TR-445 Attoyac Bayou Recreational Use Attainability Analysis
Authors: S. Fuller, S. Schwab, A. Castilaw, L. Gregory
The Attoyac Bayou watershed is one of many rural watersheds that are included in the Texas Water Quality Inventory and 303(d) List as an impaired water body due to excessive E. coli levels, and currently does not support the primary contact recreation use as defined by TSWQS.
The TSWQS designates the Attoyac Bayou for primary contact recreation use (TCEQ 2010a). Amendments made to TSWQS in 2010 include the expansion of three use categories for contact recreation: Primary Contact Recreation (PCR), Secondary Contact Recreation 1 (SCR1), and Secondary Contact Recreation 2 (SCR2). Also included in TSWQS is the category of Noncontact Recreation (NCR). The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), utilizes the use attainability analysis (UAA) process to identify and assign attainable uses and criteria to individual water bodies throughout the state taking into consideration the unique physical, chemical, biological, and economic factors affecting the attainment of the waterbody’s use (40 Code of Federal Regulations §131.10(g)). A specific kind of UAA, the recreational use attainability analysis (RUAA), is employed when determining the appropriate recreational use of a waterbody, and was implemented in this study.