Table 3.11. Number of Wastewater Permittees in Galveston Bay Watershed. 
Area 
Number of Permits* 
Trinity Basin 
(above Lake Livingston Dam) 
519 
San Jacinto Basin 
(above Lake Houston Dam) 
262 
Galveston Bay (below Livingston 
and Houston Dams) 
1,151 
(719) b 
Domestic 
674 
(484) 
Industrial 
477 
(235) 
Total Galveston Bay Watershed 
1,932 
Total Permittees in Texas 
3,756 
‘These include both active and inactive permits. "No discharge" 
b These include only discharging active permittees. 
permits are not included. 
Source: 14. 
located in the Galveston Bay watershed (Table 3.11). About 31 percent are in the immediate vicinity 
of the Bay (below the Lake Livingston and Lake Houston Dams). Not all of these are active permits 
involving wastewater discharge. In the vicinity of the Bay are 484 active domestic permittees 
discharging 1.5 billion gallons/day and 235 active industrial permittees discharging 36.5 billion 
gallons/day. In 1970 there were 139 self-reporting domestic permittees and 160 self-reporting 
industrial permittees in the vicinity of the Bay (comparable area to that used in 1987). Increases in the 
number of domestic and industrial wastewater permittees between 1970 and 1987 were 248 percent 
and 47 percent, respectively (14). No data regarding volume of wastewater discharged in the study 
area were available for 1970. 
Transportation and Navigation 
Nationally, the Port of Houston is the third largest in the contiguous 48 states in terms of total 
shipping tonnage. Access to the Port is provided from Galveston Bay westward along the 50 mile- 
long Houston Ship Channel to the turning basin in Houston's Central Business District. 
The Port of Houston is the leading port in Texas in terms of 1986 shipping tonnage (102 million 
tons), more than twice as much as the next competitor (Port of Corpus Christi). The Port of Galveston 
ranks seventh among eleven Texas ports with 8.2 million tons. Together, these two ports account for 
approximately 43 percent of the total tonnage along the Texas coast (15). In 1986,4817 ocean-going 
vessels (import or export) docked at the Port of Houston while 430 docked at the Port of Galveston 
(15). Total revenue generated by the Port of Houston was $3.0 billion in 1986 (16), nearly six times that 
generated by the Port of Galveston (Table 3.12). Two commodity groups (petroleum and liquid bulk) 
accounted for a majority of the total 1986 revenue in the Port of Houston. Grain accounted for almost 
one-half the total revenue and tonnage for the Port of Galveston. No estimates of the economic 
impacts of revenue generated by the ports on the region and state are available. Martin O'Connell 
Associates (16) argue that personal income is a better measure of the ports' economic value to the state 
and local economies than total revenue since monetary impact is specific to the state. 
The Ports of Houston and Galveston are major sources of income and employment for the region. 
Estimated total employment impacts to regional economies were 6,993 and 47,781 full time equiva¬ 
lents for the Ports of Galveston and Houston, respectively. In 1981 gross personal income in the 
region attributed to the Ports of Galveston and Houston was $336 million and $1.6 billion, respec¬ 
tively. 
60 
