Texas has 15 major rivers and each has an associated river basin. These river basins house lakes, reservoirs and feeder streams and rivers. The state owns all public surface water and controls use and allocation of these waters. Shown here is the Frio River, which fl ows into one of the major rivers, the Nueces River.
rivers and streams to determine fl ow conditions needed to maintain a sound ecology. SB 3 passed in 2007 and made the environmental
fl ows process law. It established the Environmental Flows Advisory Group to oversee implementation of the law. The Texas Environmental Flows Advisory Group is
composed of 9 people. The governor appoints 3 mem- bers — 1 each from TCEQ, TPWD, and the TWDB. The lieutenant governor appoints 3 members of the Senate, and the speaker of the House of Representatives appoints 3 members of the House. The group submits reports to the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House on the studies it conducts, recommendations, proposed legislation and progress in implementing SB 3’s mandates. The stated purpose of SB 3 was to raise the envi-
ronmental health of Texas’ rivers to the state’s fi rst priority while protecting instream fl ows and freshwater infl ows on a basin-by-basin basis. It tasked TCEQ with using environmental fl ow standards in its water right permit process when considering new water rights or amended water rights permit applications. It also mandated that TCEQ determine the amount
tscra.org
of water needed to maintain environmental fl ows and to set aside or bank non-appropriated water, if it was available, to meet that need. SB 3 mandated the establishment of the Texas Envi-
ronmental Flows Science Advisory Committee. While small and relatively unknown, this group has the impor- tant function of actually determining the methodologies of the studies used to determine environmental fl ows, while providing direction and coordination with envi- ronmental fl ow studies conducted at TCEQ, the TWDB, TPWD and its own teams engaged in scientifi c studies to determine the same. It reports its recommendations to the Environmental Flows Advisory Group. SB 3 — for better or worse — will have a big impact
on water planning for the 2017 State Water Plan because under state law regional water planners must consider environmental fl ows in their water planning processes. According to Terry Clawson of the TCEQ, state law
requires TCEQ to consider environmental fl ows for new surface water permitting. The TCEQ is responsible for adopting standards in the SB 3 process to be applied to new water rights permits. TCEQ will incorporate these standards into surface water availability models that are used by regional
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