River Systems Institute

Texas Stream Team

601 University Drive
San Marcos, Texas 78666-4616
Phone: 512-245-1346
Toll free 877-506-1401
Fax: 512.245-2095
Email: tw05@txstate.edu

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Texas State > River Systems Institute > Texas Stream Team > TMDL > Oso Bay/Oso Creek

Oso Bay/Oso Creek

BACKGROUND AND GOALS

Oso Bay is an enclosed, shallow body of water situated along the southern shore of Corpus Christi Bay, with a surface area of approximately seven square miles. The bay exchanges saltwater with Corpus Christi Bay and receives fresh water from Oso Creek, a stream whose flow is dominated by discharges subject to permit. Ecologically, Oso Bay provides habitat for many plants and animals, and plays an influential role in water purification and storm protection.

Water quality testing found that concentrations of bacteria are elevated in both the bay and the creek, which may pose a risk to people who swim or wade in them. Swimming and wading are called “contact recreation” in the state’s standards for water quality; the term refers to all recreation in which people come in direct contact with the water. The goal of this project is to reduce bacteria concentrations to within acceptable risk levels for contact recreation.

In March 2006, the TCEQ separated development of the TMDLs for the bay and the creek, with the advice and consent of the stakeholder advisory group. The TMDLs will be drafted and processed as separate but related documents.

Texas Stream Team staff and volunteers will provide significant resources to implement water quality monitoring, track program accomplishments, and conduct public education and outreach activities. Using the expertise of staff and volunteers, Texas Stream Team will play a substantive role in helping to make this project successful.

TEXAS STREAM TEAM ACTIVITIES IN OSO BAY/OSO CREEK

In conjunction with the TES course at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, the program conducted an extended 3-day NPS education session with a concentration on bacteria. The field component included training on day one, applying the knowledge during an Oso Creek watershed tour the next day, and reading E.coli results on the third. This extended training was designed to support the need for additional outreach in TMDL Project Areas (see photo below).

The Texas Watch Watershed Protection Meeting which was schedule for August was rescheduled for the fall. Planning partners had identified solid waste issues, colonias and bacteria issues as the main topics to be covered by the meeting. Texas Watch and the Coastal Bend Council of Governments, who Texas Watch was coordinating outreach with in the Coastal Bend, agreed to move the meeting to the fall in light of a delay in EPA approving a change in the CBCOG’s 319 work plan. This work plan change was requested due to the fact that the sites targeted for cleanup in the grant were cleaned up in conjunction with road repairs. In August, Texas Watch attended a planning session for grant partners which focused on next steps. It was agreed that solid waste issues would not play as key a role in the focus of the regional meeting and that the agenda could focus on bacteria issues in the Oso Bay and Oso Creek. An effort will be made to invite colonia residents. Texas Watch staff toured one of the colonias in conjunction with the August planning session and confirmed that standing water in these communities may be a water quality concern that the program may want to address at the watershed protection meeting.

The August meeting established key contacts for Texas Watch at the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, the Coastal Bend Bays Foundation and the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. Follow-up from this meeting in September resulted in a flurry of activity and a watershed protection meeting in November 2007.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

An advisory group has been established advise the TCEQ on these projects. Advisory group meetings are open to all. Find out more about meetings and membership of the advisory group.

TMDL FOR OSO BAY

On August 22, 2007, the commission adopted a TMDL for Oso Bay. If approved by the EPA, the TMDL will become part of the state's Water Quality Management Plan.

One Total Maximum Daily Load for Bacteria in Oso Bay, Segment Number 2485
Response to Public Comment on the TMDL for Bacteria in Oso Bay

PROJECT DOCUMENTS

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For additional information regarding this project, please call the TCEQ project manager, Larry Koenig, at 512/239-4533. Or send an e-mail to tmdl@tceq.state.tx.us, and reference the Oso Bay and Oso Creek Bacteria project in the subject line.

To read an interesting article "Oso Creek and Oso Bay" - Bacteria Impairments in a Coastal Watershed" by Larry Koenig, TCEQ click here>