Bayou pollution exceeds federal standards

DICKINSON — With fish dying from depleted oxygen levels and increased bacteria counts posing public-health concerns, advocates for a healthier Dickinson Bayou say development along its watershed won’t help the tidal-water body meet federal clean-water standards.

But former rice fields and farmland along the bayou’s 100-square-mile watershed make the area ripe for development.

Enter Lago Mar, a proposed commercial and residential development that could add 7,000 homes on 3,350 acres in Texas City. A portion of the development’s storm water could, based on preliminary drawings, flow into the bayou’s watershed.

The development’s boundaries fit like a jigsaw puzzle against federally designated urban areas.

“Depending on whether or not it is in an urbanized area, as defined by storm-water regulations, they may or may not be a regulated source,” said Roger Miranda, a geochemist with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Miranda said the bayou is impaired because it fails to meet federal clean-water standards.

He is working on studies scheduled for release this fall and winter that should determine how much daily pollution the bayou can absorb without threatening public health or the health of the bayou itself.
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