Clear Creek in League City, Galveston County, Texas, is considered impaired by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality because of high levels of bacteria, low levels of dissolved oxygen and legacy PCB in sediments. Contaminants from urban stormwater runoff are major contributors to the first two types of pollution.

Texas Sea Grant’s Texas Coastal Watershed Program (TCWP) led a project that resulted in the creation of a demonstration park, the Ghirardi Family WaterSmart Park, with stormwater practices, including a rain garden, vegetated swale and green roof. In 2016, the features in the park treated an estimated 637,500 gallons of stormwater before it flowed into Clear Creek.

Many communities do not consider their vulnerability to coastal hazards like flooding and hurricanes until they occur. Failing to take adequate steps to prepare for such events can significantly impact communities and businesses and cause economic hardship for residents as well as business owners.

In 2016, Texas Sea Grant facilitated a team of 12 community leaders in conducting a third Coastal Resilience Index (CRI) in the community to help Aransas County gauge their progress toward becoming more resilient to coastal hazards. Aransas County’s CRI score improved over its previous self-assessments using the tool, suggesting that the community has increased its ability to cope with, recover from, and regain operation after a disaster. The assessment also helped to direct future actions and resulted in the acquisition of a grant to join the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System.

The most common method to preserve the shrimp catch on offshore trawlers is to freeze them in a brine solution on deck and store in a freezer hold below deck. The brine solution will freeze a 50-pound bag of shrimp within 15 minutes, but Texas Sea Grant found that many crew are unaware of how to prepare the brine solution properly to achieve the lowest temperature, a necessary requirement to produce high-quality shrimp that do not taste salty. Texas Sea Grant held a demonstration for shrimp fleet owners to show how proper brine solution preparation is critical in on-board freezing to maintain high-quality shrimp. Participants from 60 vessels reportedly are using their brine tanks properly and have not lost revenue due to poor-quality shrimp.