Senate Bill 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

1. Jack W. Tatum Sabine River Authority of Texas Chair – Sabine and Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake Bay Basin and Bay Expert Science Team Senate Bill 3Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

2. Senate Bill 3 • Passed in 2007 by the 80th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature • Created a basin-by-basin process for developing • Recommendations to meet instream flow needs for rivers • Recommendations to meet inflow needs for bays and estuaries • Environmental Flow Standards to be adopted by rule by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

3. Sabine-Neches SB3Timeline SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

4. Balance the Environment and Man’s Needs • Expert Science Team • “must consider all reasonably available science, without regard to the need for water for other uses, and … the recommendations must be based solely on the best science available.” • Stakeholder Committee • Reviews Expert Science Team’s recommendations and considers them “in conjunction with other factors, including the present and future needs for water for other uses related to water supply planning” SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

5. Expert Science Team Primary Charge • Environmental Flow Analysis • Environmental Flow Regime SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

6. Instream Flow Regime Components • Overbank Flows • High Flow Pulses • Base Flows • Subsistence Flows SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

7. Habitat Availability Curve Taken from recent instream flows research, Lower Colorado River (BIO-WEST 2008). SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

8. Sabine and Neches Rivers and Sabine-Neches Estuary (Sabine Lake) SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

9. Coastal Plains of the Calcasieu and Sabine-Neches Drainages SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

10. Goal and Objectives • Goal: Maintain a sound ecological environment • Sound Ecological Environment: the Sabine-Neches BBEST adopted the SAC definition • Objectives: to meet the criterion of a sound ecological environment SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

11. Sabine-NechesBBEST Process SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

12. SAC Guidance • Geographic Scope • Use of Hydrologic Data • Fluivial Sediment Transport (Geomorphology) • Freshwater Inflow Regime • Water Quality • Biology SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

13. Decision Tree SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

14. Sabine-Neches Basins: Unique Issues • Texas/ Louisiana • Texas State Water Quality Flows (7Q2) • Senate Bill 2: Lower Sabine River Priority Instream Flow Study • Toledo Bend Project Joint Operations (FERC Relicensing) • Sabine River Compact • Lower Neches River Saltwater Barrier • Cutoff Bayou: Lower Sabine River • USACE Sabine-Neches Waterway Feasibility Study SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

15. Discipline Reports • Hydrology • Biology (Ecological Review) • Geomorphology (Sediment Transport) • Application of Water Quality in Environmental Flows SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

16. Consultants and Contributors Work • Hydrology (Freese and Nichols, Inc.) • Gage Memo, HEFR Memo, WAM Memo • Biology (BIO-WEST, Inc.) • Estuarine and Fluvial Focal Species Summary Reports • National Wildlife Federation • Salinity Suitability Analyses of Rangia Cuneata … • Analyses of Satellite Imagery … in Support of Developing Overbank Instream Flow Recommendations … (with the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance) SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

17. HEFR • Hydrology-Based Environmental Flow Regime (HEFR) • Developed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) to efficiently use hydrologic data to populate a flow regime matrix • The Sabine-Neches BBEST selected HEFR as the desktop method to use for developing the required flow matrices for the Sabine and Neches River Basins and the Sabine-Neches Estuary. SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

18. HEFR Matrix – Big Sandy Creek Near Big Sandy, Texas SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

19. Sabine-Neches Estuary(Sabine Lake) Numerous man-made alterations have influenced the current ecological condition in the Sabine-Neches Estuary and the lower tidal reaches of the Sabine and Neches Rivers. These systems are generally sound, exhibiting good overall water quality and diverse fish and wildlife communities . The Sabine-Neches Estuary receives more fresh water than all other estuaries on the Texas Gulf Coast (next slide) and provides enough fresh water to Sabine Lake for the focal species studied there (NWF 2009). SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

20. Percent Inflow Contributions to Sabine Lake SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

21. Major Texas Estuaries SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

22. Historic Widening and Deepening of the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel* * The latest USACE draft study report indicates just deepening with selectedwidening areas; they do not plan to widen the entire channel length. SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

23. Development of Environmental Flows/ Recommendations/ Unresolved Issues • Recommendations • Recognitions • Unresolved Issues • Future Studies • Adaptive Management SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

24. Recommendations • The Current Conditions of the Sabine and Neches Rivers and the Sabine-Neches Estuary are Sound • Acknowledgement That Flows in the Sabine and Neches Rivers and Inflows to the Sabine-Neches Estuary will Change Over Time • Future Study, Data Gathering, and Adaptive Management are Necessary to Determine Whether or Not Changes in Environmental Flows will Maintain a Sound Ecological Environment SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake

25. Contact Information • Jack W. TatumWater Resources Manager409-746-2192jtatum@sratx.org • Jim BrownRMPD Manager409-746-2192jbrown@sratx.org Environmental Flows Recommendations Report:http://www.sratx.org/BBEST/RecommendationsReport/ SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake