Recap: July 9th Stakeholder Meeting
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Thanks to all who attended the July 9th Stakeholder Meeting! Agenda, slide deck and meeting notes are available on the WAP webpage.
Stakeholders discussed the measures by which the overall health of Shoal Creek is judged, such as bacteria or nitrogen levels. We discussed how Shoal Creek currently ranks in those measures compared to another Austin creek, Bull Creek, and considered whether the Bull Creek conditions could serve as a helpful target for evaluating progress/success on Shoal Creek.
EPA requires that we aim for water quality to be suitable for contact recreation. In plain terms, this means a fishable, swimmable creek. Reaching this goal is still a long way off: possibly decades. The WAP project team is working on modeling to determine the timeline to reaching this goal, and the best target locations for management (i.e., watershed-wide vs. intensive management of smaller areas). Even though contact recreation standards will take a long time to achieve, we want to start working towards them right away. So, we're also working to determine the best interim measures towards that goal.
Another important component of the Watershed Action Plan is translating science-based benchmarks and solutions into terms that are concrete and understandable to non-scientists.
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Upcoming Stakeholder Meeting
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Save the date for our next Watershed Stakeholder Meeting! Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by responding to this email.
Date: Thursday, August 15
Time: 11:30am-1:00pm
Location: Enrichment Room, Austin Rec Center, 1301 Shoal Creek Blvd, Austin, TX 78701
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You may recall that there are four Working Groups for stakeholders to join in order to delve into particular topics in more detail. Current groups include Water, Land Stewardship, Education & Outreach, and Plan Implementation. For more information about Working Group time commitment, activities, and meeting schedule, please send us an email.
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Thank you for serving as a Shoal Creek Watershed Stakeholder! The Shoal Creek Watershed Action Plan is a cooperative project funded in part by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) through a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant.
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