TPWD Press Release

News Media Contact (512) 389-4406
news@tpwd.state.tx.us
August 13, 2001

Water Right Would Provide Flows to Guadalupe Estuary

TIVOLI, Texas - The lush estuary where the Guadalupe River flows into San Antonio Bay is the ecological foundation of a multi-million-dollar sport and commercial fishery, sustaining a web of diverse wildlife that includes the endangered whooping crane. The fate of the estuary may hinge in part on a history-making proposal from a conservation group that wants to buy water and leave it in the river.

San Antonio Bay is a workplace for hundreds of families who make their livings as commercial anglers or recreational fishing guides. A Texas A&M University study conservatively estimated that in the Guadalupe Estuary counties of Calhoun, Matagorda, Victoria and Refugio, bay and estuary inshore and offshore fish landings generated about $20 million providing 497 jobs in 1995.

The bay is a paradise for tens of thousands of sport anglers, boaters, birders and others drawn to the region by its natural abundance. Texas Parks and Wildlife dockside interviews show about 100 recreational fishing guides who work out of the bay. The same A&M study estimated 1995 travel spending in the region at $154 million, fueled by recreational fishing, boating, swimming, birding and other activities. The figure includes anglers plying the waters for red drum, trout or tarpon, and birders who come from around the world to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on San Antonio Bay, where the world's only wild whooping crane flock depends on blue crabs that depend on the Guadalupe Estuary.

But there could be trouble in paradise. Freshwater flows down the Guadalupe River to the sea have slowed steadily in recent decades as more people draw more water upstream. The ecology of the estuary depends on salinity gradients, a balance of salt and fresh water that evolved over millions of years.

In a prescient policy move, more than a decade ago the Texas Legislature directed state scientists to study the effects of freshwater inflows on Texas bays and estuaries and develop recommendations as to how much freshwater is necessary to protect their health. In 1998, Texas Parks and Wildlife completed research that determined 1.15 million acre-feet of water is the lowest freshwater inflow target value that fulfills the biological needs of the estuary on a seasonal basis. (An acre-foot is an acre of water one foot deep or 326,000 gallons.)

To protect the Guadalupe Estuary, the San Marcos River Foundation has applied for a water right permit targeting the exact amount identified in the TPW freshwater inflow study. In addition, the foundation has applied for 157,459 acre-feet to protect the San Marcos River, for a total of 1.3 million acre-feet per year. The 16-year-old conservation group of more than 250 members has put its money where its mouth is, anteing up a $25,000 application fee as part of its water right permit application, the first stage in a long process that may cost many times that amount.

"We are very concerned that there's not going to be enough water left for basic survival of the river and the estuary," said Dianne Wassenich, San Marcos River Foundation president. "It's become apparent in the past 10 years that during short dry spells not enough water is reaching the estuary to keep the salinity correct to keep creatures like the blue crab stable, and it's hurting the whooping crane."

The San Marcos and Comal Rivers both flow into the Guadalupe, and Wassenich says that during times of little rainfall, the two spring-fed, groundwater-based rivers provide up to 90 percent of the water that ultimately reaches the Guadalupe Estuary. The River Foundation proposal to secure a water right and leave it in the river for environmental purposes has never been done before in Texas, but the purchase and donation of water rights is one of the tactics recommended by the Texas Governor's Task Force on Conservation in 2000.

"It's sometimes citizens who can step forward and make things happen because government can't always do it," Wassenich said. "This is a way to draw people's attention to the fact that we're in a crisis situation already. In Texas, if you want something, you have to pay for it. We have put $25,000 on the table, and we are busy raising money and writing grants to carry this effort forward."

The new computer-based Water Availability Model developed for the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission shows a significant amount of unappropriated water rights -- water that is owned by the state -- in the Guadalupe basin. Cindy Loeffler with TPW's water resources team says estimates of unappropriated water range from about 50,000 acre-feet to more than a million acre-feet, so there is probably enough to grant some or all of the river foundation's request. Loeffler also says the foundation's rights would not threaten existing rights, which would get first priority on the water in dry times.

Wassenich says some people or organizations that want to retain the future option to buy and sell the unappropriated water may oppose the river foundation permit application. The TNRCC will consider the river foundation permit application soon and will decide if public input meetings or hearings are necessary before making a ruling on the permit.

For more information on the San Marcos River Foundation or its water right application, contact Wassenich at by phone (512) 393-3787 or by e-mail (wassenich@sanmarcos.net). For information on Texas Parks and Wildlife water research, contact Cindy Loeffler at (512) 912-7015 or by e-mail (cindy.loeffler@tpwd.state.tx.us).

TH 8/13/01