PEARSALL - The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and the Nueces River Authority invite residents in the San Miguel Creek watershed to a public meeting to discuss a water quality project. The meeting will be held in the Pearsall Community Room located at 400 South Pecan Street, Pearsall, TX 78061. Sign-in will begin at 5:45 p.m. and the meeting will start at 6:00 p.m.
San Miguel Creek is a tributary to Choke Canyon Reservoir within the Nueces River Basin. The creek flows 66 miles from its headwaters in Frio County and through part of Atascosa County to its confluence with Choke Canyon Reservoir in McMullen County. The watershed is approximately 535,610 acres and was listed on the 2006 Texas 303(d) List of impairments due to elevated levels of E. coli, the indicator bacteria, used to assess the possible presence of pathogens that may increase the risk of illness when participating in contact recreation activities in the waterbody.
At this meeting, landowners and citizens will have the opportunity to learn about a new project, Recreational Use Attainability Analysis for San Miguel Creek, which focuses on assessing the level of recreational use occurring along San Miguel Creek.
Since decisions made about these waterbodies will affect landowners, citizens, industries, and municipalities, local participation is fundamental to the success of this project. Stakeholders will be asked to provide guidance on the direction of this project.
Stakeholders will be given an opportunity to review historical land use data and discuss how this effort could create an updated recreational use classification for the San Miguel Creek watershed.
Rocky Freund, with the Nueces River Authority, will give background information on San Miguel Creek and introduce the recreational use attainability analysis project. "Stakeholder input on survey sites and recreational use is crucial to the success of the project," Freund said.
This project is funded by the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board through a general revenue nonpoint source grant to the Nueces River Authority.
For more information about the meeting, visit the project website at http://www.nueces-ra.org/SMC/ or contact Freund at 361-653-2110 or rfreund [at] nueces-ra [dot] org