The Agreed Order also specifies relief from freshwater releases that the City may take in the event that salinity levels approach the Upper and Lower Salinity Bounds established in the Model. CBI and the City of Corpus Christi established three salinity monitoring stations in Nueces Bay in November 1991. Salt02 was discontinued in September of 1992 as the data from that station seemed essentially the same as that from Salt03 . The goals of the Nueces Bay Salinity Monitoring Project have evolved over time from merely monitoring salinity in the Bay to monitoring salinity levels for the three main sources of freshwater as they enter the Bay. These new stations, combined with salinity-monitoring stations already in place in the River, Delta, and Bay will increase the understanding of the fate of Nueces freshwater into the Bay.
Every effort is made to ensure optimum operation of the salinity monitoring stations.
Weekly service trips to the stations have been standard since the project started. Freshly calibrated instruments are used to replace those in service every other week. Alternately weekly service trips are made to clean the instruments as necessary. Each station is contacted via radio from the computers at CBI every half-hour. Computer software written by CBI staff requests a header and five lines of data.