Rogers Gully Mouth Bar being dredging

Dredgers Move to Rogers Gully from East Fork

Within the last week, the focus of dredging moved from the East Fork San Jacinto to the mouth of Rogers Gully on the west side of Lake Houston near the Walden Country Club. HCFCD conducted a dredging operation upstream from the Rogers Gully mouth bar in 2020. But the mouth bar itself is in Lake Houston, which is owned by the City of Houston. So this portion is the City’s responsibility.

Where dredging stopped in East Fork in late February. Looking South. Luce Bayou on upper left. FM1960 Bridge in upper right. Picture taken 2/27/22.
Rogers Gully mouth bar has already been partially removed by the dredgers anchored in the distance for the evening. Looking east toward Huffman on far side of lake from over the Walden Country Club. Photo taken 3/1/22.

New Base of Operations Will Shorten Supply Lines

At the same time, the base of operations for dredging appears to be moving from the West Fork to a marina across the lake from Rogers Gully. The new drop off point for spoils is about 2.2 miles from Rogers Gully. Compare that to almost 7 miles to get from the East Fork to Berry Madden’s property south of River Grove Park on the West Fork.

New deposit site for dredging spoils on Fairlake Lane in Huffman. Photo taken 2/27/22.

Over the weekend, I photographed dredgers preparing the site and carting the first loads of sediment to a dirt/mulch company about six miles east on 1960.

Where spoils from Lake Houston are going on FM1960 toward 99.

The dirt company is about 2 miles inside the new Grand Parkway extension.

Looking south. New Grand Parkway extension crossing FM1960. Photo taken 2/27/22.

The new highway will open vast new areas for development and create ready markets for dredging spoils to elevate homes and build roads.

Focus Shifting to Inlets Around Lake

According to State Representative Dan Huberty, about $40 million remains in the dredging fund appropriated by the state legislature last year. He hopes that after inlets around the lake are cleaned out, that dredgers will return to the East Fork in the future to continue the effort there.

Pictures taken this afternoon show that in the last two days, the dredgers have taken a significant bite out of the Rogers Gully mouth bar, which in my opinion, was the worst of many smaller inlets around the lake.

Rogers Gully mouth bar in August of 2020. Compare to photos below to see progress already made.

The photos below tell the story.

Looking west from beyond one of the anchored dredges toward the mouth bar and the Walden Country Club in the top center.
Still looking west at the partially removed mouth bar.
Looking NNW. From here, tugs will ferry the pontoons toward the general vicinity of that white spot on the lake front in the upper right. Note the FM1960 bridge in the background.

Soon, the dredgers will finish with Rogers Gully and move on to the next inlet.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/1/22 with input from Dan Huberty

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