Texas Wetland Restoration Project Receives National Recognition

Contents
Project Goals
Why This Project is Important
Project Steps
Wetlands Factoids

As one of only six Coastal America Partnership awards being granted this year in the United States, a diverse public and private partnership in Clear Creek, a tributary of Galveston Bay, TX, received the 1999 Partnership Project Award for construction of a wetland from dredged material. The project is the largest successful wetland-seeding project in Texas.

Lead partners include the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission's Galveston Bay Estuary Program (GBEP), The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Reliant Energy. Reliant Energy also has been awarded the Coastal America Special Recognition Award for habitat restoration totaling some 1,500 acres along the Texas coast.

"Your work exemplifies the benefits that can be accomplished through partnerships that are created to achieve environmental goals," said Glenda Humiston, Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture who along with Jerry Clifford, Deputy Regional Administrator, EPA, presented the awards.

Galveston Bay is the second most productive estuary in the United States, and an important center for recreational and commercial fishing along the Texas Coast, according to state and federal studies. More than 30,000 acres of wetland habitat has disappeared from the Galveston Bay system in the last 40 years, threatening the bay's survival.

Wetland restoration in Galveston Bay is a top priority in The Galveston Bay Plan, a comprehensive conservation and management plan for the ecosystem, according to GBEP Program Director Helen Drummond. "Innovative partnerships like this one are essential to implementation of The Plan," said Drummond.

The project partners pioneered two marsh restoration technologies: one to convert dredged material into wetland habitat, and another to seed the area with plants more efficiently than conventional methods. Approximately 25,000 cubic yards of dredged material from an intake canal to Reliant Energy's Webster power plant was used as the base for 15 acres of new wetlands along the Clear Creek shoreline, where marsh has been lost due to subsidence. The area was then seeded by airboat using smooth cordgrass seed specially prepared by a research scientist at Reliant Energy's Cedar Bayou Natural Resource Center.

Project Goals
Main goals of The Galveston Bay Plan were to conduct an innovative project that would meet top priorities in the Plan; to demonstrate the beneficial uses of dredged material in the restoration and construction of wetlands in the Galveston Bay ecosystem; and to restore or enhance 15 acres of lost or damaged wetland habitat along the banks of Clear Creek Serve as a model for future restoration projects.

Why This Project is Important

• Since the early 1950s half of Texas' coastal wetlands have been lost due to dredging, subsidence, erosion and development.
• Wetlands are vital to the ecological and environmental health of the area.
• Wetlands provide an irreplaceable habitat for many endangered species.
• Two-thirds of the fish that comprise the nation's fishing industry spend all or part of their lives in wetlands.
• Up to 95% of the seafood commercially harvested in the Gulf of Mexico spends part of its life in a wetland.
• Wetlands are a vital water filtration system, naturally removing pollutants and other impurities from the water system.

Project Steps
The first step in the project was selecting a site. Reliant Energy was a willing partner with an ideal location at its Webster Electric Generating Station along Clear Creek, a tributary of Galveston Bay, just south of Houston, TX. The facility's intake canal required dredging, and adjacent to its property was an open water embayment where subsidence had changed a once healthy marsh into open water.

To acquire authorization for the project, quality assurance plans were developed and appropriate state and federal permits obtained, including environmental testing to determine that the material to be dredged was safe.

Next, a 2,600-ft long containment levee was constructed along Clear Creek on the outer perimeter placement area. Smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) was transplanted on the outside of the levee and a brush fence was built to protect it from incoming waves. Two water control structures were installed (one at each end of the containment levee) to facilitate dewatering of the dredged material.

A barge-mounted, cutter-head dredge began work in December, 1997. Twenty-five-thousand cubic yards of material was pumped a half mile, from the intake canal, through a pipe over land to the subsided area. The sediment was allowed to consolidate for eight weeks allowing the area to achieve the proper elevation, where wetland plants could once again thrive.

To simulate natural environmental conditions and increase the likelihood of success, seeds collected in the Fall of 1997 were treated to improve germination. Treated seeds were planted when weather conditions were optimum. This took place February 24, 1998, by air-boat. A total of 30 pounds of seed was dispersed in transects within the containment area.

After seven months, a healthy stand of grass was established. The wetland is providing habitat for Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Herons, Sandpipers, Osprey, and many more birds.

Wetland Facts ... Did You Know...?
Wetlands furnish habitat for wildlife. They provide breeding, nesting, and feeding habitat for millions of waterfowl, birds, and other wildlife. All of America's wild ducks and geese depend on wetlands. Wetlands in the United States support about 5,000 plant species, 190 species of amphibians, and a third of all native bird species.

Wetlands reduce the effects of floods as they store water temporarily, allowing it to percolate into the ground or evaporate. The temporary storage reduces the peak water flow after a storm. This can reduce flooding downstream. Wetlands sustain fisheries; shrimp, oysters, menhaden, crabs, flounder, and many other marine organisms depend on estuaries and associated wetlands for their survival.

Wetlands reduce soil erosion as they slow the overland flow of water. They reduce shoreline erosion by breaking incoming waves and slowing the water as it flows over the shore.

Wetlands give people enjoyment. Visit wetlands to watch wildlife and take photographs. Many wetlands offer fishing and hunting opportunities as well.

Wetlands improve water quality, providing natural pollution control. The plants remove nutrients, pesticides, and bacteria from surface water. This makes wetlands a very efficient, low-cost alternative for sewage and animal waste treatment. Marsh plants and organisms are known to break down dangerous chemicals into harmless elements.

Wetlands supply habitat for rare, threatened or endangered species. 35% of threatened or endangered species either live in or depend on wetlands.