Note: This post has been updated at 3:30 a.m. with information from Kinder Morgan.
The Texas Attorney General is suing the Triple PG Mine for dike breaches that allegedly discharged process wastewater into the drinking water supply of 2 million Houstonians. I photographed multiple dike breaches there in May, September, October and November. On Tuesday this week, I flew over the mine again and noticed something in one of the unfilled breaches: an exposed natural gas pipeline. Kinder Morgan, the line’s owner has had three washouts around this line in two years, according to a spokesman. Currently the line is filled with inert gas until it can be repaired, so there is no immediate danger. However, the repeated washouts raise questions about the safety of mining sand around pipelines.
Exposed Pipeline in Danger Zone
These pictures tell the story.
Flying up Caney Creek on 12/3/2019, I took this photograph looking toward the mine (west) in the background. Note the exposed pipeline.
When I got home, I enlarged that sign in the foreground to see what it said.
Flying over the trees, here’s what you see looking northwest. Notice the exposed pipeline in the bottom right of the photo. It aims toward a massive 183-foot breach in the mine’s northern dike created by Hurricane Harvey. Obviously, moving water exerts tremendous force in this area. See below.
The most recent erosion exposing the pipeline happened during Imelda on September 19th, according to Kinder Morgan.
Here’s what a close up of the pipeline looks like.
Close up shows downed trees all around the pipeline from the Imelda flood.
One tree has fallen on the pipeline like a guillotine.
A second Kinder Morgan spokesperson characterized this as a MAJOR natural gas pipeline.
He said the first two washouts happened during Harvey in the major and minor breaches shown in the photos above. After Harvey, they buried the pipeline under the major breach and filled in the smaller breach.
Then came Imelda. The smaller breach washed out again, creating the third exposure.
Kinder Morgan has not repaired the small breach this time because they can’t get to it. It has been 78 days since Imelda and the mine has yet to repair the road leading to the exposed pipeline.
Previous photographic analysis suggested that during Tropical Storm Imelda, 42,000 cubic feet per second coming from Peach and Caney Creeks (out of frame in the upper right of the photograph above) captured this mine’s pit. That means, the creeks likely rerouted themselves through the mine during the flood.
Here’s another view from a slightly different angle.
Another angle shows more of the exposed pipeline and the erosion around it.
I feel only a little bit safer knowing that the mine’s owners have agreed to stop dredging until the AG’s lawsuit goes to trial next year.
Another Port Neches in Porter?
According to Josh Alberson, a number of major pipelines run through this area. The Texas Railroad Commission’s GIS viewer shows the Kinder Morgan natural gas line crossing the property plus the following:
Plains Pipeline – Red Oak Pipeline (20”) moving crude
The more I look at this mine, the more surprised I am that people have not gotten killed here. It reeks of danger.
These repeated breaches and the exposed pipelines remind me of pipeline incidents farther down the river. They destroyed lives and properties in previous floods when lines ruptured from collisions with floating debris. We’re just been lucky so far.
Hollywood Blockbuster in the Making
I’ve nicknamed this mine “Death Wish VII” after one of my favorite movie series. I can’t wait until the next sequel comes out. Some friends in Hollywood are working on a treatment already. “Cardiologist turned sand miner pollutes drinking water of 2 million people, burns down East Texas, and is named Citizen of the Year by TACA.” It has all the earmarks of a Hollywood blockbuster. But seriously, I think TACA has more class than that. They would probably name him Citizen of the Decade.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging. So much for satire.
Pipeline Incidents Cost 3X More Public Lives than Industry Lives
I’m dead serious now. Thank God that there’s inert gas in this pipeline for now. But what happens in the next flood when it’s flammable gas. What if its exposed for a fourth time and more trees start slamming into it.
Two things jump out at me: the public sustains roughly three times more injuries and fatalities than industry, and the costs are staggering – in the billions.
I have already notified the TCEQ and MSHA. My feeling? We shouldn’t be mining sand in floodways. And we especially shouldn’t be mining sand in floodways criss-crossed with pipelines. The mines accelerate the potential for washouts. And that exposes everyone to more danger.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/7/2019, with help from Josh Alberson
830 Days after Hurricane Harvey and 78 since Imelda
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/2019/12/20191203-RJR_5657-2-e1575696133839.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2019-12-06 23:56:092019-12-07 18:51:42Is Danger Still Lurking at Triple PG Sand Mine?
The Liberty Materials Mine in Conroe on the West Fork of the San Jacinto was cited last month for allegedly discharging 56 million gallons of wastewater loaded with up to 25 times the normal amount of sediment. When we look at the issue of sediment in the river and how it affects flooding, such breaches contribute to the problem. But it’s not just what such sand mines discharge. It’s also about what the wetlands they were carved from don’t hold back any more.
Before there was a Liberty Materials in Conroe, the area they now occupy contained many densely forested wetlands. Now there is nothing to slow down the water during heavy rains. Much more sand and sediment are exposed. And the wetlands are no longer there to filter it. It’s a double whammy. We get it coming and going.
Visually, it appears that wetlands once covered roughly half the area of this mine. But what was actually there?
US Geological Survey (USGS) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) use a five character alpha-numeric code to classify wetlands. Liberty Materials operates in areas that were classified as PFO1A and PEM1A.
P stands for the class: Palustrine. Palustrine wetlands include any inland wetland that lacks flowing water. The word palustrine comes from the Latin word palus or marsh. Wetlands within this category include inland marshes, swamps and floodplains covered by vegetation.
The second two letters in each case stand for the subclass: FOrested or EMergent. Forested means it had broad-leaved, deciduous trees or shrubs taller than 6 meters. Emergent means it had aquatic plants.
These were areas that could store large volumes of water during floods. Plus, they had vegetation that could suck it up.
Trees Soak Up Water, Too
Trees can soak up 50 to 300 gallons of water in a day depending on their size, age and type. They send it back into the atmosphere; let’s use 100 gallons as a conservative average and do some simple math to calculate their contribution to flood reduction.
The Liberty sand mine complex comprises more than a thousand acres. That’s 500,000 trees each soaking up 100 gallons of water per day. Or 50 million gallons of water per day.
That’s about the same amount that the TCEQ estimates the Liberty Mine discharged downstream in one breach.
Personally, I’d rather have the trees and wetlands than white water and a river that’s so silted up it contributes to flooding.
Influence of Wetlands on Flooding
Imagine a sand box that’s 1.5 miles wide and 2.5 miles long. Here’s what it looked like the day after the peak of Hurricane Harvey.
Image from 8/30/2017 of Liberty Mine one day after the peak of Harvey.
And here’s why. Note how closely the extend of flooding matches the extent of the flood plains. Like almost all mines on the West Fork, this one lies substantially within the floodway and floodplain.
Cross-hatched = floodway; aqua = 100 year; tan = 500 year floodplain.
Is Liberty’s Luck Running Low?
If these people had the strongest dikes in the world, maybe you could cut them some slack. But they don’t. They breach repeatedly.
About a month after allegedly discharging 56 million gallons of process wastewater into the West Fork, the only thing holding back another discharge at the Liberty Mine is a couple feet of sand. Photo taken on 12/3/2019.
We need sand, but not at the expense of floods and the environment. Maybe it’s time for TACA to run some of its members out of Texas. That do-good routine they stage in Austin every other year could be in jeopardy with members like Liberty. See below.
11/4/2019. The Day the West Fork Turned White.Confluence of Spring Creek and West Fork. TCEQ alleges that Liberty Mines discharged 56 million gallons of white waste water into the West Fork.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12.5.2019
828 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/2019/12/Liberty-Breach-12.3.19.jpg?fit=1200%2C913&ssl=19131200adminadmin2019-12-05 21:59:212019-12-05 22:04:40Liberty Materials Mine Carved Out of Many Wetlands
From December 16 -19, Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) and its partners will hold a series of open houses to familiarize people with the San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan (SJMDP). Residents may also give input at the meetings.
HCFCD, Montgomery County, the City of Houston, and the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA), will host the open houses to provide information about the regional plan and other study efforts underway in the San Jacinto River watershed. Keeping them all straight is difficult!
Timeline for the San Jacinto River Watershed Master Drainage Plan as of 12/4/2019. Source: HCFCD.
More about the Master Drainage Plan
The SJMDP is jointly funded with 75 percent from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Planning Program and 25 percent from the four local partners.
Overall, the SJMDP aims to provide an up-to-date technical basis to identify flooding vulnerabilities for existing infrastructure and impacts from future growth to improve flood resiliency within the watershed. The SJMDP should complete in fall 2020.
The SJMDP study area covers nearly 3,000 square miles located in seven different counties and includes approximately 535 miles of stream.
Open House Dates/Times/Content
Flood Control will solicit public input and participation throughout the study. The first series of public open houses for this study effort will be held on the following dates and locations:
Tomball
Monday, December 16, 2019
3:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Lonestar Bekendorf Conference Center
30555 Tomball Parkway
Tomball, Texas 77375
Kingwood
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
3:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Kingwood Community Center
4102 Rustic Woods Drive
Kingwood, Texas 77345
Huffman
Thursday, December 19, 2019
3:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
May Community Center
2100 Wolf Road
Huffman, Texas 77336
All three meetings will have the same materials and format. Each open house will include information about the following projects, studies, and efforts in the region:
San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan
Kingwood Area Drainage Analysis
Huffman Area Drainage Analysis
Spring Creek Watershed Planning Study
Luce Bayou Watershed Planning Study
Willow Creek Watershed Planning Study
Jackson Bayou Watershed Planning Study
Cedar Bayou Tributary Analysis
SJRA-led Projects
City of Houston-led Projects
Harris County Permit Office
Harris County Engineering Department – Recovery and Resiliency Division
Hurricane Harvey Repair Efforts
Information about services provided by Harris County Flood Control District, Harris County and Montgomery County
The open houses will last from 3:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The free-flowing meetings will have informational displays. Staff will answer questions. The open house format lets attendees arrive and participate at their convenience. No formal presentation will be made.
To Provide Input on Master Drainage Plan
You can comment on the plans at the public open houses and throughout the duration of the study.
If you can’t attend in person, mail comments to:
Harris County Flood Control District
9900 Northwest Freeway
Houston, Texas 77092
Attn: San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan
For more information about the San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan, visit www.sanjacstudy.org.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/4/2019
827 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 76 since Imelda
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Screen-Shot-2019-12-04-at-7.22.51-PM-e1575509569259.png?fit=1500%2C973&ssl=19731500adminadmin2019-12-04 19:35:392019-12-16 20:41:32Reminder: Public Open House for San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan
Is Danger Still Lurking at Triple PG Sand Mine?
Note: This post has been updated at 3:30 a.m. with information from Kinder Morgan.
The Texas Attorney General is suing the Triple PG Mine for dike breaches that allegedly discharged process wastewater into the drinking water supply of 2 million Houstonians. I photographed multiple dike breaches there in May, September, October and November. On Tuesday this week, I flew over the mine again and noticed something in one of the unfilled breaches: an exposed natural gas pipeline. Kinder Morgan, the line’s owner has had three washouts around this line in two years, according to a spokesman. Currently the line is filled with inert gas until it can be repaired, so there is no immediate danger. However, the repeated washouts raise questions about the safety of mining sand around pipelines.
Exposed Pipeline in Danger Zone
These pictures tell the story.
When I got home, I enlarged that sign in the foreground to see what it said.
Flying over the trees, here’s what you see looking northwest. Notice the exposed pipeline in the bottom right of the photo. It aims toward a massive 183-foot breach in the mine’s northern dike created by Hurricane Harvey. Obviously, moving water exerts tremendous force in this area. See below.
Here’s what a close up of the pipeline looks like.
A second Kinder Morgan spokesperson characterized this as a MAJOR natural gas pipeline.
He said the first two washouts happened during Harvey in the major and minor breaches shown in the photos above. After Harvey, they buried the pipeline under the major breach and filled in the smaller breach.
Then came Imelda. The smaller breach washed out again, creating the third exposure.
Kinder Morgan has not repaired the small breach this time because they can’t get to it. It has been 78 days since Imelda and the mine has yet to repair the road leading to the exposed pipeline.
Previous photographic analysis suggested that during Tropical Storm Imelda, 42,000 cubic feet per second coming from Peach and Caney Creeks (out of frame in the upper right of the photograph above) captured this mine’s pit. That means, the creeks likely rerouted themselves through the mine during the flood.
Here’s another view from a slightly different angle.
I feel only a little bit safer knowing that the mine’s owners have agreed to stop dredging until the AG’s lawsuit goes to trial next year.
Another Port Neches in Porter?
According to Josh Alberson, a number of major pipelines run through this area. The Texas Railroad Commission’s GIS viewer shows the Kinder Morgan natural gas line crossing the property plus the following:
These are major pipelines!
I hope the Mine Safety and Health Administration addresses this before we have another Port Neches disaster in Porter.
The more I look at this mine, the more surprised I am that people have not gotten killed here. It reeks of danger.
These repeated breaches and the exposed pipelines remind me of pipeline incidents farther down the river. They destroyed lives and properties in previous floods when lines ruptured from collisions with floating debris. We’re just been lucky so far.
Hollywood Blockbuster in the Making
Now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging. So much for satire.
Pipeline Incidents Cost 3X More Public Lives than Industry Lives
I’m dead serious now. Thank God that there’s inert gas in this pipeline for now. But what happens in the next flood when it’s flammable gas. What if its exposed for a fourth time and more trees start slamming into it.
There’s danger associated with this. Here’s a list of all the public and industry injuries, fatalities and costs related to pipeline incidents in the US since 2005.
I have already notified the TCEQ and MSHA. My feeling? We shouldn’t be mining sand in floodways. And we especially shouldn’t be mining sand in floodways criss-crossed with pipelines. The mines accelerate the potential for washouts. And that exposes everyone to more danger.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/7/2019, with help from Josh Alberson
830 Days after Hurricane Harvey and 78 since Imelda
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.
Liberty Materials Mine Carved Out of Many Wetlands
The Liberty Materials Mine in Conroe on the West Fork of the San Jacinto was cited last month for allegedly discharging 56 million gallons of wastewater loaded with up to 25 times the normal amount of sediment. When we look at the issue of sediment in the river and how it affects flooding, such breaches contribute to the problem. But it’s not just what such sand mines discharge. It’s also about what the wetlands they were carved from don’t hold back any more.
Before there was a Liberty Materials in Conroe, the area they now occupy contained many densely forested wetlands. Now there is nothing to slow down the water during heavy rains. Much more sand and sediment are exposed. And the wetlands are no longer there to filter it. It’s a double whammy. We get it coming and going.
Before Liberty, Abundant Wetlands
Visually, it appears that wetlands once covered roughly half the area of this mine. But what was actually there?
US Geological Survey (USGS) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) use a five character alpha-numeric code to classify wetlands. Liberty Materials operates in areas that were classified as PFO1A and PEM1A.
P stands for the class: Palustrine. Palustrine wetlands include any inland wetland that lacks flowing water. The word palustrine comes from the Latin word palus or marsh. Wetlands within this category include inland marshes, swamps and floodplains covered by vegetation.
The second two letters in each case stand for the subclass: FOrested or EMergent. Forested means it had broad-leaved, deciduous trees or shrubs taller than 6 meters. Emergent means it had aquatic plants.
These were areas that could store large volumes of water during floods. Plus, they had vegetation that could suck it up.
Trees Soak Up Water, Too
Trees can soak up 50 to 300 gallons of water in a day depending on their size, age and type. They send it back into the atmosphere; let’s use 100 gallons as a conservative average and do some simple math to calculate their contribution to flood reduction.
It’s difficult to estimate the number of trees per acre; it depends on the factors mentioned above plus more. But some people use 500 trees per acre as a good average for estimating purposes.
The Liberty sand mine complex comprises more than a thousand acres. That’s 500,000 trees each soaking up 100 gallons of water per day. Or 50 million gallons of water per day.
Personally, I’d rather have the trees and wetlands than white water and a river that’s so silted up it contributes to flooding.
Influence of Wetlands on Flooding
Imagine a sand box that’s 1.5 miles wide and 2.5 miles long. Here’s what it looked like the day after the peak of Hurricane Harvey.
And here’s why. Note how closely the extend of flooding matches the extent of the flood plains. Like almost all mines on the West Fork, this one lies substantially within the floodway and floodplain.
Is Liberty’s Luck Running Low?
If these people had the strongest dikes in the world, maybe you could cut them some slack. But they don’t. They breach repeatedly.
We need sand, but not at the expense of floods and the environment. Maybe it’s time for TACA to run some of its members out of Texas. That do-good routine they stage in Austin every other year could be in jeopardy with members like Liberty. See below.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12.5.2019
828 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.
Reminder: Public Open House for San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan
From December 16 -19, Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) and its partners will hold a series of open houses to familiarize people with the San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan (SJMDP). Residents may also give input at the meetings.
HCFCD, Montgomery County, the City of Houston, and the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA), will host the open houses to provide information about the regional plan and other study efforts underway in the San Jacinto River watershed. Keeping them all straight is difficult!
Timeline for Master Drainage Plan
More about the Master Drainage Plan
The SJMDP is jointly funded with 75 percent from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Planning Program and 25 percent from the four local partners.
Overall, the SJMDP aims to provide an up-to-date technical basis to identify flooding vulnerabilities for existing infrastructure and impacts from future growth to improve flood resiliency within the watershed. The SJMDP should complete in fall 2020.
The SJMDP study area covers nearly 3,000 square miles located in seven different counties and includes approximately 535 miles of stream.
Open House Dates/Times/Content
Flood Control will solicit public input and participation throughout the study. The first series of public open houses for this study effort will be held on the following dates and locations:
Tomball
Kingwood
Huffman
All three meetings will have the same materials and format. Each open house will include information about the following projects, studies, and efforts in the region:
The open houses will last from 3:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The free-flowing meetings will have informational displays. Staff will answer questions. The open house format lets attendees arrive and participate at their convenience. No formal presentation will be made.
To Provide Input on Master Drainage Plan
You can comment on the plans at the public open houses and throughout the duration of the study.
If you can’t attend in person, mail comments to:
Alternatively, you may submit comments online.
For more information about the San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan, visit www.sanjacstudy.org.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/4/2019
827 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 76 since Imelda