Houston Ship Channel and Upper Galveston Bay: TMDL Project for Dioxin and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in Fish Tissue
Background - Meetings - Additional Information - Contact
Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
1:30 PM to 4:00 PM
Agenda (PDF) 41K, Meeting Notes from February 2011 (PDF) 33K
Stakeholders Meeting for the TMDLs for Dioxin and PCBs in the Ship Channel & Upper Galveston Bay
Houston-Galveston Area Council, Conference Room A
3555 Timmons Lane, Houston, TX 77027
For more information contact: Rachel Powers
rachel.powers@h-gac.com or 713-993-4559
Webcast information: To register for the meeting webinar, please click the following link: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/641469790. Or, you can go directly to www.gotowebinar.com , click 'Join a Webinar,' and enter 641469790 into the webinar ID field.
To call in, dial 713-481-0090 (or 800-240-3895). You will be asked to enter your passcode, followed by the # sign. The passcode is 1084242. If you dial in before H-GAC, you will hear "music on hold". Once H-GAC dials in, the music will cease and the conference call will begin. During the course of the conference, you may hear beeps. A single beep indicates someone has joined the conference call. A double beep indicates someone has left the conference call. Remember--if you do press hold, everyone will hear your hold music.
Background
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The State of Texas currently requires water quality in various parts of the Houston Ship Channel and Upper Galveston Bay to be suitable for contact and noncontact recreation, fishing, navigation, industrial water supply, and aquatic life; however, not all of these segments are required to support all of these uses. Fishing is not supported in the area as a result of a seafood consumption advisory (ADV-3) for catfish and blue crab issued September 1990 by the Department of State Health Services (DSHS). The advisory was issued to protect consumers from adverse health effects caused by dioxin found in specimens analyzed from the area. Dioxin is a generic term for a suite of toxic and environmentally persistent compounds.
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Bagre marinus |
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Callinectes sapidus
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Subsequently, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were detected in fish tissue, and the DSHS issued consumption advisory ADV-20 in October 2001, for all species of finfish in much of the Houston Ship Channel. In January 2005, the DSHS issued another advisory related to PCBs, ADV-28, for speckled trout, also known as spotted seatrout or spotted weakfish, in Upper Galveston Bay and a large percentage of the Houston Ship Channel. An additional advisory, ADV-35, for gafftopsail catfish and speckled trout in Galveston Bay was issued in 2008 for dioxin and PCBs. More information about seafood advisories can be found on the DSHS website: www.dshs.state.tx.us/seafood
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In response to these conditions, two total maximum daily load (TMDL) projects, one for dioxins and one for PCBs, have been initiated to determine the measures necessary to restore water quality in water bodies affected by the consumption advisories in the Houston Ship Channel and Upper Galveston Bay. The goal of a TMDL is to determine the amount (or load) of a pollutant that a body of water can receive and still support its designated uses. This allowable load is then allocated among all the potential sources of pollution within the watershed, and measures to reduce pollutant loads are developed as necessary. The TMDL projects for PCBs and Dioxins are still collecting and analyzing data. One source for Dioxins has been identified: the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund Site. The Superfund Project is being managed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6.
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Cynoscion nebulosus
Images courtesy of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department ©2008
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Current Meetings
The next stakeholder meeting for the TMDL Projects for Dioxin and PCB will be held on Wednesday, August 17, 2011, from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm in H-GAC's Conference Room A, Second Floor. Webcast and teleconfonference will be available.
Past Meetings
Links and Additional Information
Contact
Last updated: August 15, 2011