Meeting Freshwater Inflows for Galveston Bay

The Galveston Bay system is blessed with abundant freshwater inflows that support its productivity. The Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Galveston Bay, prepared through the Galveston Bay Estuary Program, recognizes the importance of maintaining adequate freshwater inflows to the bay system. The Bays and Estuaries program of the State of Texas, encompassing efforts of the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), worked for more than two decades to determine just what are adequate inflows. In 1998, TWDB and TPWD recommended annual and seasonal inflows to Galveston Bay based on the bay and estuary studies. Anticipating those recommended inflows, the Galveston Bay Freshwater Inflow Group was formed by affected interests to work on developing methods to actually implement the freshwater inflow recommendations.