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Water Pollution
Health risks associated with water usually arise from:
- drinking or washing with contaminated water;
- eating seafood from polluted rivers or bays;
- eating crops watered with polluted water;
and/or
- swimming in polluted waterways.
Common pollutants of area rivers, streams, bayous, lakes, ponds, estuaries and bays
include:
- fertilizers from home lawns and gardens, as well as agriculture;
-
mercury from power plants and industrial waste;
- herbicides and insecticides;
- oil and other chemicals from roadway runoff;
- prescription medications, paint and other toxic substances disposed down
household sinks and toilets;
- trash and sediment from construction sites;
-
pet waste;
- faulty septic systems;
- run-off from industrial sources or sewage treatment plants;
and
- hormone
and prescription medications in human waste.
The City of Houston Health and Human Services Department performs
water quality monitoring of area bayous, which may contain relatively
high levels of bacteria, toxic metals, pesticides and/or organic compounds.
Several resources are also available through the
Houston-Galveston Area Council website, including a tool to
find your watershed, view
land cover, and use an
interactive map for the region. The Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has a
Surface Water Quality viewer on their website.
Drinking Water
The Houston region relies on surface and well water to meet the daily needs of
area residents. See our Drinking
Water page for a map with links to the drinking water quality reports for
the largest cities/utility districts in Harris County. The
Houston
Environmental Foresight program ranked area drinking water as a "low" health
concern.
Seafood is an excellent source of protein and other important nutrients, such
as the omega-3 oils. However, seafood can also contain chemical toxins such as
mercury and pesticides, and can harbor dangerous bacteria. Avoiding eating
seafood from heavily contaminated waterways is always reasonable, but because
many species travel long distances or may be dangerous to eat only during
certain times of the year, area residents should regularly check with local
officials or the State of Texas when regularly eating locally caught seafood.
The
Texas Department of Health's Seafood Safety Division monitors the levels of
mercury and other toxins in seafood and issues advisories whenever necessary to
protect the health of area residents. The division maintains an online
Map of Texas Seafood Advisories and Bans.
Elevated mercury levels in certain species of fish
 is a
particular concern. Eating fish with high mercury levels regularly can lead to mercury
poisoning and neurological symptoms (Davidson
2004). Mercury is especially dangerous for fetuses
or young children whose brains and nervous systems are developing. In general,
larger older fish contain higher levels of mercury (which is stored throughout
the fish) and of lipophilic (fat-loving) chemicals, such as DDT, which are
primarily stored in the fat.
Consumption advisories due to elevated levels of
mercury are or have been posted for a number of the areas along the coast,
including the Houston Ship Channel – San Jacinto River Tidal Basin and the
Houston Ship Channel – Buffalo Bayou Tidal Basin which empty into Galveston Bay,
Lavaca Bay, and a number of East Texas lakes, including B. A. Steinhagen
Reservoir, Big Cypress Creek, Caddo Lake, Sam Rayburn Reservoir and Toledo Bend
Reservoir. “No consumption” warnings are currently posted for freshwater drum
and largemouth bass larger than 18” in Caddo Lake, and for all seafood from much
of Lavaca Bay. In the nearby Gulf of Mexico, King Mackerel, Bluefish, Jack Cravelle and various species of shark tend to have the highest mercury levels.
Large King Mackerel should not be eaten by young
children or women of child-bearing age. In addition, Physicians for Social
Responsibility and the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals have
developed a
wallet-sized guide to healthy fish.
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