Trans-Texas Water Program: southeast area: Galveston Bay freshwater inflows study: draft report

This report is the draft version of Acc#8860. This technical memorandum describes the water availability studies that have been conducted to date. The objective of this study is to develop preliminary estimates of freshwater inflows into the bay under three different inflow scenarios: naturalized conditions, current conditions and future conditions. ... These three scenarios were selected to relate current and future water rights conditions to the State of Texas analysis. This study analyzes the statistical frequency of certain hydrologic flow conditions occurring within Galveston Bay. The Galveston Bay watershed contains 33,000 square miles and consists of the following two river basins and three coastal basins: Trinity River, San Jacinto River, Neches-Trinity Coastal, Trinity-San Jacinto Coastal, and San Jacinto-Brazos Coastal. The commonly referenced Galveston Bay actually consists of four separate embayments, including: Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay, East Bay, and West Bay. Data prepared for the Texas Bay & Estuary Program suggests that the Trinity and San Jacinto rivers typically contribute in excess of 80% of annual freshwater inflows into Trinity Bay and Galveston Bay while the coastal river basins primarily contribute freshwater inflows into East and West Bays.