Big Cypress Creek Modeling and BST

Project photo

Big Cypress Creek and its tributaries are located in the Cypress Creek Basin in northeast Texas. Big Cypress Creek flows in an east-southeast direction into Lake Cypress Springs, next into Lake Bob Sandlin, then to Lake O’ the Pines and finally to Caddo Lake before entering Louisiana. Big Cypress Creek as well as the tributaries Tankersley and Hart creeks between Lake Bob Sandlin and Lake O’ the Pines are on the Texas 303(d) List for having bacteria levels that exceed water quality standards.

Lake O’ the Pines and the other waterbodies in its watershed are extremely important to the surrounding region. Lake O’ the Pines provides drinking water for seven cities, numerous rural water districts and several steel manufacturing and electricity-generating companies. The city of Longview, with a population of 70,000, is also planning to use the lake as a drinking water source. The lake is an important resource to the timber industry and agricultural enterprises such as the poultry industry, dairies, cow/calf operations, and for irrigation. Recreation and tourism are significant sources of income for residents of the watershed. Boating and fishing for trophy bass, catfish and crappie lure large numbers of recreational users to the watershed each year.

As the contributing watershed to Lake O’ the Pines, Big Cypress Creek has already been the focus of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) project. The TMDL determined that low dissolved oxygen concentrations in the reservoir are due to high rates of photosynthesis and respiration in aquatic vegetation, resulting from large amounts of phosphorus. The TMDL determined that a 56 percent reduction in total phosphorus is needed to restore water quality. An implementation plan was developed to reduce phosphorus amounts from the contributing watershed. Many of the implementation strategies designed to reduce phosphorus loadings are expected to have a positive impact on reducing bacteria loadings to Big Cypress Creek.

Through the Lake O’ the Pines TMDL process, watershed stakeholders became extremely familiar with water quality rules and regulations as well as approaches to watershed planning. As such, local stakeholders have already expressed interest in taking an active role in addressing the bacteria impairments.

The goal of this project is to remove Big Cypress Creek and the Tankersley and Hart creeks from the Texas 303(d) List by providing stakeholders and agencies with sufficient information to address local bacteria impairments through verifying current water body uses, revision of water quality standards and/or designated uses, or development of a watershed protection plan or TMDL.

Objectives

  • Conduct bacterial source tracking
  • Develop a comprehensive GIS inventory and conduct a watershed source survey
  • Analyze data using Load Duration Curves and spatially explicit modeling

Collaborators

  • Texas AgriLife Research
  • Texas Water Resources Institute
  • Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board
  • Northeast Texas Municipal Water District
  • Texas A&M University Spatial Sciences Laboratory
  • Sulphur-Cypress Soil and Water Conservation District
  • Upshur-Gregg Soil and Water Conservation District

Funding Agency

  • Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board