The Book of Texas Bays

Notes

275 Chapter 2. Water and Sabine Lake 1. The acreage of the bay systems varies from source to source. With the exception of the Laguna Madre, the acreages included in figure 1 were taken from M. Nipper, J. A. Sanchez Chavez, and J. W. Tunnell, Jr., eds., Gulf Base: Resource Database for Gulf of Mexico Research, World Wide Web electronic publication , September 9, 2003; and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ecological Condition of Estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico, epa 620-r-98-004 (Gulf Breeze, Fla.: Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Gulf Ecology Division, 1999, 80 pp.). The acreage for the Laguna Madre at mean sea level was taken from John W. Tunnell, Jr., and Frank W. Judd, eds., The Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, Texas, 2002), 9. These figures were cross-checked with the figures from the National Estuary Programs for the Galveston and Corpus Christi/Aransas systems (W. A. White et al., Current Status and Historical Trends of Selected Estuarine and Coastal Habitats in the Corpus Christi Bay National Estuary Program Study Area, Corpus Christi Bay National Estuary Program publication 29, July, 1998; W. A. White et al., Trends and Status of Wetland and Aquatic Habitats in the Galveston Bay System, Texas, Galveston Bay National Estuary Program publication 31, April, 1993.) Much of the difference in acreage appears to be caused by which secondary bays are allocated to which system and whether the measurement is mean low tide, mean high tide, or mean sea level. On the Laguna Madre system, the acreage of water nearly doubles between mean low and mean high tide, according to Tunnell. 2. Richard C. Harrel and Miles A. Hall, III, “Macrobenthic Community Structure before and after Pollution Abatement in the Neches River Estuary (Texas),” Hydrobiologia 211 (1991): 241–52; personal communication, Richard Harrel. 3. National Park Service, “Threats,” and “Everglades 101,” last updated June 10, 1999, (accessed June 18, 2002). Chapter 3. Wetlands of the Upper Texas Coast 1. Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. United States Army Corp of Engineers, ___ U.S. ____ (2001). 2. Daniel W. Moulton and John S. Jacob, Texas Coastal Wetlands Guidebook, Texas Sea Grant Publication tamu-sg 00-605 (Bryan: Sea Grant, 2000). The white ibis has a large curved bill that it plunges into the soft mud of the marsh, foraging for food. The ibis is a companion of those fishing the marshes in their kayaks. Photograph by Jim Blackburn Notes Notes 276 The Book of Texas Bays Chapter 5. Wallisville 1. Swamp acreages for the bays were calculated using data from usfws, Wetlands Mapper, utilizing the palustrine forested class (pfo). The major issue concerned how far up the river systems to take the analysis. The decision to take the analysis two counties deep up the river system was somewhat arbitrary, intended to give an indication of the relative abundance of flooded forests. 2. William L. Longley, ed., Freshwater Inflows to Texas Bays and Estuaries: Ecological Relationships and Methods for Determination of Needs (Austin: Texas Water Development Board and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 1994). 3. Texas Water Development Board, “Hydrology Data for the Bays,” 2000, (accessed August 16, 2000). Chapter 6. The Houston Ship Channel 1. Herman E. Daly, Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996). 2. Energy Information Administration: Petroleum Supply Annual 1999, vol. 1, (accessed 2000). 3. Ibid. 4. Chemical and Engineering News: Facts and Figures for the Chemical Industry (Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1998); Chemical Week (New York), February 2, 2000, p. 44, and April 26, 2000, p. 49. Information for these charts is supplemented by internal information from Formosa Plastics. 5. “CW Price Report,” Chemical Week (New York), April 4, 2001, p. 32. 6. “Toxic Release Inventory,” 2000, (accessed August 29, 2003). 7. Sonoma Technology, “Assessment of the Health Benefits of Improving Air Quality in Houston, Texas,” prepared for the City of Houston by Frederick W. Lurman et al. (Petaluma, Calif.: Sonoma Technology; Institute for 3. Wetland information is difficult to isolate for the various bay systems. Some sources give very high values, which may include all types of wetlands or all wetlands in the watershed. When compared to National Estuary Program documentation, some of these estimates showed three times greater acreage. For the purposes of figure 2, the acreage of marsh was determined using the National Wetlands Inventory data to isolate...