Something happened today that made me realize how, as a society, we are losing sight of the things that caused us to regulate the environment 50 years ago. As a result, some bad history could repeat itself
After seeing yesterday’s post about the West Fork mouth bar, a reader named Suzanne Kite sent me a link to an article on BusinessInsider.com. Little did she know that – for me – it would be a free ride on an emotional roller coaster in the wayback machine. The article talked about pollution of America’s rivers before the EPA…and focused on Cleveland, Ohio.
How Physical Landscape Shaped Political Landscape
About two thirds of Americans alive today had not yet been born when Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969. So they have no memory of the event that helped give birth to the EPA.
The Cuyahoga River caught fire a total of 13 times dating back to 1868. It was one of the most polluted rivers in America. Photo: Cleveland State University Library.
I remember it vividly. I was born in Cleveland, not far from the Cuyahoga River. Some of my earliest and happiest memories of childhood revolved around clam bakes with my family in Lake Erie in the early 1950s. But then we had to stop. The clams, they said, were contaminated with pollution from the Cuyahoga.
When the Cuyahoga caught fire, it came to symbolize out-of-control pollution. It became the spark that led to the creation of the EPA.
Says Aylin Woodward, author of the BusinessInsider.com article, “The disaster prompted a public outcry that in part led to the formation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. The EPA was charged with regulating the country’s polluted air and waterways…”
“Documerica” Photo Archives
She continued. “Soon after its founding, the agency dispatched 100 photographers to capture the US’ environmental issues as part of a photo project called Documerica. The photographers took about 81,000 images, more than 20,000 of which were archived. At least 15,000 have been digitized by the National Archives, and the images now function as a kind of time capsule…”
The archives actually show many photographs of pollution coming from sand and gravel mines.
Environmental Degradation Preceded Population Loss
Cleveland was a once-proud and booming city that symbolized America’s industrial might. In 1950, it ranked as the seventh largest city in the country. Houston at the time ranked only 14th with a little more than half of Cleveland’s population. In the latest census (2010), however…
An alarming number of readers who saw yesterday’s post about the San Jacinto West Fork mouth bar commented on the massive amount of sediment pollution. They believe that not enough is being done to reduce the amount of sediment coming downstream.
Mouth bar blocking the West Fork of the San Jacinto. Photographed from a drone operated by Franz Willette of BCAeronautics.
Not all, but much of that sediment, in my opinion, came from approximately 20 square miles of sand mines upstream that were inundated by three so-called 500-year storms in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The rate of deposition has increased exponentially as you can see in the graph below.
Sudden exponential growth in mouth bar volume. Graph compiled by RD Kissling from Google Earth historical satellite photos.
FEMA believes that at least 500,000 cubic yards of sediment came downstream during Harvey. The City of Houston believes the number is closer to 1.4 million cubic yards.
All of that sediment pollution threatens the main source of the City’s drinking water by reducing its capacity.
Let’s Learn from History
The point of all this: history is repeating itself.
These developments make me fearful of the future that my children and grandchildren will inherit. If you share these feelings, please continue to apply pressure on elected representatives to push sand mines further back from the river.
What good is cheap concrete if the environment has become so degraded that people move elsewhere?
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/13/2019
684 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/CuyahogaFire.jpg?fit=1500%2C997&ssl=19971500adminadmin2019-07-13 23:01:532019-07-13 23:02:03What Rivers Looked Like Before the EPA Regulated Water Pollution
We learned a little bit more this week about the next phase of dredging. Several graphics (below) released by the Corps summarize modifications to the Emergency West Fork Debris Removal Project.
What We Confirmed and Learned
We confirmed that:
Great Lakes, the prime contractor on the original job, will be the only contractor on the Corps portion of the contract extension
Great Lakes will pump sediment all the way upstream to Placement Area 2
The Corps intends to dredge 500,000 cubic yards in the area of the mouth bar.
We learned that:
The original contract contingency allotment of approximately $3.5 million was used up, most likely by additional sediment washed downstream during floods in December, January, February, May and June.
Callan, the subcontractor for phase one, has approximately 83,000 cubic yards to dredge due to modification of the original contract.
Dredging an additional 500,000 cubic yards will cost another $17,085,861
The FEMA/Corps portion of the dredging should finish by December 6, 2019
Demobilization and cleanup will take until Jan. 22, 2020
This is FEMA mission assignment SWD-30
Great Lakes started dredging the mouth bar on June 25th
Great Lakes will dredge a wide area but not go all the way to the FM1960 bridge.
Corps Releases Summary of Project and Extension(s)
I compiled the information above from a PDF developed by The Army Corps. They released it on July 9.
First page of a 2-page PDF released by the Corps on July 9.Second page of a 2-page PDF. Army Corps summary of Emergency West Fork Dredging project. For a high-resolution PDF, click here.
To calculate the depth of dredging in that blue area to the right, I simulated the outline in Google Earth and found that it roughly equals 500,000 square yards. That means if they dredge this whole area, they will reduce the river bed by approximately 3 feet. The area already averages 2-3 feet deep. That means the river will be roughly 6 feet deep through this reach when the Corps finishes its portion of the job.
The area outlined by Corps is approximately 500,000 square yards. Where Callan will finish dredging near Kings Harbor, the depth will be approximately 22.5 feet.
However, upstream, Callan is dredging to a depth of 22.5 feet. Thus, creating a continuous gradient along the river bottom would require dredging approximately another 16 feet deeper in the same area…and that wouldn’t even get you to the FM1960 bridge. Also, note the gap in the graphic between where Callan will finish its portion of Phase One and Great Lakes will start mouth bar dredging.
Unknowns
It is unclear at this point who will dredge the rest of the material that needs to be removed to restore conveyance of the West Fork. Neither the City, County, nor State have yet announced their plans. We don’t know:
Where they will dredge
How deep they will go
Where they will place the material
How much it will all cost, or
When they plan to do it.
In the meantime, here are two dramatic sequences of photos plus a video submitted by readers this week. They show what the start of mouth bar dredging looked like from the air and water.
Carolyn Daniel Mouth Bar Shots from Airplane Landing at IAH
Carolyn Daniel submitted these shots of the mouth bar and dredging activity taken from her airplane window while on a landing approach to Bush Intercontinental Airport.
On approach to IAH. FM 1960 at bottom of frame. East Fork of San Jacinto upper right and West Fork on the left. Kings Point and Royal Shores between them. Image courtesy of Carolyn Daniel.
Can you spot East End Park? Kingwood Drive? Town Center? All are visible in this shot by Carolyn Daniel.
Mouth bar of west fork with dredge. Photo courtesy of Carolyn Daniel.Note the large Triple-P sand mine near the top of the frame in Porter.
Mouth bar of San Jacinto West Fork with Great Lakes Dredge. Image courtesy of Carolyn Daniel.
Mouth bar of West Fork with dredge. Atascocita Point on left in foreground. Fosters Mill and Kings Point in background.Photo Courtesy of Carolyn Daniel.
Through the clouds. While landing at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Mouth bar of San Jacinto West Fork with Great Lakes Dredge. Image courtesy of Carolyn Daniel.
Franz Willette runs a company called BCAeronautics that uses drones in mapping, inspections, roofing analyses, site surveys, and 3D modeling. He did not have clouds to contend with and could shoot safely from a much lower elevation. Willette is FAA certified.
West Fork Mouth Bar with Great Lakes Dredge. Drone image courtesy of Franz Willette, BCAeronautics.West Fork Mouth Bar with Great Lakes Dredge. Drone image courtesy of Franz Willette, BCAeronautics.Great Lakes should dredge those two small islands in the background.West Fork Mouth Bar with Great Lakes Dredge. Looking south toward the FM1960 Bridge. Drone image courtesy of Franz Willette, BCAeronautics.West Fork Mouth Bar with Great Lakes Dredge. Drone image courtesy of Franz Willette, BCAeronautics.
Kendall Taft Video
Video courtesy of Kendall Taft. Shot from south of mouth bar looking north. Shows how shallow the water is and how vast the expanse is.
I hope to post updates weekly on this project. So readers, please help. Submit your images through the submissions page of this web site. My thanks to Carolyn Daniel, Franz Willette, BCAeronautics and Kendall Taft.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/13/2019with help from Carolyn Daniel, Franz Willette, BCAeronautics and Kendall Taft.
683 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BCAeronautics-Mouth-Bar-2.jpg?fit=1500%2C1125&ssl=111251500adminadmin2019-07-12 22:43:452019-07-12 22:47:22Weekly Mouth Bar Dredging Update with Images from Carolyn Daniel, Kendall Taft, Franz Willette of BCAeronautics, and the Army Corps
According to Beth Walters of the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), work on the upstream portion of Taylor Gully in Kingwood will begin on Monday, July 15, weather permitting. There’s still uncertainty regarding the local impact of Tropical Storm Barry, however, equipment has already started showing up at the job site.
Taylor Gully at the county line is half blocked with silt due to erosion from the clearcut area in the Woodridge Village development behind this culvert.Photo courtesy of Jeff Miller.
From Bassingham to Harris County Line
The work will extend from Bassingham to the Harris County line where the Gully meets the new Woodridge Village development in Montgomery County.
Scope of Work
This work will include the following:
Desilt the channel
Reconstruct the backslope interceptor structures
Install new backslope interceptor pipes
Regrade backslope swales
Install new gates
Install new “No Trespassing Signs”
Re-Set the covers of the “E type” inlets that have been damaged
Next Steps
After completing this reach of the channel, HCFCD staff will investigate Taylor Gully further downstream, where HCFCD completed a desilt job in the spring of 2019, from Bassingham to the downstream end. HCFCD will open up any constrictions and desilt the channel if necessary.
Vital for Flood Mitigation
Approximately 200 homes near this channel flooded during the May 7th storm. According to residents, video taken during the storm, and still photos taken after the storm, overland sheet flow from Woodridge Village was the likely cause of their problems. Regardless, news of this effort will come as a great relief to Elm Grove and Woodstream residents who welcome every extra margin of safety they can get.
Kudos to the flood control district for jumping on this project. Commissioners Court approved the right of way acquisition only last Tuesday!
Work on Montgomery County Portion of Gully Also Proceeding
Elm Grove resident Jeff Miller also reported today that Woodridge has expanded a portion of Taylor Gully that runs through Montgomery County. Where the east/west portion of the ditch makes a 120 degree turn and starts heading south along the western border of North Kingwood Forest…
This corner and the portion of the ditch that extends straight down were expanded this week.
… the contractor widened the ditch and expanded the turn.
Dozens of homes flooded in North Kingwood Forest (left side of photo behind tree line) on May 7. This ditch had a tiny portion of current capacity at the time (see below). Photo courtesy of Jeff Miller.
For comparison, here is what the same ditch looked like on May 12.
Same ditch as above adjacent to North Kingwood Forest (on left) but on May 12.
To see what the entire turning radius NOW looks like, see this video.
Video courtesy of Jeff Miller.
More good and welcome improvements. Just wish they had been in place before May 7th.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/13/2019 with help from Jeff Miller.
683 Days after Hurricane Harvey and Two Months after the Elm Grove Flood
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/IMG_2433-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=19001200adminadmin2019-07-12 20:06:372019-07-12 20:06:46Rehab Work to Begin on Upstream Portion of Taylor Gully Monday, July 15
What Rivers Looked Like Before the EPA Regulated Water Pollution
Something happened today that made me realize how, as a society, we are losing sight of the things that caused us to regulate the environment 50 years ago. As a result, some bad history could repeat itself
After seeing yesterday’s post about the West Fork mouth bar, a reader named Suzanne Kite sent me a link to an article on BusinessInsider.com. Little did she know that – for me – it would be a free ride on an emotional roller coaster in the wayback machine. The article talked about pollution of America’s rivers before the EPA…and focused on Cleveland, Ohio.
How Physical Landscape Shaped Political Landscape
About two thirds of Americans alive today had not yet been born when Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969. So they have no memory of the event that helped give birth to the EPA.
I remember it vividly. I was born in Cleveland, not far from the Cuyahoga River. Some of my earliest and happiest memories of childhood revolved around clam bakes with my family in Lake Erie in the early 1950s. But then we had to stop. The clams, they said, were contaminated with pollution from the Cuyahoga.
When the Cuyahoga caught fire, it came to symbolize out-of-control pollution. It became the spark that led to the creation of the EPA.
Says Aylin Woodward, author of the BusinessInsider.com article, “The disaster prompted a public outcry that in part led to the formation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. The EPA was charged with regulating the country’s polluted air and waterways…”
“Documerica” Photo Archives
She continued. “Soon after its founding, the agency dispatched 100 photographers to capture the US’ environmental issues as part of a photo project called Documerica. The photographers took about 81,000 images, more than 20,000 of which were archived. At least 15,000 have been digitized by the National Archives, and the images now function as a kind of time capsule…”
If you like looking at old photos, you will find this collection fascinating. This BusinessInsider article shows how people and businesses back then used rivers as sewers. A separate article in the Smithsonian goes into even more detail on the Cuyahoga.
Environmental Degradation Preceded Population Loss
Cleveland was a once-proud and booming city that symbolized America’s industrial might. In 1950, it ranked as the seventh largest city in the country. Houston at the time ranked only 14th with a little more than half of Cleveland’s population. In the latest census (2010), however…
San Jacinto Problems Not New
An alarming number of readers who saw yesterday’s post about the San Jacinto West Fork mouth bar commented on the massive amount of sediment pollution. They believe that not enough is being done to reduce the amount of sediment coming downstream.
Not all, but much of that sediment, in my opinion, came from approximately 20 square miles of sand mines upstream that were inundated by three so-called 500-year storms in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The rate of deposition has increased exponentially as you can see in the graph below.
FEMA believes that at least 500,000 cubic yards of sediment came downstream during Harvey. The City of Houston believes the number is closer to 1.4 million cubic yards.
All of that sediment pollution threatens the main source of the City’s drinking water by reducing its capacity.
Let’s Learn from History
The point of all this: history is repeating itself.
In 2006, American Rivers named the San Jacinto one of the 10 most endangered rivers in America… because of sand mining. And it has only become worse since then.
These developments make me fearful of the future that my children and grandchildren will inherit. If you share these feelings, please continue to apply pressure on elected representatives to push sand mines further back from the river.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/13/2019
684 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Weekly Mouth Bar Dredging Update with Images from Carolyn Daniel, Kendall Taft, Franz Willette of BCAeronautics, and the Army Corps
We learned a little bit more this week about the next phase of dredging. Several graphics (below) released by the Corps summarize modifications to the Emergency West Fork Debris Removal Project.
What We Confirmed and Learned
We confirmed that:
We learned that:
Corps Releases Summary of Project and Extension(s)
I compiled the information above from a PDF developed by The Army Corps. They released it on July 9.
To calculate the depth of dredging in that blue area to the right, I simulated the outline in Google Earth and found that it roughly equals 500,000 square yards. That means if they dredge this whole area, they will reduce the river bed by approximately 3 feet. The area already averages 2-3 feet deep. That means the river will be roughly 6 feet deep through this reach when the Corps finishes its portion of the job.
However, upstream, Callan is dredging to a depth of 22.5 feet. Thus, creating a continuous gradient along the river bottom would require dredging approximately another 16 feet deeper in the same area…and that wouldn’t even get you to the FM1960 bridge. Also, note the gap in the graphic between where Callan will finish its portion of Phase One and Great Lakes will start mouth bar dredging.
Unknowns
It is unclear at this point who will dredge the rest of the material that needs to be removed to restore conveyance of the West Fork. Neither the City, County, nor State have yet announced their plans. We don’t know:
In the meantime, here are two dramatic sequences of photos plus a video submitted by readers this week. They show what the start of mouth bar dredging looked like from the air and water.
Carolyn Daniel Mouth Bar Shots from Airplane Landing at IAH
Carolyn Daniel submitted these shots of the mouth bar and dredging activity taken from her airplane window while on a landing approach to Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Franz Willett Drone Shots Courtesy of BCAeronautics
Franz Willette runs a company called BCAeronautics that uses drones in mapping, inspections, roofing analyses, site surveys, and 3D modeling. He did not have clouds to contend with and could shoot safely from a much lower elevation. Willette is FAA certified.
Kendall Taft Video
Shows how shallow the water is and how vast the expanse is.
I hope to post updates weekly on this project. So readers, please help. Submit your images through the submissions page of this web site. My thanks to Carolyn Daniel, Franz Willette, BCAeronautics and Kendall Taft.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/13/2019 with help from Carolyn Daniel, Franz Willette, BCAeronautics and Kendall Taft.
683 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Rehab Work to Begin on Upstream Portion of Taylor Gully Monday, July 15
According to Beth Walters of the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), work on the upstream portion of Taylor Gully in Kingwood will begin on Monday, July 15, weather permitting. There’s still uncertainty regarding the local impact of Tropical Storm Barry, however, equipment has already started showing up at the job site.
From Bassingham to Harris County Line
The work will extend from Bassingham to the Harris County line where the Gully meets the new Woodridge Village development in Montgomery County.
Scope of Work
This work will include the following:
Next Steps
After completing this reach of the channel, HCFCD staff will investigate Taylor Gully further downstream, where HCFCD completed a desilt job in the spring of 2019, from Bassingham to the downstream end. HCFCD will open up any constrictions and desilt the channel if necessary.
Vital for Flood Mitigation
Approximately 200 homes near this channel flooded during the May 7th storm. According to residents, video taken during the storm, and still photos taken after the storm, overland sheet flow from Woodridge Village was the likely cause of their problems. Regardless, news of this effort will come as a great relief to Elm Grove and Woodstream residents who welcome every extra margin of safety they can get.
Kudos to the flood control district for jumping on this project. Commissioners Court approved the right of way acquisition only last Tuesday!
Work on Montgomery County Portion of Gully Also Proceeding
Elm Grove resident Jeff Miller also reported today that Woodridge has expanded a portion of Taylor Gully that runs through Montgomery County. Where the east/west portion of the ditch makes a 120 degree turn and starts heading south along the western border of North Kingwood Forest…
… the contractor widened the ditch and expanded the turn.
For comparison, here is what the same ditch looked like on May 12.
To see what the entire turning radius NOW looks like, see this video.
More good and welcome improvements. Just wish they had been in place before May 7th.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/13/2019 with help from Jeff Miller.
683 Days after Hurricane Harvey and Two Months after the Elm Grove Flood