Aerial view of proposed desalination facility site near Texas City, Texas.
Prior to developing the Bayshore Desalination Facility, EPCOR invited Texas A&M University at Galveston, an institution known for its deep expertise in studying and modeling coastal marine environments, to conduct two studies. The first study assessed the salinity level impacts of the desalination facility at both the intake and outfall locations and across the entire Galveston Bay region. The second study assessed impacts on fish and other underwater species.
Study #1: Salinity modeling results
The below animation shows the results of Texas A&M’s computer modeling. The image on the left shows current, existing salinity levels without an operating desalination plant. The following two images to the right show the moderate changes caused by a fully operational desalination plant. The middle image shows impacts on the entire Galveston Bay region and the zoomed in image on the right shows activity around the intake channel at Dickinson Bay and around the outfall channel on the south side of Galveston Bay.
As the above computer modeling shows, within 1 kilometer of the tidal dam that connects the discharge channel to the bay, mean surface salinity only increases by approximately 0.12 parts per thousand. Furthermore, these impacts diminish rapidly offshore. Additional findings:
The below map created by Texas A&M scientists shows the scale of predicted salinity differences. This modeling shows the salinity levels at the intake and discharge channels would be localized and relatively small – less than 1 part per thousand – dissipating entirely between 1 and 2 kilometers at the outfall channel and within 5 kilometers of the intake channel.
Study #2: Wildlife impacts results
A wildlife habitat study, also conducted by Texas A&M University at Galveston, assessed the impacts of a desalination facility on the following species that inhabit the region: red drum and black drum fish, brown shrimp, white shrimp, spotted seatrout, flounder (primarily southern flounder), oysters, blue crab and seagrass. All of these animals utilize Galveston Bay as a nursery area, with seagrass being an important habitat for some species. Approximately 40 years of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department catch data was used to determined the abundance of each species throughout the region. This information showed:
As for each animal’s ability to tolerate salinity fluctuations associated with a desalination facility, these three charts for fish, vertebrates and oysters show the impacts across all species.
The above data shows the optimal salinity range for peak recruitment and larval development across all species was 17 – 24 ppt. This means the projected desalination plant discharge salinity of 21.2 parts per thousand falls within the middle of the range for larval recruitment and development of the studied species.
Explore photos of the proposed desalination facility site and the remains of the decommissioned P.H. Robinson Generating Station.
