After Hurricane Harvey, I saw mountains of sand everywhere I looked near the San Jacinto River. Since then, I have been studying the origins of the sand and am convinced that part of it comes from bootleg sand mining operations upstream that have destabilized river banks. Bootleg Operators Destabilize River Banks You don’t have to […]
Senate Bill 2126 could open the door to in-river sand mining, but was left pending in the Water & Rural Affairs Committee late last night. Uncontested but Not Unquestioned Testimony Testimony started at about 8 pm. Chuck Gilman from the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) and David Perkins from Texas Aggregate & Concrete Association (TACA) […]
Senate Bill (SB) 2126 is well intentioned. However, in my opinion, its present wording could have disastrous unintended consequences. What Bill Does SB 2126 would allow a “conservation or reclamation district” to take sand from the West Fork and its tributaries in order to “restore, maintain, or expand the capacity of the river and its […]
Houston City Council Member Dave Martin reminds residents of an upcoming Mobile Hurricane Harvey Recovery Center event taking place in Huffman tonight. Intake specialists will be available to assist families with guidance on recovery programs and resources under the City of Houston Homeowner Assistance Program. The event will take place on/at: Monday, April 15 6:00 p.m. to […]
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 […]