The Clear Creek Basin study.

The announcement in September 1961 that the nerve center of the massive program of space exploration by this country was to be located on the shores of Clear Lake in Harris County, Texas, signaled the start of one of the most remarkable programs of industrial, commercial, and residential land development ever undertaken. No sooner had the significance of this announcement been realized than a number of independent developers, large and small, began planning for the construction of facilities to serve the population and the space-oriented industries which would inevitably gravitate to the Clear Lake area, in support of the Government's aerospace program. The focal point of all this planning was Clear Lake. This lake is a small, attractive body of water at the mouth of Clear Creek, closely connected with Galveston Bay. The opportunities for recation, the protected small-boat harbor afforded, and the ready access to Galveston Bay, place the perimenter of Clear Lake, and several miles of the creek banks, greatly in demand for residential development oriented to boating and water sports. It was no wonder, then, that the many advantages of gracious living at the lake's edge figures prominently in the advertisiing and promotional programs of the many developers of homes and homesites in the Clear Creek Basin. As this space program boom increased its space, the more serious, public-health-minded citizens in the Basin began to consider the end effects of the sudden urbanization on future water quality in Clear Creek and Clear Lake. They called upon the newly-created Texas Water Pollution Control Board for advice and guidance, and in July 1963 the Board called for a public hearing in nearby Webster. Statement by citizens of the Basin at that hearing clearly reaffirmed their determination that Clear Lake and Clear Creek remain clear and clean not only to preserve recreational values, but more important, to prevent the decline of property values which would inevitably result from the continued pollution of these waters. They agreed to underwrite the cost of studies to define the nature and extent of the problem and to suggest economic and technical solutions. This report presents the results of these studies. It is the first step in solving the Clear Creek Basin pollution problem.