Last week I reported that Great Lakes finished dredging its segment of the San Jacinto West Fork. Their dredge is currently docked, but is not yet undergoing demobilization. Callan Marine, a subcontractor to Great Lakes on the job is still hard at work clearing the Kings Harbor area. Over the next 30 days, the Army […]
Approximately two-thirds of this legislative session has expired. The maximum length for a legislative session in Texas is 140 days starting on the second Tuesday in January. We are 96 days into this session. So where do we stand on key pieces of legislation related to sand mining and other flood mitigation? A quick update. […]
Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicted that dredging could take until early May. They allowed another month for de-mobilization. However, one of the two dredgers on the job, Great Lakes, finished this week. Their early finish could affect a series of decisions on the mouth bar. Early Finish, New Possibilities The early […]
Houston City Council Member Dave Martin’s office issued the following release today re: the lowering of Lake Houston in advance of storm warnings for the weekend. Some people anticipated additional lowering for a lake that had already been lowered due to maintenance. The City will NOT lower the lake. Here’s what’s happening and why. Lake […]
Kingwood photographer and kayaker Emily Murphy has done it again. With her eagle eye, she spotted yet another eagle’s nest. This one is east of the stream that divides the Kingwood Country Club from Romerica property. This nest clearly has two eaglets in it. Here you can see them both. It usually takes 10-12 weeks […]
I drove through my village this week and saw ten homes in desperate need of help. More than 18 months after Harvey, some families still have not finished repairing their homes. Worse, some still have not started. On the positive side, some fully repaired their homes within three months. Why such an uneven recovery? As I […]
Texas requires a reclamation plan to get a permit for sand mining. However, according to a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas has no requirement to execute the plan when mining is done – except for a small pilot project on the Brazos River. Unscrupulous miners can and do walk away from […]
Sand mines aren’t the only source of sediment on the West Fork, but humans can and must control them. Upstream from Kingwood, on the East and West Forks of the San Jacinto, we have approximately 20 square miles of mines. Contributing to Erosion and Sedimentation Several key facts about them: Virtually all are at least […]
I previously discussed the deed restrictions on the southern portion of Romerica land, where they plan to build most of their high rises. The southern portion is deed restricted to single family residential. That usually means “one family in one house on one lot.” The largest, northern portion of the land purchased by Romerica for […]
People in the Hill Country are up in arms about aggregate production operations (APOs). The Lake Houston Area is not alone. State Representative Kyle Biedermann of Fredericksburg has introduced yet another bill to regulate APOs. Biedermann’s bill, HB2871 focuses on mine reclamation. His bill targets APOs that quarry and crush rock, but the bill, if […]