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

 Passed in 2007 by the 80 th 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) 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 2

DateEvent July 2008Stakeholder Committee Appointed by Environmental Flows Advisory Group (EFAG) August st Stakeholder Committee Meeting November 2008Expert Science Team Appointed by Stakeholder Committee December st Expert Science Team Meeting November 30, 2009Sabine-Neches BBEST Environmental Flows Recommendation Report June 1, 2010Sabine-Neches Stakeholder Committee Recommendations Report June 2011TCEQ Adopts Environmental Flow Standards and Environmental Flow Set-Asides Stakeholder Committee Develops Work Plan 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 3

 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” 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 4

 Environmental Flow Analysis  Environmental Flow Regime 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 5

 Overbank Flows  High Flow Pulses  Base Flows  Subsistence Flows 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 6

10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 7 Taken from recent instream flows research, Lower Colorado River (BIO-WEST 2008).

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 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 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 10

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 Geographic Scope  Use of Hydrologic Data  Fluivial Sediment Transport (Geomorphology)  Freshwater Inflow Regime  Water Quality  Biology 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 12

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 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 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 14

 Hydrology  Biology (Ecological Review)  Geomorphology (Sediment Transport)  Application of Water Quality in Environmental Flows 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 15

 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) 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 16

 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. 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 17

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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). 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 19

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10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 22 * The latest USACE draft study report indicates just deepening with selected widening areas; they do not plan to widen the entire channel length.

 Recommendations  Recognitions  Unresolved Issues  Future Studies  Adaptive Management 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 23

 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 10/13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 24

 Jack W. Tatum Water Resources Manager  Jim Brown RMPD Manager /13/2015SB 3 Sabine-Neches Rivers and Sabine Lake 25 Environmental Flows Recommendations Report: