IBWC: Bacteria Levels in Rio Grande at Brownsville Remain a Concern

By Steve Taylor
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Elizabeth Verdecchia runs the Texas Clean Rivers Program for the Rio Grande.

MERCEDES, May 31 - High levels of bacteria in the section of the Rio Grande that runs through Brownsville and Matamoros remains a concern for the International Boundary and Water Commission.

The issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the IBWC’s Lower Rio Grande Citizens Forum, which takes place Tuesday, June 8, at the Commission’s office in Mercedes.

At the meeting, the IBWC’s Environmental Protection Specialist, Elizabeth Verdecchia, will provide an overview of water quality in the Lower Rio Grande as well as discuss current and future water quality monitoring and outreach activities through the Texas Clean Rivers Program for the Rio Grande Basin. Verdecchia runs the Texas Clean Rivers Program for the Rio Grande.

In a media advisory about the citizen’s forum, the IBWC acknowledged that “bacteria levels remain a concern in the Brownsville area.” The advisory points out that the IBWC and the University of Texas at Brownsville have completed the first phase of an intensive bacteria study of the Rio Grande in the Brownsville area. UTB’s Dr. Elizabeth Heise will provide preliminary results of the study at Tuesday’s meeting.

“We hope the study will help us get a better understanding of what's causing the high bacteria levels,” Verdecchia said. “We hope people will come to the June 8 meeting to learn more about water quality and to let us know of any concerns they have.”

The section of the Rio Grande that runs through Brownsville/Matamoros has been listed by the state of Texas as impaired for contact recreation since monitoring began in 1996.

E.coli bacteria is used to indicate whether a river is meeting its designated use for contact recreation, and the Texas Surface Water Quality Standard for contact recreation is 126 colonies per 100 milliliters. At one of the stations in this study, (Rio Grande at Brownsville, TCEQ ID# 13177), e.coli values collected from 2001 to 2009 have an average of 750 colonies per 100 milliliters.

In an e-mail to the Guardian, IBWC spokeswoman Sally Spener said that while high bacteria levels may be a concern for recreational users of the river, water taken from the river for drinking purposes is treated for bacteria. Therefore, Spener said, tap water is not affected. The cause of the high bacteria is unknown, and IBWC’s intensive monitoring study is designed to understand the bacteria contamination and its potential sources, she said.

Brian R Smith, regional medical director for the Texas Department of State Health Services, told the Guardian that he has not heard anything about the Brownsville section of the Rio Grande having higher bacteria counts than sections further north.

“I doubt that they do, but bacterial counts in the warm water with overflow from Mexican sources is always the concern,” Smith said, pointing out that TCEQ tracks river coliforms, not the Department of State Health Services.

The IBWC’s Rio Grande Valley headquarters is located at 325 Golf Course Road in Mercedes. The June 8 meeting takes place between 4 and 6 p.m. at that office.

Spener said Clean Rivers Program staff will be available at the June 8 meeting to discuss any issues and questions the public has related to Rio Grande water quality. Copies of the CRPs 2010 Rio Grande Basin Highlights Report, with detailed water quality information, will also be available for distribution, she said.

The Rio Grande water quality studies are being carried out with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Recovery Act funds are also being used for levee construction. IBWC Civil Engineer Rod Dunlap will be at the June 8 forum to give an update on levee construction projects in Hidalgo and Cameron counties.

The projects are designed to enhance flood protection in the Valley in accordance with standards established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Dunlap’s presentation will include current project construction updates on several levee construction contracts along the Rio Grande and off-river floodways affecting the communities of McAllen, Granjeno, Hidalgo, Pharr, San Juan, Alamo, Donna, Weslaco, Mercedes, La Villa, and La Feria, Spener said.

In a related presentation, Field Environmental Monitor Wacey Hough, a contractor with H2 Environment Services, will discuss environmental issues associated with levee construction.

The presentation will discuss nesting surveys, rare and endangered plant identification and relocation, wildlife identification and relocation, coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wetlands preservation, and storm water pollution prevention.

Lower Rio Grande Citizens Forum was established by the U.S. Section of the IBWC to “facilitate the exchange of information between the USIBWC and members of the public about Commission activities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.”