These Conferences have been well attended by members from the academia, government, industry, special interest groups and the general public.

The South Texas Environmental Conference (STEC) has been held annually in Corpus Christi, Texas since 1993. Feedback from these conferences indicated that a single conference based in the Coastal Bend region was not able to address the specific, individual needs of the differing environmental issues in the diverse geographical regions of South Texas. As a result,  STEC was expanded to a series of regional conferences so that participants could be assured of the issues would be more closely tailored to their regional needs. Thus, the 9th Annual STEC has been renamed the "Coastal Bend Environmental Conference" or "CBEC" and is one of two conferences held annually in the series.

The Coastal Bend Environmental Conference (CBEC) Series is aimed at addressing issues pertaining to the Coastal-Bend area of Texas. While its counter-part the Rio-Bravo/Rio-Grande Environmental Conference (REC) Series aims to address issues of importance to the Rio-Grande valley region of Texas.