Nick Jimenez

Sunday, July 16, 2000

Crying over spilled water

A newspaper type from another part of Texas I had lunch with recently was talking about the controversy surrounding the building of a proposed reservoir for his city and what having all the water that lake would produce would mean for his region.
   And then I asked him, "When your reservoir gets built, how much of that water will be released for the bays and estuaries."
   He looked me square in the eye and said, "I've read about your releases and I don't give a damn about your shrimp." Or words to that effect.
   Maybe that's the same sentiment some of our writers of letters to the editor felt when they saw a wall of water pouring over the saltwater dam on the Nueces River at Calallen.
   Releasing precious water at the height of summer, just as water supplies in the reservoirs are dropping and the prospects for rain are about as bright as the likelihood that the Taxpayers Association will support the next bond election just doesn't make sense to a lot of people.
   Heck, it's even hard to swallow for those of us who support the idea.
   The idea behind the releases, of course, is that the bays and estuaries need freshwater to act as nurseries for marine life and to produce a healthy coastal environment. Corpus Christi, depending as it does on tourism, needs robust inland bays. Even if the aesthetic appeal of a healthy coastal environment has no romance for you, the ka-ching of all those dollars falling in cash registers ought to.
   If we think about this logically and coolly, we understand this. Until we see that water pouring over the salt water dam, representing millions of gallons lost.
   The water going over the dam - and it is probably still going over - represents our bargain with the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission.
   Remember all that rain that fell around San Antonio back in June? Well, Ed Garana, city water superintendent, says that some of that water fell far up the Frio River watershed and became a "liability" in the agreement we have with the TNRCC.
   The city's agreement with the TNRCC says that in June, if up to 23,000-acre-feet of water falls above Choke Canyon Reservoir, the city must release that water. It just so happens, Garana said, that that's just about how much rain fell on the watershed.
   It's just our luck that the rain in June didn't fall this month. The TNRCC requirement for July is 4,500-acre feet. We would have been able to keep the difference.
   Garana said he waited until the end of the month to begin releasing water hoping that any rain below the dams would fulfill the requirement. But it didn't.
   I felt just a bit better when Garana reminded me that it used to be worse; the TNRCC used to require releases whether it rained or not. The new agreement drawn up in 1995 sets water release liabilities following historical rainfall patterns. June, historically being a month with more rainfall, had a bigger "liability."
   The frustrating point is that the runoff from the June rains would have nicely bolstered a water supply that now stands at just slightly more than 40 percent full. Adding to the frustration is that when the reservoirs go down to 40 percent and the city declares a drought condition II stage, the "liability" requirements are eased. Doesn't this mean that we are emptying our lakes into a crisis?
   The saving grace in this is the Mary Rhodes Pipeline. Lake Texana is near brimful and is supplying about 40 percent of the water coming out of the taps. If it weren't for the pipeline, we'd probably be in a lot of trouble now. As the summer gets hotter and drier, and the grass gets browner, just say to yourself: those releases are good for the shrimp, those releases are good for the shrimp.
  

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