CADDO LAKE

January 16, 2004
Meadows Foundation
Dallas, Texas

Dwight Shellman, President of the Caddo Lake Institute, gave an update on the progress made at the Institute in understanding and protecting Caddo, Texas' only natural lake. Mr. Shellman said that his experience and report continued a trend from the CHAT video: he found that there were many knowledgeable local conservationists concerned about Caddo, but that they were often unempowered and diffuse. The Institute seeks to inform and strengthen these local stewards, scientists and organizations to help them protect the Lake.

The Lake is fed by the lightly settled, 2500-square mile Cypress Basin of northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana, including contributing streams such as James Bayou, Cypress Creek, and Harrison Bayou. The Lake covers 26,000 acres, of which 20,000 acres are wetland: it is a very shallow lake, only averaging 3 to 6 feet in depth. The Lake is very dark and tannic (dominated by bald cypress), eutrophic, productive, and highly diverse (it is home to more than 70 species of fish). The Lake was probably formed by a log raft on Cypress Creek, not far above its confluence with the Red River. Don Henley added that the Lake was deepened by the Army Corps of Engineers with a weir in the first decade of the 1900s to give barges enough draft to carry Howard Hughes' "off-shore" drilling platforms.

The Institute has several philosophies that they are trying to put in play. First, they believe that there needs to be local grassroots involvement and engagement to protect a resource. Second, resources need to be wisely used, not sequestered, to be protected. Third, education is needed to build a foundation for conservation. Fourth, there is great power in "exemplarship", in teaching by doing.

On the ground, the Institute is seeking to create a biological refuge to form the core of protection for the whole Caddo Lake system. Towards that, they've succeeded in transferring 7200 acres of the Longhorn Ammunition Plant (located on the southwest boundary of the Lake) from the Army to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Together with the Jones/Henley tract of some 5000-6000 acres on the north edge of the Lake, and the 8200 acres held in the Caddo Lake State Park and Wildlife Management Area, there are now about 24,000 acres in protection. Mr. Shellman feels that ultimately 30,000 to 40,000 acres could be conserved in the Caddo region.

The Institute is working hard to insure that the protected land is complemented by scientists, politicians, and a general public that understands and values this land. Beginning in 1998, the Institute leased 1400 acres of the Longhorn site from the Army to begin assembling a research facility. The Institute now owns the 14-acre complex of administrative buildings formerly used by the Army to run the Longhorn munitions program. One 6000-square-foot building is currently leased by the Institute to the US Fish and Wildlife Service; a 5000-square-foot building is the planned site for the US Regional "Ramsar" (referring to the Convention on Wetlands signed in Ramsar, Iran in 1971) Center, where visiting scientists can have Internet access, office space, meeting rooms, etc.

The Institute's educational efforts also include Project WET (Wetland Education for Teachers), which has trained 1400 teachers to date, and helped expand long-term water quality data, as well as training a local political constituency (including the City of Uncertain, the Greater Caddo Lake Association, Caddo Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, Longhorn Refuge Neighbors Association, and the Lake Residents Working Group on Wetland and Invasive Species) to protect the Lake. Roy Darville of East Texas Baptist University leads much of the local technical research. Some of the information about the Lake has been generated by RFPs issued by the Caddo Lake Research Coordination Network. Some data have also been created by the Caddo Lake Ramsar Clearinghouse, a scientific panel of local technical experts that are sometimes called to respond to "magic dust" salesmen, promoters of questionable lake schemes, such as recent ideas to release bacteria to eat algae and grass carp to eat hyacinth.

The educational investments have paid off with extensive data on the Lake. Building on an original 90 sampling sites, statistical analysis of 5 years' data reduced those 90 sites to 7 that were significantly different. These seven sites now have valuable historical data on the lake, including evidence of declining oxygen levels, and increasing acidity, nutrients, and metals. The higher acidity and mercury concentrations in the Lake appear to be related to the burning of lignite at utility plants in east Texas. Many of these power plants are quite old and hold grandfather exemptions, so they do not have modern air pollution control devices, leading to high nitrogen oxide and sulfuric acid releases. Also, their fuel is lignite which comes from the Wilcox Group, an area that is known to be high in cadmium, lead and mercury.

The scientific research sometimes leads to political work. For example, as a reaction to the acidity concerns, the Institute is seeking to have site-based standards for air pollutants connected with acid rain (currently acid rain regulations are national, and do not respond well to local hot spots, such as Caddo's). CLI is also requesting more precise monitoring data from air pollution permit applicants, not just trade-secret-protected estimates of the pollution constituents, as is the case now.

Much of their political and legal work at Caddo is now involved in the water wars with the City of Marshall. The City is seeking to retitle their domestic water rights as industrial, so that they can be sold to a power plant, but the Institute succeeded in persuading a district court to block the City's application. The Institute is also concerned that the City has lowered the elevation of its intake pipe and increased its pumping capacity, allowing it to dramatically change the depth and flow in a lake and wetland system as shallow as Caddo. To protect the Lake against these water rights sales and diversion pumps, the Institute filed for an instream "environmental" water right. The right application was declared administratively complete in 2002, but dismissed by the TCEQ in 2003.

Looking forward, the Institute is planning to focus on building the $2 million Caddo Lake Ramsar Wetland Science Center, "a Woods Hole for Wetlands". Senator Hutchison has been helpful, and $300k is expected in fiscal year 2003 funding, and perhaps $400k in 2004, but the funds are restricted to operations, barring capital renovations.

In the meantime, as Mr. Shellman said, "we make the road by walking", and so the Institute is not waiting on funding but instead pursuing other work.

The Institute is helping local experts develop and lobby for Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) limits for Caddo's influx of mercury. TCEQ appears to be open to cooperating on this effort.

CLI is developing partners in the US and internationally to broaden the support for wetland protection, through workshops on wetlands in Florida and California, and efforts to address the anoxic "dead zone" in the Gulf via work in Caddo Lake, the Red River, and Atchafalaya Basin in the US, and in Tamaulipas state in Mexico. Intriguing, low-cost proposals to use wetlands to remove toxics and nutrients from wastewater in Mexico might soon work out. Ecotourism proposals (see more at www.ramsarecotourism.net) might help local participants in Mexico act as researchers and representatives for wetland sites, akin to Duncan Hines or the American Automobile Association's work in more traditional reviews and promotions of restaurants and motels.

Ann Hamilton thanked Dwight for his presentation. She added that the grassroots planning efforts that she's been involved with (Blueprint Houston) have taught her that "democracy is messy" and have given her admiration for the Caddo Lake Institute's work to build a constituency for the Lake.