Arroyo Colorado steering committee to discuss end of federal funding
Meet set July 27
WESLACO -- The Arroyo Colorado Watershed Partnership steering committee will meet July 27 to discuss ideas on how to continue the partnership’s efforts to implement a watershed protection plan after current federal funding runs out, according to an official with Texas AgriLife’s Texas Water Resources Institute.
The committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. at the Rio Red classroom at the Texas A&M University Kingsville Citrus Center, 312 N. International Blvd., said Jaime Flores, watershed coordinator.
“We’ve had an impressive turnout of citizens from all walks of life interested in this vital community effort and we welcome any others who would like to be involved,” Flores said.
The watershed protection plan, developed by the partnership and one of the first of its kind in the state, is designed to improve water quality and aquatic and riparian habitat, he said.
The Arroyo Colorado runs 90 miles from Mission to the Lower Laguna Madre adjacent to the Gulf Coast, and is the primary source of fresh water to the Lower Laguna Madre.
The estuary found in the lower 25 miles of the arroyo is an important nursery for many fish, crab and shrimp species.
The partnership is a group of about 700 area citizens and individuals representing federal, state and private organizations, according to Cecilia Wagner, a Texas Water Resources Institute project manager.
“As federal funding, provided by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for implementation of the watershed protection plan is coming to an end, the institute is looking for an organization within the Rio Grande Valley to support and sustain the partnership,” she said.
The organization would locally fund the watershed coordinator and thus support the partnership’s efforts to implement the watershed protection plan, she said.
Flores said the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council is a potential candidate.
“This council is a voluntary association of local governments in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties focused on promoting coordinated regional development,” he said. “At this meeting we’ll be discussing the possibility of this group assuming the role of supporting the partnership.”
Flores said Richard Eyster, a hydrologist for the Texas Department of Agriculture, will speak on the current revision process for the 2000 Texas Surface Water Quality Standards and the recent 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision mandating permits for using pesticides near water.
Eyster said the standards establish explicit goals to maintain the quality of streams, lakes and bays throughout the state, but that the commission currently has only two standards for contact recreation: full contact recreation and noncontact recreation.
“There is a revision process under way that will have more categories than full contact or noncontact,” he said, “because the commission and others involved in water quality standards realize that not all waterways are the same. For example, the dissolved oxygen (DO) content in a shallow, fast-moving hill country stream will be higher than the DO in a slow moving East Texas bayou.”
Eyster will also present information about the recent decision by a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that will require anyone applying pesticides or herbicides in, over or near water to have a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
“This permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into surface water,” he said.
“EPA has asked for a two-year stay, which has been granted,” Eyster said. “There is an appeal from several agricultural organizations to have the full court rehear the case.”
For more information on the meeting, contact Flores at 956-968-5581, or email jjflores@ag.tamu.edu.
For information on the partnership and its work, visit its Web site at http://www.arroyocolorado.org .
