Just upstream from the blocked drainage ditch at Northpark Drive and the San Jacinto West Fork, Hallett Materials operates the biggest sand mine between I-69 and I-45. The mine complex sprawls across several square miles and has several leaks. During the last flood in January, those leaks likely contributed to sedimentation in the West Fork and a blocked drainage ditch immediately downriver from the mine.
Contrary to a popular narrative among miners, this sand did not come from Spring Creek. That’s another watershed.Picture taken on 2/5/2024.The Hallett Mine is to the left (upstream) of the channel. This picture of the blockage above shows the height of the sand relative to the top of the banks. Courtesy of a resident who prefers to remain anonymous.
Location of Mine Relative to Blockage
In late January, the West Fork experienced an estimated five-year flood after several days of nearly constant rains. Waking up after the flood was like a bad hangover. The blocked ditch above was just one of the problems. It is immediately downstream from the giant Hallett mine. See below.
Landsat image from Google Earth. Arrow shows direction of river’s flow. Circle shows location of blockage.Numbers show approximate location of leaks listed below.
Mine Leaks in Multiple Places
Let’s take a closer look at each of those three areas.
One pond was wide open to the river through a large gap in its dike. The gap appears to have remained open since at least July 2023 and enlarged.
A pipe was expelling water from a second pond straight into the river.
A bulldozer appeared to have helped a third pond overflow across a road. Wastewater from the settling pond then flowed through woods and neighboring properties on its way to the river.
Pictures Taken on Feb. 8, 2024
Leak #1
Notice the huge gap in the dike of the pond in the center of the image below. Also notice that pond’s elevation compared to the one on the right.
The dike breach (center of image) first showed up in Google Earth in July 2023.It now appears considerably larger, indicating severe erosion from the recent flood.
The drought last summer and fall certainly didn’t cause the breach to enlarge.
Historical images in Google Earth show that this pond frequently breaches its dikes in different places. Something’s going through there!
Leak #2
A little farther downstream on the west side of the river, a pipe drains another Hallet pond directly into the river.
Haven’t seen this before! On the east side of the river, in the woods next to Hallett’s main settling pond, a bulldozer apparently created a path for water to escape across a maintenance road. Water then flowed through woods 600-feet wide and onto neighboring properties before entering the river just above the blocked channel. See the series of images below.
Notice bulldozer tracks to left of perimeter road and wet area on road in the middle of the frame.
Flying closer, you can see that the bulldozer had pushed dirt from the road into the pond (see below, right side of frame).
Silty wastewater then escaped from the pondinto the woods on the left.The silty wastewater then migrated south (top of frame) through the woods.Along the way, it invaded neighboring properties.Then it drained back across the access road and into an abandoned mine (top of frame).
Hanover Estates now owns that abandoned mine. In the photo above, note the open path to the river in the upper right. It’s shown below in more detail.
Closer shot of wastewater exiting Hanover pond through another breach that leads straight to blockage (circled in red in the distance).
Apportioning the Relative Contribution of Different Sources
The Hallett mine owner told me that sand can’t escape his pits. I remain skeptical.
To be fair, some of the sediment in the channel blockage likely came from river-bank erosion and sand bars upstream.
Also, a new development called Northpark South, now in the clearing stage, likely also contributed to the blockage. Silty stormwater flows unchecked from it into a second abandoned mine (also owned by Hanover Estates) and then into the blocked drainage ditch.
Northpark South photo from January 24, 2024, looking south toward abandoned mine, blocked ditch and river in distance.
No one can say that Hallett and Northpark South contributed all of the material in the blockage. But it would be hard to pretend that none of it came from them.
The mine is still leaking two weeks after the flood!
And even before the flood, a giant ravine was sending stormwater from Northpark South into the second abandoned mine on the south side of the ditch.
Northpark South on December 28, 2023 before flood. Note ravine caused by erosion.
That mine drains into the blocked channel directly above the blockage. (See very first shot in this post.)
Now that the immediate danger has passed, we need to investigate the contribution of mining and floodplain development to sedimentation.
When rivers and ditches fill up with sludge, it reduces conveyance.
Then, when the next flood comes, instead of water staying within the riverbanks, it may back up or overflow into living rooms.
The greatest area of deposition will normally be where floodwater slows down as it reaches a standing body of water like Lake Houston. We’ve seen what that led to.
Corporate waste-disposal practices are matters of public safety and concern. We need to examine them more closely.
If Hallett and/or the Northpark South developer wish to respond to this editorial, I will be happy to post their points of view.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/9/24
2355 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.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240208-DJI_0797.jpg?fit=1100%2C733&ssl=17331100adminadmin2024-02-09 12:02:152024-02-22 08:51:35Sand Mine Leaks Upstream from Blocked Drainage Ditch
Yet another “RV Resort” is coming to the Kingwood/Porter area. This one will be at the north end of Woodland Hills Drive about a block north of Kingwood Park High School. Plans show parking for 43 RVs on the 4.4 acre property.
The Porter Strong RV Resort, which contains a recreation building, dumpsters, and concrete driveways, will back up to homes along Birchwood Springs Avenue in Woodridge Forest.
The drainage calculations look impressive…until you consider the way they estimated impervious cover.
Location map from construction plans obtained via a FOIA Request to MoCo Engineering.Note: High School is mislabeled. Should say, “Kingwood Park High School.”
Access from Porter For Now
Access to the RV resort – at least for now – will be via Needham Road and Collette Lane in Porter. However, plans show a dotted line for an extension of Woodland Hills Drive, which currently stops approximately 300 feet short of the development. It’s not immediately clear whether Montgomery County or the developer plans to extend Woodland Hills north at this time.
Drainage in this area flows south to Bens Branch. Note in the layout above that two 7-foot-deep, dry-bottom, stormwater-detention basins flanked by drainage swales will help intercept stormwater flowing south before it reaches adjoining properties.
FEMA shows no floodplains in the area and USGS shows no wetlands on the site.
The detention basins for the 4.4 acre site will hold 4.4 acre feet of stormwater before they start to overflow. That exceeds Harris County Flood Control District’s minimum recommendation for areas flowing into Harris County.
Moreover, the engineer claims the site only requires 3.4 acre feet in a 100-year storm. That calculation is based on Atlas-14 requirements adopted by Montgomery County.
The engineer indicates that the maximum discharge rate for the ponds, which will be pumped, is about 8 cubic feet per second less than the natural runoff rate for the site. So for everything up to the 100-year storm, runoff going into Bens Branch from this area should be reduced.
All that is good news. Now for the bad news.
The engineer seems to have based all those calculations on 29% impervious cover.
That seems unlikely for this type of project. The number of parking spots per acre is roughly equivalent to the Laurel Springs RV resort which claimed to have 66% impervious cover, but likely has much higher.
Best practices require excluding detention basins from impervious cover calculations. A quick glance at the construction diagram above suggests that concrete will cover much more than a third of the remaining property.
Also, the engineer says it will take 48 hours to drain the ponds after a 100-year rain. The ponds do not appear to empty by gravity, however. They will require pumps, which could present problems in a power outage. Such outages frequently occur in storms strong enough to create floods.
Pictures Taken on 2/1/24 Show Extent of Construction
Currently, the site is being cleared. Construction has not yet started. I took the shots below on 2/1/24. They show the extent of clearing as of last week.
Looking SW at construction site. Woodland Hills and Kingwood Park HS on left. Northpark Rec Area top center. Homes are in Woodridge Forest.
Looking W toward Woodridge Middle School at top of frame. Reverse Angle. Looking E toward Woodridge Village. Surrounding areas already include a number of mobil homes and RVs.
Bens Branch Getting Crowded
I hope contractors build what the plans indicate. Bens Branch has enough flooding problems of its own. The Kingwood Area Drainage Analysis showed that parts of the stream could flood in a two-year rain.
Since that study, several high-density developments have been built nearby in the watershed. They include The Preserve at Woodridge, which apparently understated the amount of impervious cover, and Brooklyn Trails, which was grandfathered under pre-Atlas-14 requirements.
And then there’s the Northpark Drive Expansion Project, which is seeking more room for another detention basin to mitigate its own increases in impervious cover.
For now, the best thing to do is remain vigilant.
Posted by Bob Rehak on Feb. 7, 2024
2353 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.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240201-DJI_0545.jpg?fit=1100%2C733&ssl=17331100adminadmin2024-02-07 15:34:072024-02-08 10:12:00Another RV Resort Coming Near North End of Woodland Hills Drive
After January’s five-day hydro-fest, Houston area rivers, streams and ditches look like they woke up with a bad hangover. Some areas are hiding under broad blankets of sand. The root balls of uprooted trees jutted up from the San Jacinto riverbed like tank traps on a battlefield, a testament to how shallow the river has become once again. And sand, in at least one case, has totally blocked off a drainage ditch.
Photos at US59 Bridge over San Jacinto West Fork
Kingwood-area resident Robin Seydewitz took the three images and video at the US59 Bridge this morning (2/5/24).
Newly deposited sand.
y20-second YouTube video by Robin Seydewitz, panning west to east under bridge. Shows debris build-up.
Sediment Build Up Alarming
The January flood was not as bad as Harvey. This was a much smaller flood – the type that happens far more frequently – like every 2 to 5 years depending on where you live.
The danger is not so much what this flood deposited, but what similar floods can deposit over time and how they can reduce the conveyance of rivers, streams and ditches. All the accretions add up like hairballs in your shower drain.
Here’s how one minor storm totally blocked a ditch after one storm.
Northpark ditch blocked by sand/sediment after January flood. Pictures taken before the storm last November show it flowing freely.Taken 2/5/24.
Upstream of this blockage along the ditch, the Northpark South development, built on wetlands, is dumping its drainage into the abandoned sand mine on the right.
The 5-square mile Hallett sand mine is upstream on the left. Two residents/neighbors of the mine have witnessed the company pumping sludge from its settling pond on several occasions since the flood. The latest was tonight as I posted this article. They may have contributed to the build up also.
The Hallett operation is so large that the company actually mines sand on both sides of the river. You can see a small part of their operation below at the top of the frame.
Reverse angle. Taken 2/5/24.
Of course, some of the sediment shown in these photos comes from river bank erosion.
But some also comes from sand mines and new developments that have clearcut thousands of acres without taking precautions to control runoff. See examples below.
Northpark South developer clearcut wetlands and is draining through sand mine into West Fork where blockage appeared. Picture taken Jan. 24, 2024 during lull in rain.Evergreen Development at SH242and FM1314Colony Ridge drainage ditch in East Fork Watershed. Few if any of the ditches and detention ponds in the development have erosion protection measures installed per Liberty County regulations. Colony Ridge is now 50% larger than Manhattan.
Of course, we have many responsible developers and sand miners. But we also have some who are not.
Turning Natural Events into Unnatural Disasters
Robin Seydewitz is the river enthusiast, canoeist, kayaker, and flood activist who took many of the photos above. She said, “Sand mines that don’t operate safely are a big part of the problem. So are developers who clearcut land without barriers or natural vegetation to stop sediment from running off. The lack of enforcement for drainage regulations is another part of the problem. We need more protection for the public. This is my opinion. We are not protected; the mine owners, operators and developers are.”
The moral of this story?
We need better enforcement of drainage regulations. And we need another river survey, like the one we had after Harvey, to see how much conveyance has been reduced.
“It is foolish to keep dredging parts of the river downstream without addressing root causes upstream.”
Robin Seydewitz
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/5/24
2351 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.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240205-DJI_0738.jpg?fit=1100%2C733&ssl=17331100adminadmin2024-02-05 18:15:122024-02-05 20:32:03River Wakes Up From Flood With Bad Hangover
Sand Mine Leaks Upstream from Blocked Drainage Ditch
Just upstream from the blocked drainage ditch at Northpark Drive and the San Jacinto West Fork, Hallett Materials operates the biggest sand mine between I-69 and I-45. The mine complex sprawls across several square miles and has several leaks. During the last flood in January, those leaks likely contributed to sedimentation in the West Fork and a blocked drainage ditch immediately downriver from the mine.
Location of Mine Relative to Blockage
In late January, the West Fork experienced an estimated five-year flood after several days of nearly constant rains. Waking up after the flood was like a bad hangover. The blocked ditch above was just one of the problems. It is immediately downstream from the giant Hallett mine. See below.
Mine Leaks in Multiple Places
Let’s take a closer look at each of those three areas.
Pictures Taken on Feb. 8, 2024
Leak #1
Notice the huge gap in the dike of the pond in the center of the image below. Also notice that pond’s elevation compared to the one on the right.
The drought last summer and fall certainly didn’t cause the breach to enlarge.
Historical images in Google Earth show that this pond frequently breaches its dikes in different places. Something’s going through there!
Leak #2
A little farther downstream on the west side of the river, a pipe drains another Hallet pond directly into the river.
Leak #3:
Haven’t seen this before! On the east side of the river, in the woods next to Hallett’s main settling pond, a bulldozer apparently created a path for water to escape across a maintenance road. Water then flowed through woods 600-feet wide and onto neighboring properties before entering the river just above the blocked channel. See the series of images below.
Flying closer, you can see that the bulldozer had pushed dirt from the road into the pond (see below, right side of frame).
Hanover Estates now owns that abandoned mine. In the photo above, note the open path to the river in the upper right. It’s shown below in more detail.
Apportioning the Relative Contribution of Different Sources
The Hallett mine owner told me that sand can’t escape his pits. I remain skeptical.
To be fair, some of the sediment in the channel blockage likely came from river-bank erosion and sand bars upstream.
Also, a new development called Northpark South, now in the clearing stage, likely also contributed to the blockage. Silty stormwater flows unchecked from it into a second abandoned mine (also owned by Hanover Estates) and then into the blocked drainage ditch.
No one can say that Hallett and Northpark South contributed all of the material in the blockage. But it would be hard to pretend that none of it came from them.
The mine is still leaking two weeks after the flood!
And even before the flood, a giant ravine was sending stormwater from Northpark South into the second abandoned mine on the south side of the ditch.
That mine drains into the blocked channel directly above the blockage. (See very first shot in this post.)
The SJRA, which is investigating sedimentation in the river basin, relies on a sediment gauge at I-45 – upstream from the mines and most of the new developments along the river. So they can’t really help sort out this issue.
The Calm After the Storm
Now that the immediate danger has passed, we need to investigate the contribution of mining and floodplain development to sedimentation.
Then, when the next flood comes, instead of water staying within the riverbanks, it may back up or overflow into living rooms.
The greatest area of deposition will normally be where floodwater slows down as it reaches a standing body of water like Lake Houston. We’ve seen what that led to.
Corporate waste-disposal practices are matters of public safety and concern. We need to examine them more closely.
If Hallett and/or the Northpark South developer wish to respond to this editorial, I will be happy to post their points of view.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/9/24
2355 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.
Another RV Resort Coming Near North End of Woodland Hills Drive
Yet another “RV Resort” is coming to the Kingwood/Porter area. This one will be at the north end of Woodland Hills Drive about a block north of Kingwood Park High School. Plans show parking for 43 RVs on the 4.4 acre property.
The Porter Strong RV Resort, which contains a recreation building, dumpsters, and concrete driveways, will back up to homes along Birchwood Springs Avenue in Woodridge Forest.
The drainage calculations look impressive…until you consider the way they estimated impervious cover.
Access from Porter For Now
Access to the RV resort – at least for now – will be via Needham Road and Collette Lane in Porter. However, plans show a dotted line for an extension of Woodland Hills Drive, which currently stops approximately 300 feet short of the development. It’s not immediately clear whether Montgomery County or the developer plans to extend Woodland Hills north at this time.
Drainage and Detention Plans
Drainage in this area flows south to Bens Branch. Note in the layout above that two 7-foot-deep, dry-bottom, stormwater-detention basins flanked by drainage swales will help intercept stormwater flowing south before it reaches adjoining properties.
FEMA shows no floodplains in the area and USGS shows no wetlands on the site.
The detention basins for the 4.4 acre site will hold 4.4 acre feet of stormwater before they start to overflow. That exceeds Harris County Flood Control District’s minimum recommendation for areas flowing into Harris County.
Moreover, the engineer claims the site only requires 3.4 acre feet in a 100-year storm. That calculation is based on Atlas-14 requirements adopted by Montgomery County.
The engineer indicates that the maximum discharge rate for the ponds, which will be pumped, is about 8 cubic feet per second less than the natural runoff rate for the site. So for everything up to the 100-year storm, runoff going into Bens Branch from this area should be reduced.
All that is good news. Now for the bad news.
The engineer seems to have based all those calculations on 29% impervious cover.
That seems unlikely for this type of project. The number of parking spots per acre is roughly equivalent to the Laurel Springs RV resort which claimed to have 66% impervious cover, but likely has much higher.
Best practices require excluding detention basins from impervious cover calculations. A quick glance at the construction diagram above suggests that concrete will cover much more than a third of the remaining property.
Also, the engineer says it will take 48 hours to drain the ponds after a 100-year rain. The ponds do not appear to empty by gravity, however. They will require pumps, which could present problems in a power outage. Such outages frequently occur in storms strong enough to create floods.
Pictures Taken on 2/1/24 Show Extent of Construction
Currently, the site is being cleared. Construction has not yet started. I took the shots below on 2/1/24. They show the extent of clearing as of last week.
Looking SW at construction site. Woodland Hills and Kingwood Park HS on left. Northpark Rec Area top center. Homes are in Woodridge Forest.
Bens Branch Getting Crowded
I hope contractors build what the plans indicate. Bens Branch has enough flooding problems of its own. The Kingwood Area Drainage Analysis showed that parts of the stream could flood in a two-year rain.
Since that study, several high-density developments have been built nearby in the watershed. They include The Preserve at Woodridge, which apparently understated the amount of impervious cover, and Brooklyn Trails, which was grandfathered under pre-Atlas-14 requirements.
And then there’s the Northpark Drive Expansion Project, which is seeking more room for another detention basin to mitigate its own increases in impervious cover.
For now, the best thing to do is remain vigilant.
Posted by Bob Rehak on Feb. 7, 2024
2353 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.
River Wakes Up From Flood With Bad Hangover
After January’s five-day hydro-fest, Houston area rivers, streams and ditches look like they woke up with a bad hangover. Some areas are hiding under broad blankets of sand. The root balls of uprooted trees jutted up from the San Jacinto riverbed like tank traps on a battlefield, a testament to how shallow the river has become once again. And sand, in at least one case, has totally blocked off a drainage ditch.
Photos at US59 Bridge over San Jacinto West Fork
Kingwood-area resident Robin Seydewitz took the three images and video at the US59 Bridge this morning (2/5/24).
Sediment Build Up Alarming
The January flood was not as bad as Harvey. This was a much smaller flood – the type that happens far more frequently – like every 2 to 5 years depending on where you live.
The danger is not so much what this flood deposited, but what similar floods can deposit over time and how they can reduce the conveyance of rivers, streams and ditches. All the accretions add up like hairballs in your shower drain.
Here’s how one minor storm totally blocked a ditch after one storm.
Upstream of this blockage along the ditch, the Northpark South development, built on wetlands, is dumping its drainage into the abandoned sand mine on the right.
The 5-square mile Hallett sand mine is upstream on the left. Two residents/neighbors of the mine have witnessed the company pumping sludge from its settling pond on several occasions since the flood. The latest was tonight as I posted this article. They may have contributed to the build up also.
The Hallett operation is so large that the company actually mines sand on both sides of the river. You can see a small part of their operation below at the top of the frame.
Of course, some of the sediment shown in these photos comes from river bank erosion.
But some also comes from sand mines and new developments that have clearcut thousands of acres without taking precautions to control runoff. See examples below.
Of course, we have many responsible developers and sand miners. But we also have some who are not.
Turning Natural Events into Unnatural Disasters
Robin Seydewitz is the river enthusiast, canoeist, kayaker, and flood activist who took many of the photos above. She said, “Sand mines that don’t operate safely are a big part of the problem. So are developers who clearcut land without barriers or natural vegetation to stop sediment from running off. The lack of enforcement for drainage regulations is another part of the problem. We need more protection for the public. This is my opinion. We are not protected; the mine owners, operators and developers are.”
The moral of this story?
We need better enforcement of drainage regulations. And we need another river survey, like the one we had after Harvey, to see how much conveyance has been reduced.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/5/24
2351 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.