New videos give glimpse into environmental work

Not everyone is fit or willing to spend countless hours in a streambed, identifying and counting mussels or maintaining the rigorous standards and repetitive work of testing water quality across the Brazos River basin.

The work requires hours on the road, standing chest deep in water, enduring triple-digit heat, traversing a wide-variety of landscapes, not to mention the vast amount of knowledge required to be a member of the Brazos River Authority environmental services team.

The BRA has released two new videos that offer a glimpse into the work of the field operations team performing long-term surface water monitoring of Brazos River basin rivers, streams, and reservoirs. This team of highly trained and experienced aquatic scientists test for water quality, the biological nature of the water, such as what type of fish live there, the physical habitat surrounding the water and much more. They then return to the BRA laboratory where environmental chemists take over to ensure accurate and timely completion of all required monitoring, analysis and reporting to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency. All BRA-generated surface water quality data is publicly available on the BRA’s website here.

The videos serve as part of the release of a new section of the BRA’s website, dedicated to providing educational information to the public on environmental matters and operations across the basin. To learn more about them, go here.

The BRA also aims to provide educational material in visually interesting ways on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, it’s website and through its quarterly newsletter.