpus Christi & Baffin Bays Area The final four areas (timing to be determined): H. Cypress River Basin For more information specific to each area, such as a more detailed map of that area and a timeline of events specific to each, click on that area of the statewide map or the area name in the list above. Additional resources: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also maintains a webpage on this process. Click here to view that page. For a print-friendly 2- page handout describing the importance and significance of the environmental flows legislation, click here. For a print-friendly page describing the players and the process, click here. What You Can Do To realize the full potential of this new process, it will require valuable participation from scores of people who care about the future of Texas' rivers and bays. Please consider how you might be a part of this precedent-setting new effort.
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