The Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex is a massive urban area that is the home of 4.5 million people and is graced by the Trinity River. The Trinity River is a paradox, holding the hopes of recreation and wildlife while dealing death and destruction with massive flooding and containing toxic material and pathogens. The communities surrounding the river have the vision that the river might one day become a magnet for eco-tourism and a refreshing green haven for the citizens of the area. Through citizen diligence and a forward thinking mission, much has been done to change the river from a stinking, toxic stream of embarrassment to a potential treasure trove of natural beauty. Wastewater treatment plants now pour high quality water into the river channel. The depressed dissolved oxygen levels of the 1980's that were resonsible for large fish kills have been replaced by acceptable DO readings.
The Trinity River held the hopes of the business community of Dallas for over a century as a possible inland waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. Those hopes were dashed in 1981 when the US Army Corps of Engineers declared the idea unworkable. A new vision was formed, one of a river of beauty and recreation rather than commerce. Work had already begun to rescue the river from poisons and the neighborhoods from the deadly flooding. A Trinity River of economic, recreational and ecological health became the goal of the Metroplex.

Background Information

The Spanish conquistadores named the river after the Holy Trinity of Christendom. Considering the river's nasty appearance, many jokes have been made over the irony of its name. The three forks of the Trinity River are the West Fork, the Elm Fork and the main stem. The Trinity River Corridor is composed of the beds and and banks of river segments from six manmade lakes, the main stem of the river as it flows through south southeast Dallas County, and all of the adjacent land and creeks found within the Trinity's floodplain. Half of its area is vacant land. The two primary occupant types of the watershed are industrial and residential. Other land users include offices, retail operations, utility companies, parks and recreation, landfills, and institutional facilities. The river periodically experiences severe flooding. These floods have been addressed by the construction of high levees. The river has been impacted by urban activities, storm water discharge, treated wastewater, and the nutrient overload associated with agricultural use and lawn care. Significant fish kills during the 1980's were associated with severely depressed dissolved oxygen levels.

Phase I and Phase II

Dallas Environmental Science Academy is a magnet school for seventh grade and eighth grade that has an enrollment of 200 students. The Trinity River Project will be broken into two phases. Phase I will take place during the seventh grade year and will involve testing for dissolved oxygen, temperature, and pH in Five Mile Creek, which feeds into the Trinity River. In Phase II, the eighth grade will conduct a more comprehensive study of the two forks and the main stem of the Trinity River, completing tests on temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrates, phosphates, and turbidity. The test site on the West Fork will be in Grand Prairie, the test site on the Elm Fork will be in Irving and the main stem will be tested from Sylvan Park in West Dallas.

Janet McDonald Fuller
Dallas Environmental Science Academy
2940 Singleton Blvd.
Dallas, Texas 75212
PH 214-689-1649
FAX 214-689-1687
email Macfuller@aol.com

Todd Hindman
Dallas Environmental Science Academy
2940 Singleton Blvd.
Dallas, Texas 75212
PH 214-689-1649
FAX 214-689-1687

Correlation to National Standards 

Using the Benchmarks for Science published by Project 2061, the Trinity River Project will enable the students at Dallas Environmental Science Academy to know that:

• Fresh water, limited in supply, is essential for life and also for most industrial processes. Rivers, lakes, and groundwater can be depleted or polluted, becoming unavailable or unsuitable for life.
• The benefits of the earth's resources- such as fresh water,air,soil, and trees- can be reduced by using them wastefully or by deliberately or inadvertently destroying them. The atmosphere and the oceans have a limited capacity to absorb wastes and recycle materials naturally. Cleaning up polluted air, water, or soil or restoring depleted soil, forests, or fishing grounds can very difficult and costly.
• As the complexity of any system increases, gaining an understanding of it depends increasingly on summaries, such as averages and ranges, and on descriptions of typical examples of that system.

Benchmarks for Science
http://project2061.aaas.org/products/benchol/ch11/ch11/html

"Ecological Restoration: A Tool to Manage Stream Quality", the Environmental Protection Agency, US Govt.
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/NPS/Ecology/chap1.html

"A Common Vision for the Trinity River Corridor", Trinity River Common Vision
http://www.nctcog.dst.tx.us/envir/trin/common/common.html

"Water Resources in North Central Texas", North Central Texas Council of Governments
http://sun670s.nctcog.dst.tx.us/envir/water/wrome.html

"National Water Quality Assessment Program-The Trinity River Basin", Land,L.F., 1991, Open-File Report 91-158
http://txwww.cr.usgs.gov/trin/ofr91-15.html

"The Stony Brook and Millstone Region Land Use and Water Quality Issues", Beal, Christy; Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, July, 1997.

"Trinity River Basin, Texas", Ulery,R., Van Metre,P., Crossfield,A., April, 1995.
http://txwww.cr.usgs.gov/trin/envs.html

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