As a river runs to the sea, its waters are used by all along its edges. Cities take water for residents’ drinking
supply. Refineries take water for its processing. Farmers take for irrigation. Each withdrawal lessens the amount
of river water that makes it to the estuary, the productive area where the river meets the sea.
This area, the estuary, needs a regular inflow of freshwater from rivers to provide the productive estuarine
habitat with its variety of salinity levels, sediment supply, and nutrients that create the basis for primary productivity.
Over the years, the Nueces River and its delta have seen decreased freshwater inflows, a situation being studied and addressed by the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program along with other scientific groups such as the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Center for Coastal Studies, Conrad Blucher Institute, and the University of Texas Marine Science Institute.
Dams have large environmental impacts on rivers as they alter chemical, physical and biological processes. Dams block free-flowing river systems and impede a river’s flushing function that enables transport of sediment, large debris, and nutrients downstream. The structures also alter water temperatures, dissolved oxygen levels, turbidity and salinity both upstream and downstream of the structure. Basically, dams prevent a river and its tributaries from fulfi lling their most fundamental need – to flow and transport nutrients and materials to lower, more trophically rich areas.
But the City of Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program along with the Nueces
Estuary Advisory Council have developed a program to get more river water into the river delta. Through a system of pass-through requirements, and a diversion pipeline, these entities are helping to ensure that a productive habitat remains. To read more download the .pdf project flyer here.
For more info on freshwater inflows, see the latest report, real-time salinity monitoring and learn more about
who is studying inflows and the city’s FAQs.
For additional information about the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, contact Beth Wilson, communications manager, at (361) 885-6246 or bwilson@cbbep.org.