West Fork of the San Jacinto River: Developing a Watershed Protection Plan
Background
The West Fork of the San Jacinto River (including its tributary Lake Creek) and Spring Creek (including its tributary Cypress Creek) merge and flow together into Lake Houston from the northwest. They provide drinking water for about six million people in the Houston metropolitan area. Since 2010, the West Fork San Jacinto River and its three primary tributaries have been impaired for a combination of elevated levels of bacteria and low levels of dissolved oxygen. All these water bodies also have listed concerns for nutrients and/or for their biological communities. See the Fact Sheet for a map of the watersheds.
Previous planning projects to address these issues include:
- A TMDL for Bacteria in the East and West Forks of the San Jacinto River
- An Implementation Plan for Seventy-Two Total Maximum Daily Loads for Bacteria in the Houston-Galveston Region
Back to topProject Description
This project had two related parts, both involving a comprehensive stakeholder process that:
- Collected, analyzed, and evaluated the results of monitoring data and conducted modeling to create a characterization of Spring Creek and Cypress Creek.
- Produced a watershed protection plan (WPP) to address the bacteria impairments in the West Fork of the San Jacinto River and Lake Creek.
The West Fork San Jacinto River and Lake Creek Watershed Protection Plan
was completed in September 2018 and accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in January 2019.
Documents
- Project Fact Sheet (final)
For More Information
To find out more about the NPS Program, call 512-239-6682 or e-mail us at nps@tceq.texas.gov.