The growing whooping crane population is, for the moment, a success story due to years of diligence, hard work, and millions of dollars in expenditures, not to mention the strength and resiliency of these magnificent birds. For the first time in 60 years, a pair was sighted in Port Aransas at the Port Aransas Nature Preserve at Charlie’s Pasture.
Photo: PIXNIO
Their habitat extends well beyond the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, to the southern edges of Copano Bay, Mission Bay and Port Bay. Over the years, their habitat has been threatened by drought, rising tidewaters, and red tide. Now Exxon’s storm water discharge plan includes draining 923 acres into the Copano Bay watershed. Some of that discharge will include process and equipment contact storm water, including oil, grease, chemical pollutants, and polyethylene pellets, the poison pills for aquatic and bird life.
Every year, Exxon will also use 7.3 billion gallons of fresh water flowing from the Colorado River Basin and Lake Texana through the Mary Rhodes Pipeline, fresh water that is not only critical to citizens but to the salinity levels of this critical habitat. And their industrial effluent will flow at a rate of 9 million gallons per day into the La Quinta Channel at a temperature of 110 degrees…with a thousand pounds of oil and grease and warm, pollutant rich, industrial wastewater that will only exacerbate algae growth and threaten all species.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service expressed its concerns, noting not only the impact on the whooping crane but other Endangered Species such as the Red Knot and Piping Plover. Texas Parks and Wildlife is also concerned. Yet, Exxon continues to move forward and the TCEQ has issued a Draft Permit before any determination on the plant’s impact on the whooping crane habitat.
Please share with any and all organizations that are dedicated to the protection of endangered species and, particularly, the whooping crane. Let your local leaders know. Exxon needs to change their industrial and storm water discharge plans or, alternatively, abandon the project.