County waterway quality in question

By John Tompkins
The Facts

Published December 20, 2007

Two local waterways have higher than normal levels of fecal bacteria and low levels of oxygen, according to a study released by a Houston non-profit group Wednesday.

Oyster Creek and the San Bernard River were cited by an expansive environmental study conducted by the Center for Houston’s Future.

The study also included information about the number of parks, litter and graffiti, abandoned lots and air quality, mostly related to the Houston area, though the water-quality information did relate to outer-lying counties including Brazoria, said Ann Lents, president and CEO of the center.

“We’ve all got water-quality problems,” she said.

Local officials did not find the water-quality information surprising.

“Almost every waterway is impaired in some way,” Brazoria County Environmental Health Director Robbie Drake.

Most of the contaminants come from runoff or leaking septic systems or overflowing pipes, he said.

Fecal bacteria, found in Oyster Creek and the San Bernard, is not dangerous itself but does indicate the presence of bacteria that can cause typhoid fever, hepatitis, gastroenteritis, dysentery and ear infections.

Bastrop Bayou and Austin Bayou both have been found with high levels of the bacteria in the past and are monitored quarterly, said Todd Running, the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s program manager for the state’s Clean Rivers Program.

The study also found Oyster Creek has depressed dissolved oxygen which officials say can be dangerous for plant and animal life in the waterway and can cause fish to die off.

Though waterways in Brazoria County have the presence of fecal bacteria and low levels of oxygen, they are not dangerous, Drake said.

“I don’t think any of the ones here have reached a critical point where they would be a detriment to public health,” he said.

Oyster Creek and the San Bernard River were two of 61 state waterways identified as having the bacteria in June in a draft report by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The commission is not working on a plan to address those problems but will in the near future, commission spokeswoman Andrea Morrow said.

“We work with local stakeholders to identify ways to reduce that load,” she said. “We will address all of them at some point.”

The Houston-Galveston Area Council started monitoring the San Bernard in September and will take samples quarterly, Running said.

Though the waters are dangerous, harvesting oysters in Oyster Creek and the San Bernard River currently is illegal because of contamination levels, said Scott Jennings, a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden in Brazoria County.

“Whenever you harvest them out of unhealthy water, you’re taking a pretty good chance of getting somebody sick,” he said.

The study reported oyster harvesting has been affected by the presence of fecal bacteria.

The center hopes to put out another report in the next two years that will include more information about counties just outside Harris, Lents said. Hopefully, the future report will indicate whether progress has been made in those areas, she said.

John Tompkins is senior reporter for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 237-0149.