Anyone interested in protecting water quality in the Navasota River and its watershed downstream of Lake Limestone are invited to a public meeting Dec. 11 in College Station.
The free meeting, hosted by the Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI), the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), will be from 10:30 a.m.–noon in the assembly room of the City of College Station Meeting and Training Facility, 1601 Graham Road.
Registration will begin at 10:15 a.m.
“We will give a brief review of the Navasota River Watershed Protection Plan to start the meeting, followed by a discussion on how the components of the plan can be implemented to improve water quality,” said Dr. Lucas Gregory, TWRI research scientist.
The watershed protection plan was developed using feedback from watershed stakeholders, he said.
“We incorporated information relating to current bacteria loads, their sources and the needed amount of bacteria reduction to meet water quality standards,” Gregory said. “Management measures were developed using stakeholder feedback. And now that the plan is finalized, it is ready to be implemented.”
The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board funded the plan's development through a state nonpoint source grant.
“Although the watershed protection plan has been finalized, portions of the river are still considered impaired per state water quality standards,” Gregory said. “Through additional loading assessment efforts, these impairments can be effectively removed from the list of impaired waters in Texas, thus achieving the original goal of the planning effort.”
He said the meeting will provide an overview of this process and the steps needed to achieve this goal.
Gregory said the TCEQ is supporting these additional efforts and continued stakeholder engagement activities through the federal total maximum daily load program funding provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through a Clean Water Act grant.
For more information, visit the project’s website or contact Gregory at 979-845-7869 or LFGregory@ag.tamu.edu.