Desal Plant Meeting Follow Up

FlatsWorthy hosted a Public Meeting on Wednesday, September 25th, about the proposed desalination plants at Harbor Island and Ingleside. Greg Stunz is the Endowed Chair for Fisheries and Ocean Health, Director of the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation, and Professor of Marine Biology at Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. Brad Erisman is the Assistant Professor of Fisheries Ecology at Marine Science Institute, University of Texas at Austin.

Drs. Stunz and Erisman both believe desalination is an inevitability. We simply don’t have the water necessary for the industry coming to our area or to accommodate the growth of the Coastal Bend. They provided the crowd with the science behind the tidal flats and spawning and migration. They also talked about areas where the science is still lacking. It was informative and science-based.

There were representatives from many community organizations and government organizations in attendance along with many concerned citizens. The question and answer session afterward was also informative. The entire video can be found on our Facebook page. The video runs approximately 90 minutes, so bookmark it.

Here are some of the links provided at the meeting, along with a Who to Contact provided by our friends at Port Aransas Conservancy.

Lab Website http://fisheries.utexas.edu

Gulf Spawning Aggregation
http://geo.gcoos.org/restore

Marine Science Literature for Desalination and Channel Deepening Projects
https://www.utmsi.utexas.edu