WhoopingCrane_BaysasNurseries_Wassenich_Dianne_SanMarcos_28May2020_Reel4014.mp3

Dianne Wassenich [00:00:00] Somewhere I have an old photo of Tom and I taking the application to TNRCC, which was called something else back then, and leaving it on their desk, this giant pile of paperwork, and shocking all the staff out of their minds. I think they were speechless when they figured out what it was we were bringing them. We did bring them a big check with the application and a big volume, that was a copy of the state's own study of how much water is needed in the Guadalupe Basin.

Dianne Wassenich [00:00:40] What led us to that conclusion that we needed to apply, that there was a real problem with flow, quantity of flow, was doing models for the wastewater hearings we were involved in where you have to prove, you know, that you're needing more dilution and you're not going to have enough oxygen if you put in enough nutrients.

Dianne Wassenich [00:01:05] That's why it's easier to get a permit for the San Marcos River, because it's so clean and clear. You can put a lot of bad stuff in it before it gets down to the average level of a dirty river in Texas, a dirty, muddy river. That is how the wastewater system works here, the state regulating system.

Dianne Wassenich [00:01:28] And so we started realizing that it made a whole lot of difference in the variation of the flow, depending on whether we were in a drought or not. And so we really started looking at all those graphs of flows at different times of the year and different years. And that's what led us to realize that we had to assure flow, good flow quantities.

Dianne Wassenich [00:01:54] And first, we started with the Edwards Aquifer Authority and looked at and advocated for them to have enough restrictions during drought that there'd be adequate flow. But we realized we couldn't control a lot of that.

Dianne Wassenich [00:02:10] And what we were seeing was more and more water right applications being sent in. And we would get notice of them because we were an interested party in any permit in the San Marcos River. And we realized that we couldn't really fight those because they were just granting them willy-nilly.

Dianne Wassenich [00:02:30] And so then we started looking at this big study that had been done about how much flow is actually needed down at the bays and estuaries of fresh water to dilute the salt water, to make a nursery where everything that lives in the Gulf of Mexico can, you know, live as larva or whatever the term is. There's different terms for crabs. But the small stage, they shelter in the bays because the big predators that live in the saltwater, big fish or whatever, don't come into the bays very much because they're too fresh.

Dianne Wassenich [00:03:18] And so that's what the function of bays are. And it's the nursery for the Gulf. And because it's a nursery and it has all this life in it, it provides food also for many bird species. The whooping crane being a big one.

Dianne Wassenich [00:03:40] So that, it was kind of a progression of the River Foundation's work to come to this dawning realization that Texas was fouling its own nest, taking away its own fresh water flows that kept the bays healthy, that supported not only the whole fishing industry, recreational and commercial, not only the crabs and the bird life like ducks and for hunters and fish for everybody, but also endangered species like whooping cranes. They cannot adapt that easily to that food and that fresh water that they drink being gone.