The Sulphur River Basin Authority (SRBA) board of directors approved the use of part of its additional Clean Rivers funding at its meeting Tuesday morning [March 16], adding several monitoring events in the basin. In January, the Authority received notice from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) that it had allocated additional funding for the Clean Rivers Program, and SRBA submitted a request for work to be completed in the basin.
"We were given an additional $21,000 from TCEQ to do additional monitoring, planning and equipment purchasing," said Michael Burke, executive director for SRBA. "Part of it will be subcontracted to Texarkana College. Our existing one-year contract with the college is $33,500. The add will be $12,500."
The additional work to be completed consists of three different projects, all involving monitoring events. The first is an additional systematic monitoring site along the South Sulphur River, costing $3,500. The site was added back after previously being taken away by TCEQ. The second project is in conjunction with TCEQ to monitor flow below Waggoner Creek in Texarkana at a cost of $3,000. The third project is the addition of two monitoring events to the Lake Wright Patman monitoring that is currently underway, bringing the total number of sites to five. The cost for the three sites totals $6,000.
"The lake is under an advisory as a water body of concern for low dissolved oxygen and high Ph," Burke said. "They are consistently asking us to support monitoring to get to take it off the list."
Board member Robert Parker asked Burke if the additional sites were sufficient, or "Do we anticipate having locations in the future?"
Burke noted, "We always hope for more monies that we can access. We traditionally have about $100,000 a year, but we started with $3,500 less this year, which they gave back plus the $17,000 additional. It would be great if they sent more, but we don't know."
In other business following an executive session, the board approved increasing the salary for Nancy Rose, executive secretary for the Authority, from $9.50 to $10 an hour. In a subsequent motion, the board then approved another pay increase to $11.50 an hour in order to cover Rose's health insurance costs.
"She is currently paying for herself through her husband's insurance," Burke explained. "The board provides for my health insurance costs, and it would be fair to provide it for all employees." Burke reported that Rose currently pays $85.02 every two weeks for her insurance coverage. Burke said the $1.50 increase would reimburse Rose for her costs.
During board and staff announcements, Burke reported that he has been in discussion with U.S. Rep. Max Sandlin (D-Marshall) regarding the basin-wide study that SRBA is pursuing with the Corps of Engineers. The study will look at water resources out of Lake Wright Patman as well as the logjam on the river north of Mount Vernon.
"It looks like it is going forward," Burke said. "Since the Corps is paying 50 percent of the study, the money has to be appropriated by Congress and submitted by the congressman in our district, which Sandlin is."