Growing a Healthy Community – Forming the Oso Bay & Oso Creek Implementation Plan Coordination Committee
Tuesday, June 30, 2015, 6:00 pm
South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center
8545 S Staples St, Corpus Christi, TX 78413
Corpus Christi, Texas 78415
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING 6_30_15
The Coastal Bend Bays Foundation is working with our community stakeholders, the City of Corpus Christi, the County of Nueces, and all interested citizens to create the Oso Bay and Oso Creek Coordination Committee. The Oso Bay and Oso Creek Coordination Committee will be a community-led group with the goal of the creating the Oso Bay and Oso Creek Implementation Plan. This document will outline a plan to restore water quality to Oso Bay and Oso Creek.
We will have the material created by attendees at the May 28th meeting when they broke into groups, and listed priority stakeholder groups and desired number of stakeholders to sit on the Coordination Committee. All interested persons are cordially invited to attend this important public meeting, facilitated by the Coastal Bend Bays Foundation and the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. Funding is provided by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
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Growing a Healthy Community – Forming the Oso Bay and Oso Creek Coordination Committee
Thursday, May 28, 2015, 6:00 pm
South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center
8545 S Staples St, Corpus Christi, TX 78413
The Coastal Bend Bays Foundation is working to create the Oso Watershed Coordination Committee, a committee populated by stakeholders from within the Oso Creek Watershed, and the interested public. The Coordination Committee will be tasked with creating the Oso Bay and Oso Creek Implementation Plan, a document which will outline a plan to restore the water quality of Oso Bay and Oso Creek.
Go to this link for the PUBLIC NOTICE : NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING OSO 5_28_15
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Bountiful Benefits of Riparian
Free Training – Boxed Lunch $10
Tuesday, April 14,2015
11 am to 2 pm
Part IV of the Oso Creek Watershed Public Meeting Series
Improving Water Quality in Oso Creek –
A TMDL Project to Protect Recreational Uses
Johnny Calderon Building, Auditorium
710 E. Main St.
Robstown, Texas
The public is invited to attend this free training, featuring 2 distinguished speakers in the world of riparian habitat, Mr. Kyle Wright, of the NRCS, Temple, Texas, and Ms. Sky Lewey, of the Nueces River Authority, Uvalde, Texas, who will focus on the bountiful benefits of remarkable riparian vegetative buffers along streams, rivers, and creeks.
Architects, housing and business developers, builders, landscape architects, municipal planners and permit issuers, traffic planners, elected leaders in city, county, and state government, as well as biologists, engineers, geologists, and residents of the watershed will find this information useful and eye-opening. Attendees will leave the workshop with a better understanding of the economic and ecologic value of riparian buffer zones, and understand the role riparian zones play in protecting the water quality of Oso Creek and Oso Bay.
Call 361-882-3439 to reserve a spot, or email Teresa Carrillo at [email protected].
Agenda
11:00 a.m. GREETINGS and INTRODUCTION – Teresa Carrillo, Associate Director, Coastal Bend Bays Foundation, Corpus Christi, Texas. Ms. Carrillo has a background in wildlife and marine biology, executive leadership, and farming and ranching. [email protected].
11:15 a.m. REMARKABLE RIPARIAN – Sky Jones Lewey, Resource Protection and Education Director, Nueces River Authority, Uvalde, Texas. Ms. Lewey is an award winning public educator and program manager, with a deeply connected family history of living along and loving the Nueces River.
12:15 noon LUNCH – Lunch of sandwich, chips, fruit, cookie, tea or water. $10.00
EXHIBIT VIEWING
1:00 p.m. HEALTHY LANDSCAPES and SOILS PROMOTE CLEAN WATER – Kyle Wright, State Water Quality Specialist, Natural Resource Manager, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Temple, Texas. Mr.Wright grew up in West Texas, has a farming and ranching background, and 35 years of experience working in the private and federal sectors.
Presentations from the June 26th, 2014 Public Meeting
Improving Water Quality in Oso Creek –
A TMDL Project to Protect Recreational Uses
Thursday, June 26, 2014, 6:00 p.m.
South Texas Botanical Gardens
8545 S Staples St, Corpus Christi, Texas 78413
All interested public are invited to learn more about existing water quality issues in Oso Creek and the Oso Creek Watershed at the upcoming Public Meeting, Thursday, June 26 at the South Texas Botanical Gardens. The Coastal Bend Bays Foundation is hosting this Public Outreach Project with the goal of bringing together area stakeholders and interested individuals to start the planning effort for restoration of Oso Creek water quality. There will be a public comment portion toward the end of the meeting.
Presentation by Teresa A. Carrillo, of the Coastal Bend Bays Foundation CBBF Oso Presentation 6-26-14
Presentation by Richard Hay, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Center for Water Supply Studies OsoCreekStudies 6-9-2014_RH
Presentation by Meredith Miller, Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, Texas State University TST_Oso presentation_Miller
Presentation by Kyle Wright, Natural Resources Conservation Service What Does A Healthy Stream Look Like – Oso Creek_NRCS
There were 80 individuals in attendance representing many different stakeholder groups, including agricultural producers, builders and developers, homeowners, representatives of conservation groups, and ordinary citizens.
Prior Public Meetings
Oso Creek Watershed Public Meeting
Thursday, May 29, 2014
6 PM
London ISD High School Cafeteris
Robstown , Texas
PUBLIC NOTICE MEETING 4_29_14
Oso Creek: A TMDL Project to Protect Recreational Use
http://www.tceq.texas.gov/waterquality/tmdl/67-osocreekbacteria [FROM TCEQ]
Since 2002, water quality testing has found that concentrations of bacteria are elevated Oso Creek, which may pose a risk to people who swim or wade in it. 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.
Since 2003, the TCEQ, the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, and other agencies have conducted several studies of bacteria sources and quantities in the Oso Creek watershed. In 2013, based on results of those studies, the TCEQ began developing a total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the creek. A TMDL is like a budget for pollution — determining how much concentrations must be reduced to meet water quality standards. The Center for Water Supply Studies at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi will complete several technical tasks in support of TMDL development.
The TCEQ and area stakeholders are also assessing the oyster waters use of Oso Bay and have completed a TMDL for bacteria in Oso Bay.
The Coastal Bend Bays Foundation is listening to and working with stakeholders in the Oso Creek Watershed to bring the community together to help solve the problem of excessive bacteria in Oso Creek.
The TMDL Program works to restore Texas waterways that have limited quality in relation to one or more of their assigned uses, such as recreation, fishing, or a healthy aquatic environment.
The program develops plans to improve water quality and also manages studies that determine where TMDLs are necessary.
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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.
In 2002, 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.
The TCEQ and area stakeholders are also working on TMDLs for bacteria in Oso Creek and a bacteria sampling project is being conducted to assess the oyster waters use of Oso Bay.
To learn more about the OSO BAY TMDL visit the TCEQ website devoted to this subject:
http://www.tceq.texas.gov/waterquality/tmdl/67-osobaybacteria.html