What are the benefits of wetlands?

by The Brazos River Authority

Wetlands provide a habitat for a variety of plants and animals that would fare poorly in other environments. They also provide water storage, funtioning like a sponge, storing water and slowly releasing it. This helps ease water’s potential for floooding and erosion. The slow release also contributes to surface water flow during dry periods.

Wetlands also can act as a natural water filtration system. As the water enters the wetland, its movement slows around plants, which allows suspended sediments to drop to the wetland floor. Nutirents and pollutants get absorbed by plants and mircoorganisms. An example of this process is the Lake Waco Wetlands area, where many nutrients carried into the lake from the Bosque River are trapped in the wetland, instead of entering the lake proper, the nearby city’s chief source of water.

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| Environmental | Water Quality
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About us

The Brazos River Authority was created by the Texas Legislature in 1929 as the first state agency in the country with the purpose of developing and managing the water resources of an entire river basin. Today, the Authority develops and distributes water supplies, provides water and wastewater treatment, monitors water quality, and pursues water conservation through public education programs. Although the Authority is an agency of the state, it does not levy or collect taxes and is entirely self-supporting.

 

The information provided on this site is intended as background on water within the Brazos River basin. There should be no expectation that this information is all encompassing, complete or in any way examines every aspect of this very complex natural resource. 

 

We invite you to post comments and expect they will be made in good taste. The Authority reserves the right to reject or remove any comment that is not constructive in the education of the general public on issues regarding water in the Brazos basin.