{"id":14296,"date":"2012-07-03T11:44:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T16:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=14296"},"modified":"2012-07-03T11:44:22","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T16:44:22","slug":"for-texas-bays-and-beaches-pick-your-poison-rainfall-or-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/03\/for-texas-bays-and-beaches-pick-your-poison-rainfall-or-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"For Texas Bays and Beaches, Pick Your Poison: Rainfall or Drought"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_14366\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/03\/for-texas-bays-and-beaches-pick-your-poison-rainfall-or-drought\/rain-on-water\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14366\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-14366\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/07\/rain-on-water-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/07\/rain-on-water-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/07\/rain-on-water-620x413.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/07\/rain-on-water.jpeg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Caleb Miller\/KUT News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> Rainfall, while providing drought relief, can also cause more pollution runoff.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We find ourselves at a bit of a catch-22 under the state&#8217;s<a href=\"http:\/\/kutnews.org\/post\/central-texas-significant-short-term-drought\"> historic drought<\/a>. On the one hand, the lack of rainfall is creating a <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/06\/25\/life-by-the-drop-dry-the-beloved-country\/\">struggle for wildlife<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When hot temperatures cause evaporation, salt remains, and that increases the salinity of the water in Texas bays. \u201cYou definitely saw the salinities were really high [during the drought],&#8221; says <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/06\/29\/life-by-the-drop-where-drought-meets-the-sea-a-qa-with-leslie-hartmann\/\">Leslie Hartman<\/a>, the Matagorda Bay ecosystem leader of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. &#8220;They were actually oceanic levels of salinity last year, and not all fish are comfortable when there\u2019s that much salt in the water.\u201d Bays like Matagorda, with a mix of fresh river water and salty ocean water, need a balanced mix of the two in order for fish and wildlife to thrive.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, too much rainfall can cause pollution to run off into the rivers, and eventually threaten the state&#8217;s bays and beaches.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/06\/tiger-prawns-roar-into-the-gulf-of-mexico\/\">Tiger Prawns Roar into the Gulf of Mexico<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/06\/22\/life-by-the-drop-where-the-colorado-meets-the-gulf\/\">Life By the Drop: Where the Colorado Meets the\u00a0Gulf<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/06\/29\/life-by-the-drop-where-drought-meets-the-sea-a-qa-with-leslie-hartmann\/\">Life By the Drop: Where Drought Meets the Sea, A Q&amp;A With Leslie Hartman<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/06\/29\/life-by-the-drop-a-tale-of-drought-told-in-the-flow-of-the-colorado\/\">Life By the Drop: A Tale of Drought Told in the Flow of the Colorado<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/08\/Environment-Texas-0-by-Nasha-Lee-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/environment-texas\/\">What Is Environment Texas?<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/texas-parks-and-wildlife-department\/\">What is the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department?<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/08\/Lake_Travis_Economic_Impact_Pics-103-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/lcra\/\">What Is The Lower Colorado River Authority?<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/119835727-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought\/\">Everything You Need to Know About the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/water\/oceans\/ttw\/tx.asp?loc=texas\">A new report<\/a>\u00a0from the National Resources Defense Council\u00a0details testing done on hundreds of state beaches around the nation and evaluates the levels of certain bacteria found in the water. Texas&#8217;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/drought\/\">lack of rain<\/a>\u00a0in 2011 yielded less polluted runoff \u2013 and so some Texas beaches are cleaner than they have been in previous, wetter years.<\/p>\n<p>Texas\u2019 South Padre Island was rated one of the nation\u2019s twelve cleanest beaches, and Texas ranked 8th in beachwater quality overall out of 30 states. Only five percent of the samples in designated beach testing areas exceeded national standards last year. (But Nueces, Matagorda, Kleberg, Harris and Aransas beaches all exceeded the daily maximum bacteria standard.)<\/p>\n<p>But when Texas does have a wet year, like in 2010, the numbers go higher. That years, eight percent of samples taken at designated beaches exceeded national standards. And that <a href=\"http:\/\/ajph.aphapublications.org\/doi\/abs\/10.2105\/AJPH.91.8.1194\">bacteria caused by runoff<\/a>\u00a0and other sources of pollution can cause stomach flu, respiratory infection, and ear and skin infections. They can also cause<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/06\/29\/life-by-the-drop-where-drought-meets-the-sea-a-qa-with-leslie-hartmann\/\">\u00a0harmful algal blooms<\/a>, also called \u201cred tides,\u201d which disrupt local ecosystems.<\/p>\n<p>So at a certain point, the excess of rain can lead to damage to certain areas in the environment. But at the root of this problem, there is another cause, says Luke Metzger, Director of the group Environment Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe rain is not to blame,\u201d Metzger says, \u201cwhat is to blame is the pollution, and our failure to prevent the pollution from running into our streams.\u201d The answer, Metzger says, is to become proactive in preventing pollution that rain would relocate.<\/p>\n<p>A big portion of this pollution comes, not from trash left by people, according to Metzger, but from the concrete in buildings. \u201cWe have paved so much of our state, that the pavement is a ready conduit for pollution, including animal and sometimes human waste, motor oil, pesticides, all to just rush along that concrete and go into our streams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Solutions? Metzger says that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/greenworks.tv\/stormwater\/porouspavement.htm\">porous pavement<\/a>, rooftop gardens to collect rainfall that would otherwise run off, and factory farms having \u2018buffers\u2019 between their properties and the streams would all help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happens inland carries down, it has an effect all the way down here to the coast,\u201d says Hartman of Parks and Wildlife. \u201cI get very frustrated, we see that all the time. You can go out to Matagorda Island, and it\u2019s just awash, and I do mean awash, in human garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHumans have a right to be here,\u201d she explains, \u201cbut we\u2019ve got to be here smart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><em>Robb Jacobson is an intern with StateImpact Texas.<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We find ourselves at a bit of a catch-22 under the state&#8217;s historic drought. On the one hand, the lack of rainfall is creating a struggle for wildlife. When hot temperatures cause evaporation, salt remains, and that increases the salinity of the water in Texas bays. \u201cYou definitely saw the salinities were really high [during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":14366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[61,71,85],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}