1/21/25 – The TCEQ is soliciting public comments on its proposed new “best management practices” (BMPs) for sand mining. The comment period closes at 11:59 PM on 1/24/25. That’s this Friday.

Regrettably, few people have submitted comments to date. Yet, when it comes to reducing downstream flood risk, few things are as important.

BMPs are Helpful Guidelines, Not Regulations

BMPs do not carry the force of regulation. Regardless, they have great value for businesses. They improve organizational effectiveness, efficiency, trust, risk management, product quality, compliance, sustainability, neighbor relations and more.

They say to employees of an organization, “Here are lessons learned from all who have come before us. This is how the best in our business operate.”

But sadly, the BMPs recommended by TCEQ for sand miners are not very instructive. They fail to address the critical issues that sand miners – and the public – in the Houston region face. Worse, instead of raising the bar, they lower it.

We Need BMPs that Address Our Real Issues

So hungry are we to keep Texas growing with low-cost concrete that we have collectively avoided addressing the other costs of sand mining related to flood mitigation, insurance, public health, and water purification. For example:

• Inundated sand mines deposit industrial waste in the drinking water supply for 2 million people.
• Rivers broke through the dikes of at least six mines on the East and West Forks of the San Jacinto last year, carrying sand and silt downstream, where it reduced the drainage capacity and the storage of Lake Houston.

Costs to the public?

• Houston Public Works must pay more to purify our drinking water.
• The public must pay more in taxes to support dredging programs that restore conveyance and reduce flood risk.
• Insurance companies must increase premiums to pay for damage to flooded homes and businesses.

Not one of the BMPs proposed by TCEQ addresses these problems. It’s as if addressing them would obligate TCEQ (which the Sunset Commission called a ‘reluctant regulator’) to enforce them.

Worse, the proposed TCEQ BMPs failed to address issues specifically mandated by the state legislature in its last two sessions. They include water use, noise, and light pollution.

In addition, the BMPs that TCEQ does propose are vague and self-evident. For instance:

• “Ensure vehicles are driven at reasonable speeds to reduce dust disturbance.”
• “Be sure your stockpiles are only as high as your permit allows.”

I have posted about the need for public comments on these BMPs three times in the last two months. See:

• New TCEQ Sand Mining BMPs Ignore Pit Captures on 12/13/24
• Better Sand-Mining BMPs Needed to Control Sediment Pollution on 1/13/25
• TRAM Pans TCEQ’s Mining BMPs, Proposes Improvements on 1/14/25.

Regardless, the last time I checked, TCEQ had received only a handful of comments.

So, for those who feel daunted by the complexity of the task or the time required, I have compiled the copy below. You can simply cut and paste the copy between the two lines into the TCEQ’s webform.

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RE: APO BMP List Proposal

TCEQ’s attempt to create a helpful list of Best Management Practices for Aggregate Production Operations is an exercise in willful blindness. It completely ignores issues mandated by the legislature, as well as others that reduce water quality and increase flood risk.

The issues you do address are addressed in a vague and/or self-evident manner that render them inadequate.

In addition to more specificity, I would like to see BMPs that help mines in the Houston region avoid inundation and pit capture.

Most mines on the East and West Forks of the San Jacinto were inundated last year. Floodwaters swept industrial waste downstream into Lake Houston, the drinking water supply for two million people.

The rivers also broke through the dikes of at least six of those mines. The rivers now run through pits instead of around them. This flushes sand and sediment downstream, where it reduces conveyance, blocks drainage and contributes to flooding.

Addressing these issues requires building mines on higher ground, farther from rivers.

I recommend doubling the minimum setback from 100 to 200 feet for mines in the San Jacinto watershed. That will put the mines on higher ground, farther from the floodway.

I also recommend leaving forests undisturbed in the widened buffer zone. That will reduce the velocity of floodwater and, with it, the volume of sediment carried downstream. It will also decrease the likelihood of pit capture, by increasing the amount of time that it takes a river to migrate into a mine. The forest will also help capture sediment that may escape a mine.

Finally, the wider buffers will give rivers more room to spread out during floods. Right now, dikes are supposed to protect mines from a hundred-year flood. But when mines build tall dikes on one side of a river, they double the volume of water flooding the other side. And when they build tall dikes on both sides of a river, water has no room to spread out without invading the mines. The tall dikes effectively eliminate ALL floodplains and turn rivers into erosive firehoses.

The attached PDF shows visual proof of the need for BMPs that address our main sand-mining concerns in the San Jacinto Watershed.

I also support the concerns and list of alternative BMPs supported by Texans for Responsible Aggregate Mining.

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Instructions:

To help improve the quality of life for your family and community, please:

• Cut and paste the copy between the brackets above into TCEQ’s webform at: https://tceq.commentinput.com/?id=NdefHRZiG. Now. Today. Don’t wait.
• Review and attach this PDF which shows visual proof of the need for BMPs that address the main sand-mining concerns in the San Jacinto Watershed.
• Modify the bracketed text above as you see fit to address other concerns you may have.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/21/25

2702 Days since Hurricane Harvey

The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.