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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 […]
At Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin’s final town hall meeting last night, he and Chief Recovery Officer Stephen Costello gave an update on the status of new, higher capacity floodgates for the Lake Houston Dam. Their talks also addressed dredging and sand traps. According to the latest estimate, construction of the gates now looks like […]
As floodwaters worked their way down the East and West Forks of the San Jacinto from last week’s heavy rains, they invaded sand mines on both rivers on Easter Sunday, 2023. Up to 9 inches of rain fell in the headwaters of both rivers during 3 days from 4/5 to 4/7. Atlas-14 rainfall probability statistics […]
Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Harvey. Many in the Lake Houston Area have asked, “Are we safer now?” The answer is yes, but we have a long way to go to achieve all our goals. Here’s a five-year flood-mitigation report card. It describes what we have and haven’t accomplished in 29 areas. So […]
7/17/22 – The San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) has completed its initial sand trap study, in partnership with Harris County Flood Control, and reviewed public comments. According to Matt Barrett PE, SJRA’s Manager of Water Resources and Flood Management, the SJRA is working toward a pilot study. But a successful pilot will require several things […]
The Bayou Land Conservancy has added its voice to those raising concerns about the SJRA’s sand trap proposal for the San Jacinto River watershed. The pilot project began out of a desire to reduce sediment buildup in the mouth bar of the West Fork. But it has morphed into something very different – a trench […]
The San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) recently completed a 246-page conceptual design study, in partnership with the Harris County Flood Control District, that explored the feasibility of implementing sediment trapping facilities (“sand traps”). The purpose: to remove sediment from the West or East Fork of the San Jacinto River. The results and findings of this […]
Some say that mining sand from our rivers and flood plains is the price of progress. Pros and Cons Sand has its benefits. We need it to make concrete. And we need concrete to accommodate a growing population. And a growing population creates income for builders, tradesmen and other businesses. But mining sand also has […]
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has joined an aggregate company it regulates in appealing a judge’s decision that voided an air-quality permit issued to the aggregate producer. Much at Stake On March 5, 2021, two Texas Hill County environmental groups, Stop 3009 Vulcan Quarry and Friends of Dry Comal Creek won a lawsuit voiding […]
Even though sand can be found in nearly every single country on Earth, the world could soon face a shortage. Usage around the world has tripled in the last twenty years, according to the United Nations Environment Program. That’s far greater than the rate at which sand is being replenished. After water, sand is the […]