Planning & Environmental Overview

The Authority is required by its enabling statute to prepare a Master Plan for water resources and uses over the entire Trinity River watershed. It also requires the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to notify TRA of all water rights permit applications in the entire watershed and consider comments. In response to these mandates, TRA maintains a Master Plan and participates in other programs and activities consistent with its overall, basin-wide duties.  

TRA completed the first Master Plan for the Trinity River Watershed in 1958 and has continued with various updates of that plan. In the late 1950’s - early 1960’s, TRA participated in a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water resources planning project covering most of the state and known as the Texas Basins Project. During that same time, TRA became the primary local sponsor for a Corps of Engineers project to plan and implement a number of projects in the Trinity River basin. It included reservoirs, levees, channels, and parks for water supply, flood control, navigation and recreation. The parts of the project on the main stem of the river from Fort Worth to the mouth, including the flood control and navigation project and Tennessee Colony Lake,  were known as the Trinity River Project and served until the mid-1970’s as a unifying force for water supply, economic development, and recreation in the basin. TRA has participated in the state’s preparation of the Texas Water Plan and its updates since it began in the mid-1960’s. Since 1997, TRA has participated in the planning required by Senate Bill 1, which was enacted by the Legislature that year. TRA’s involvement has included membership on the Regional Planning Group covering the Dallas-Fort Worth area and most of the upper Trinity basin and also the Regional Planning Group covering the Houston area and most of the lower Trinity basin. The two areas have populations of about 5 million people each, and together they total about half of the entire population of the state. The Trinity River is the largest source of water for both areas. The current Trinity River Basin Master Plan compiles the results of other plans and presents a combined vision for the Trinity River basin.  

Water quality in the Trinity basin became more than a local issue over a hundred years ago. In the late 1800’s Dallas was still pumping water for its early municipal water supply system from the main stem of the Trinity River. During low flows in the summer, the water was noticeably contaminated by wastes from as far upstream as Fort Worth and it was one reason for Dallas’ ceasing use of main stem water. Just after the turn of the century, the problem became much worse when two large slaughterhouses opened in Fort Worth. That, plus the growth of both cities made the river at low flow not only unpleasant but also dangerous. In the early 1920s the problem was measured in the number of typhoid fever cases and dead animals near the river downstream of Dallas, and it drew attention from state government. New wastewater collection and treatment systems came on line in both Dallas and Fort Worth about that time, reversed the decline, and began a long series of improvements that continue to this day.

In 1971, TRA began preparation of the first basin-wide water quality plan, which was completed in 1974. That plan analyzed the impact of point- and non-point loadings on receiving streams, with most of the attention on the main stem of the river from Fort Worth through Dallas, the mid-basin, and Lake Livingston to Trinity Bay. Prior to that, in 1972, the North Central Texas Council of Governments had prepared a water quality management plan for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. That plan identified the major service areas, collection systems and treatment plants for regionalized wastewater treatment. In 1974, the Council of Governments began a follow-up plan (known as a “208 plan”) that updated its 1972 plan and added other topics, including urban non-point sources and impacts. In 1975, TRA began a 208 plan for the rest of the Trinity basin (all the basin except the Dallas-Fort Worth area). The main 208 planning was completed in the late 1970’s, but the Council of Governments maintains and updates certain essential components to the present.

In 1991, the Texas Legislature passed the Clean Rivers Act, which required the river authorities in each river basin in the state to “assess” water quality and related issues in the basin. TRA administers that program, which is the main basin-wide water quality program currently active. The program emphasizes the sampling and analysis of stream and lake water quality, public education and participation in water quality issues, and special studies of selected technical topics. The overall Trinity Clean Rivers Program is summarized in an annual Basin Highlights Report and a more detailed Basin Summary Report every five years. See Clean Rivers Program for the current reports and a description of the overall program.