The Galveston Bay system is adjacent to one of the largest urban areas in the United States. The Port of Houston is the third largest port in the United States and sixth largest in the world-more than 140 million tons of cargo pass through this port each year. More than 7 million people, half the Texas population, use the Galveston Bay System as a final destination for wastewater. Galveston Bay's lower watershed is home to some 3.5 million people, with a government structure that includes five counties, some 15 agencies with bay resource jurisdictions, and an incredible 500 or more water, utility, and drainage districts. The problems which currently plague many coastal ecosystems fundamentally differ from those of the past.
Some gains are still to be made in traditional water quality approaches.
However, the traditional management approaches do not apply to problems like pervasive habitat loss, diffuse sources of non-point contamination, or freshwater inflow alteration. These are ecosystem problems, not limited to individual natural resources, nor circumscribed by political boundaries. These problems are complex and interrelated, involving the bay itself, its tributaries to some distance upstream, and the watersheds where humans carry on their daily activities. The Galveston Bay National Estuary Program was created to comprehensively address problems resulting from human pollution, development, and overuse of estuarine resources. A Priority Problems List was established by consensus of the Management Conference.