Nueces Bay - Industry

Industry

Oil has been pumped from the bay since 1912, but fishing has been a mainstay since humans have inhabited the area. In the early 1970s, recreational fishing accounted for a yearly input of $17 million to the local economy, while commercial fishermen contributed $27.3 million. Commercial oyster farming was common in the bay until 1995, when the Texas Department of State Health Services suspended the practice, due to an unhealthy annual average zinc level of nearly 2500 mg/kg in oysters, which as filter feeders, are affected by high levels of zinc in the water. The excessive zinc is believed to have been dumped into the bay by the American Smelting and Refining Company's Encycle Texas Incorporated subsidiary, which operated a zinc refinery at the site from 1942 to 1985. The Nueces Bay Power Station is also believed to have discharged zinc used for coolant until December 2002. Since that time, zinc levels in the bay have been reduced to slightly under 1000 mg/kg, which remains above the healthy levels of 700 mg/kg. The power station has since come under the control of the Topaz Power Group. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has established the Total Maximum Daily Load Program to measure the level of pollutants throughout the Nueces watershed, in an effort to restore the bay to safe levels of contaminants. Pesticides that seep into the bay from the heavy agricultural activity on the north shore can also spur adverse environmental effects.

Several oil spills have occurred as a result of the heavy petroleum industry on the south shore of Nueces Bay. In 1984, approximately 20,000 US gallons (76,000 L) of oil leaked from a busted pipeline, which blackened 5 miles (8.0 km) of the shore. Ten years later, Koch Industries, which owns a refinery on the bay, was responsible for a major spill that resulted in the release of 100,000 US gallons (380,000 L) of oil, leaving a 12-mile (19 km) slick that seeped into Corpus Christi Bay. The Environmental Protection Agency fined the company $30 million for the spill in 2000, and $2.5 million was later given by the company to the state of Texas to improve the bay's water quality.