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SAN BERNARD WATER QUALITY TEST RESULTS
Posted on May 22nd, 2022
Photo The Coop
John Hogue, CRG Texas Environmental Scientist, points to one of five locations where samples of both water and sediment were collected during their evaluation of water quality conditions on the San Bernard River on April 5th of this year.
A FOR public education program “What’s Really in the River Water” was held May 21st at the FOR Community Center. Forty-two folks in attendance, including newly-elected Brazoria Mayor Phillip Ray, heard results and asked questions concerning CRG Texas Environment’s water quality testing of river water/sediment. The study was commissioned by FOR San Bernard as a result of the City of Brazoria’s non-compliant WWTP discharge of effluent water into the river. Current status of the WWTP is reported below in the “Tour of the Brazoria WWTP” article.
Conclusions & Recommendations
- There were NO health concerns related to chemical constituents based on the sampling implemented for this study. There are bacteriological indicators present above the EPA marine recreational standard. These bacteriological indicators suggest the potential presence of pathogens or disease causing agents.This was not unexpected as the San Bernard River has been labeled for long as records have been kept as an impaired river by the EPA and TCEQ in both the tidal and freshwater sections as most river are in Texas.
- Fish, crabs and shellfish are safe for consumption as long as they are cooked.
- It is also expected that other potentially significant events (excessive rainfall, flooding, other point source and non-point source discharges, etc.) have the potential to impact the River water quality.
- WWTP operations warrant continued scrutiny. Further, continued monitoring and evaluation of the WWTP discharge, beyond that conducted by the facility as a condition of its permit, is also recommended.
- The FOR Environmental Committee will be discussing these recommendations at the next meeting and making a recommendation to the FOR Board on monitoring.
- Read the entire CRG Texas Environmental Services Report. The report is 106 pages but the summary is seven pages long with the rest as supporting documentation.
Tour of City of Brazoria WWTP
May 19, 2022
By Justin Hillis
FOR Environmental Committee Chairman
Tour attendees were John Trevino, City of Brazoria Public Works Superintendent; Brazoria Mayor Philip Ray; Brazoria Councilman and FOR Director Gary Kersh; Ricky Clenton; FOR Past Pres. Mike Goodson; FOR Director Trey Gilbert
The plant tour showed how much progress the City of Brazoria has made in a much shorter time frame than we originally told it would take.
The first thing that was noticeable was the lack of smell standing next to the aeration basin. The lack of smell is a sign of a healthy WWTP. Mr. Trevino stated that bugs in the aeration basin were getting better but they are not where they want them yet and are planning for additional loads of seed sludge to be brought in from West Columbia to help with that.
Mr. Trevino stated that they are not currently in full compliance with their permit but confident that by this time next month with additional seed sludge they will be. Mr. Trevino also stated that large rainfall events may upset the plant temporarily but they should be able to manage those events and not violate their permit. If this turns out to be true then the mitigation project turned out much better than expected.
Based on my observations, the WWTP is in much better shape than it was just two months ago.
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