Pluses in Texas' Coastal Management Program include erosion information and beach fill information and policies. Coastal access information is also plentiful and there is better than one access site per mile of coastline. The state website is excellent. Minuses include lack of compliance with Texas' Open Beaches Act in Galveston and a recent pro-private property rights judgment from the Texas Supreme Court which weakens the Open Beaches Act. Efforts to weaken the General Land Office's "no hard structures" policy should be resisted.

Texas Ratings

Indicator Type	Information	Status
Beach Access	8	6
Water Quality	7	5
Beach Erosion	9	-
Erosion Response	-	5
Beach Fill	7	-
Shoreline Structures	5	5
Beach Ecology	3	-
Surfing Areas	4	5
Website	10	-
Coastal Development	{{{19}}}	{{{20}}}
Sea Level Rise	{{{21}}}	{{{22}}}

Indicators

(+) Proposition 9, supported by 77% of the voters in November 2009, elevates the level of protection of the right to beach access to the Texas Constitution.

(+) A new resource unveiled in 2009 is TexasBeachAccess.org, a website that allows you to:

See the line that defines the public beach along the Bolivar Peninsula, on Galveston Island, and in Brazoria County.
Find the closest access point to your local beach
Know your rights regarding beach access in Texas

(+) The updated Texas Beach Watch website provides easy access to beach water quality information through both a list of monitored beaches and a clickable, zoom-in map.

(+) The Gulf of Mexico Alliance is a partnership of the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, with the goal of significantly increasing regional collaboration to enhance the ecological and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico. The five U.S. Gulf States have identified six priority issues that are regionally significant and can be effectively addressed through increased collaboration at local, state, and federal levels: Water Quality, Habitat Conservation and Restoration, Ecosystem Integration and Assessment, Nutrients & Nutrient Impacts, Coastal Community Resilience, and Environmental Education.

(+) Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson continues to be an ardent defender of the Texas Open Beaches Act.

(+) The Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act (CEPRA) requires erosion control projects that give preference to “soft” methods to manage erosion in lieu of hard structures and does not authorize the construction or funding of hard structures on or landward of a public beach.

(+) Only about 80 miles of the undeveloped Texas coast is developable. The balance is held in natural seashores, national wildlife refuges, and national, state, county and municipal parks.

(+) State rules require at least one public access site for every ½-mile of shoreline for pedestrian beaches closed to vehicular traffic.

(+) In 2003, the 78th Texas Legislature clarified the Texas Open Beaches Act (Texas Natural Resources Code §61.018) to where the Land Commissioner has the authority to bring forth enforcement actions, by request that the state Attorney General, any county attorney, district attorney, or criminal district attorney, shall file in a suit to obtain either a temporary or permanent court order or injunction, either prohibitory or mandatory, to remove or prevent any improvement, maintenance, obstruction, barrier, or other encroachment on a public beach, or to prohibit any unlawful restraint on the public's right of access to and use of a public beach or other activity that violates the Open Beaches Act. In addition, the Legislature gave the Land Commissioner, the Attorney General, or a county, district, or criminal district attorney the authority to recover penalties and the costs of removing any improvement, obstruction, barrier, or other encroachment if it is removed by public authorities pursuant to an order of the court. The Legislature also gave the Land Commissioner the authority to directly issue removal orders under §61.0183, and to assess daily civil penalties for violations, such penalties to be cumulative for each day a violation occurs or continues is a separate violation. Finally, the Land Commissioner was also given the authority to request that the state’s Attorney General or any county attorney bring suit for a declaratory judgment to try any issue affecting the public's right of access to or use of the public beach.

(0) Sixty-three percent of Texas’ Gulf shoreline has a historical erosion rate of more than 2 feet per year, although some locations along the upper Texas coast (Jefferson, Galveston and Brazoria counties) experience erosion at a rate of more than ten feet per year. On average, 235 acres of land per year along the Texas Gulf coast and along the state’s bays, estuaries and navigation channels are lost due to erosion.

(0) Nine counties monitor water quality at multiple locations at Texas’ most heavily used Gulf Coast beaches under the Beach Watch Program.

(0) Fifty-eight coastal erosion projects are currently being managed under the state’s Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act (CEPRA) program, and the state will spend $17.2 million in state-appropriated funds over the course of the fiscal year 2008-2009 funding biennium on coastal erosion.

(0) The coastal region is Texas' second-most popular tourist attraction, generating $7 billion a year.

(-) A beach dredge-and-fill project at Isla Blanca County Park conducted in March 2011 resulted in about 2/10ths of a mile of beach filled with clay balls and clay heavy silt and mud. See the photos.

(-) The Texas Open Beaches Act, which protects public beach access in Texas received quite a blow in November 2010 with the issuance of a conservative and pro-private property rights judgment from the Texas Supreme Court. A detailed analysis and links to the opinion and dissent can be found here. A Houston Chronicle article on this decision can be found here. As a direct result of this ruling, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson canceled a scheduled $40 million beach fill project in Galveston because state law prohibits the spending of public money to benefit private property. Another opinion piece from a Surfrider member in Texas.

(-) A recent series of seasonal tidal events punctuated by Hurricane Ida have eroded away the last remnants of Surfside Beach while exposing long-buried debris and making the beachbreak an extremely dangerous area. The Village of Surfside and the Texas General Land Office have initiated a Shoreline Stabilization Feasibility Study, and the Coast & Harbor Engineering company has responded with a plan to construct breakwaters and a spur dike. The state of the beach in Surfside could hardly be any worse -- there is no beach. The future of surfing in Surfside is bleak at best.

(-) Unlike neighboring Louisiana, Texas has not restricted the use of oil drilling revenues to wetlands and coastal preservation, so the funds may be used for "onshore infrastructure projects."

(-) None of the counties participating in the Beach Watch Program issue closures and the state does not have the authority to do so. Beach closures can only be initiated at the local level.

(-) Although Galveston has finally submitted a Beach Access Plan, there continue to be many Open Beaches Act violations, causing some people think the beaches are private.

Victories

Texas Opens Its Beaches with a Constitutional Amendment! After an organized and integrated effort on behalf of the Central Texas, South Texas, Texas Coastal Bend and Texas Upper Coast chapters to promote their beach access goals on a statewide level, the people of Texas passed a constitutional amendment through a statewide vote. The “Prop 9” amendment created a constitutional "right" to beach access. The constitutional amendment protects “the right of the public, individually and collectively, to access and use the public beaches bordering the seaward shore of the Gulf of Mexico.” The people of Texas voted approximately 75% in favor of the amendment. Texas constitutional acts are very strong and require a two-thirds majority of the Texas state legislature to change (instead of a simple majority). The amendment also sends a strong message to developers and politicians about open beach access. This constitutional amendment will help to support the Texas Open Beaches Act, which passed in 1959 to guarantee public beach access all of Texas’ 367 miles of coast. It will also help to defend the TXOBA in any litigation cases that challenge the law.

Texas Open Beaches Act Defended by Courts The Surfrider Foundation Chapters in Texas have won an important legal battle to keep their beaches open for all Texans. On September 12, 2007, Texas State District Judge Patrick Sebesta granted the state’s Motion for Summary Judgment by ruling that the Texas Open Beaches Act was constitutional and ordered the removal of the 16 houses that at that point encroached on the public beach at the Village of Surfside Beach, Texas. Sebesta's judgment was the second judicial ruling within several months where the Texas Open Beaches Act was found to be constitutional. Under the Texas Open Beaches Act, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson can ask the courts to authorize the removal of structures on the public beach to ensure proper public access. In June 2006, Commissioner Patterson notified a number of property owners that he might pursue the removal of any houses on the public beach and offered financial assistance to move the houses. This action was embodied in his Plan for Texas Open Beaches, as unveiled in July 2006. A majority of the hold-out property owners then sued Patterson to block the removal of their houses, resulting in Judge Sebesta’s ruling. A number of the property owners accepted the state’s offer for financial assistance to remove or demolish their houses. In all, 14 structures were relocatedfrom the public beach at Surfside under CEPRA-funded relocation projects undertaken in 2007, with another relocation project executed on West Galveston Island, and a structure demolition project executed at Treasure Island the same year. A number of holdouts appealed the September 2007 ruling, however. In February 2008, Judge Sebesta denied the Surfside Beach Drive holdout property owners’ motion to allow reconnection to municipal water and sewer services, to make repairs and for vehicular access to the landward side of these structures. However, the judge issued a stay of his previous removal order on the grounds that the property owners were likely to appeal to the US Supreme Court, in agreeing with them that these orders be suspended until the court receives a mandate from a higher court evidencing a final, unappealable judgment affirming removal. Prior to the landfall of Hurricane Ike on September 13, 2008, 14 hold-out structures remained on the public beach seaward of Beach Drive at the Village of Surfside, eight of which were identified as subject structures eligible for a voluntary buy-out under a FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) project for which the Village was granted approval to begin prior to Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike destroyed ten of these structures, such that at present, only four (three of which are subject structures under the aforementioned HMGP project) remain standing seaward of Beach Drive. The Texas Attorney General’s Office – which has represented the state and Commissioner Patterson during the legal proceedings -- said that beach photos provided by the Texas Chapter during a legal deposition in Austin two years ago, along with the Chapter’s fortuitous "adoption" of the mile of beach in question in 1998, were key events in the judicial process. More

Beach Water Quality Notification in Corpus Christi, TX Coastal Bend Chapter activists scored a major victory in 2008 when the Corpus Christi City Council unanimously passed a motion to implement beach water quality posting per the protocol of the Texas General Land Office's Texas Beach Watch Program. The Beach Watch Program signs are installed and Corpus Christi residents and tourists alike are now able to make informed decisions before swimming - or windsurfing, kiteboarding, kayaking, fishing or surfing - in the bay and Gulf waters.

The Texas Chapter was very active in working to prevent legislation that could have led to more coastal armoring on Galveston Island.

The Texas Chapter reported progress in their ongoing Texas Open Beaches Act campaign. A proposed 8-year moratorium on removing structures that were in violation the state's Open Beaches Act was cut to 2 years.

For a list of Surfrider Foundation's latest coastal victories, go here.

State of the Beach Report: Texas