San Jacinto River News Articles

COAST GUARD BUOYS RESTORED

Most of the 19 navigational buoys in our river from the 
Interstate 10 bridge to the ARCO Lyondale barge dock just 
south of the RIO Villa Subdivision were washed away by the
October '94 flood. When the SJRA wrote the Coast Guard
expressing our concern at their decision not to replace those 
buoys, we received no answer. Our concern involved the 
possibility of one or more of the 800 chemical barges that 
go up and down the our river from the ARCO dock each year 
running aground and spilling it's potent chemical load
into our already fragile river. After no responce for nearly
a year, SJRA contacted our Congressman Ken Bentson by letter 
and by personal visit to his office in Washington, DC in July.
By August, the buoys were back in place. Our thanks to the 
Coast Guard and Congressman Bentsen for protecting our
river for those who enjoy it.

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW

	The public is invited to attent the monthly 
CAPLA (Citizens Advisory Panel to Lyondell and ARCO)
meetings as observers. If you would like to hear discussion 
amung community representatives and industry representatives
regarding plant expansions, permits, maintenance, emissions 
releases, ect. CAPLA meets usually at the Ramsey Community
Center off Sheldon Rd. in Channelview. Our meeting time and
place and the week's topic is usually announced in the North
Channelview area papers as well as the Chronicle. Come at 
7 to hear the lively discussion and observers are welcome 
to comment at the end of the meeting. CAPLA meeting dates 
are Nov. 8, Jan 11, Feb 13, and Mar 14th.


	Tune into CAER Radio 1620 AM on your dial or call
the CAER hotline if you are concerned about a smell, a 
flare, something that seems to be a crisis at your 
neighborhood plant.

UPDATE ON OUR INDUSTRIAL NEIGHBORS -- LYONDELL ANNOUNCES POSSIBLE PLANT EXPANSION

Lyondell in Channelview announced in August that it has 
signed an agreement with Quantum Chemical Co. and Union
Carbide to conduct an engineering study for the planned 
construction of a $400 million worldscale olefins plant
at the Sheldon Road/Wallisville Road complex to be 
operating by mid-1998. The existing plant capacity is 
3.6 billion pounds per year of ethylene. The new plant 
would add at least 1.5 billion pounds per year. Ethylene
goes into many products including plastics, automotive
antifreeze, and cosmetics. They project 150 permenant
new jobs.

ARCO AND LYONDELL ANNOUNCE SERIOUS FLAIRING INCIDENTS

ARCO reported five TIER 1 releases between May and 
early August ranging from 300 pounds of propylene oxide from 
their catalytic converter, 37 pounds of benzene leaked into
the steam system, 678 pounds of propylene oxide caused the 
emergency flair to be used, same compressor malfunctioned 
sending 224 pounds of propylene oxide to the flair, and 7000
pounds of propylene oxide and 37 pounds of benzene in early
August. There was no offsite impact according to the industrial
hygienists charged with detecting on or off site presense of
chemicals. They will soon be replacing the old benzene Plant 1
built in the 70's with a new technology that creats no wastes.
Yea, technology!

	Lyondell reported threesignificant flarings in September.
September 12-15, 85000 pounds were released (8.5 million pounds
burned) because of unstable feedstocks from Algeria which have 
very high sulphur content killing the catalysts. Such burning of
product creates heavy financial cost to the company. September
18th, an employee unhooked the wrong wire while updating
instrumentation resulting in 2000 pounds charge gas emission.
On september 29th,they started their 51 day turnaround with 
13,000 pounds flared to shutdown unit for maintenance. October 4th,
a sulphuric acid tank overflowed spilling 40 gallons when an 
overflow shutoff failed while filling a railroad car. Lyondell 
has over 4 million safe hours with no employees hurt on the job.

	This kind of report is made to CAPLA at their monthly
meetings; community representatives ask questions and the plant 
reps including public relations, plant managers, health, safety
and environmental engineers are present to explain these problems
and their impact on the community.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTAMINATED SEDIMENTS

	The first national conference on toxic mud conducted by 
the Coastal Alliance was held in Washington,DC July 16-19. Jeni
Taylor, Lora Minton and Patsy Goss represented SJRA at this EPA 
funded conference. Over 120 people from all 28 of U.S. coastal 
states attended. Experts from all over the nation reported that
contaminated sediments exist in every waterway in the nation 
threatening human health as well as fish, wildlife, birds and the
environment. Sediment is simply the muck at the bottom of lakes,
rivers, bayous, bays and the ocean. Contaminated sediments are 
those that "contain chemical substances at concentrations that pose 
a known or suspected environmental or human health threat." Billions
of pounds of contaminants such as pesticides, herbicides, poly-
chlorinated biphenyls (PCB's), dioxins, DDT, hydrocarbons, and metals
such as lead, mercury, and arsenic are discharged into the air
water and land each year. Once sediments are polluted they must be
treated in place or removed. Most sediments in harbors, rivers, and 
behind dams must be disturbed by maintenance dredging. Dredging
resuspends these pollutants in the water and once the mud is dredged
(the Houston Ship channel is about to be deepened and widened) it 
must be dumped somewhere. SJRA will be monitoring whatever use of 
these dredge spoils is being considered by the Houston Port 
Authority and the Corps of Engineers.

	New federal regulations threatened to take the EPA out of 
the loop and let the Army Corps of Engineers decide when, where
and how much of this dangerous muck to dump with no consideration 
of health or environmental hazard, just find the "least costly" 
disposal. Now the Corps of Engineers must finds some useful method
of disposing of these dredge spoils such as "restoring wetlands" 
or barrier islands to provide shoreline communities with buffers
against wind and water erosion. The San Jacinto River has lost 
thousands of acres of wetlands and islands to dredging and 
subsidence; we may find our river under serious consideration for
receiving tons of dredged toxic mud from the Ship Channel. Talk
about a mixed blessing. New technologys are being developed to
decontaminate these toxic muds, but these technologies are only in
the pilot stage, the problem is enormous, the cost astronomical.
Current technologies involve either incineration, excavation and
removal, and/or on-site containment. All three methods have been 
used on our river ant the three toxic Superfund sites; French 
Limited, Sykes and the Highland Acid Pit. Do we want our river
used as a dumping site?

SJRA MEMBERS VISIT CONGRESSMAN BENTSEN WHILE IN WASHINTON,DC

Jeni Taylor and Patsy Goss met with our congressman and two of 
his staff for about 45 minutes in July while attending the national 
conference on contaminated sediments in Washington,DC. At the end of a
long day of committee meetings, Congressman Bentsen was so gracious and 
his staff so helpful, that we felt very lucky to have such a man 
represent our district. He promised to look into our concerns about 
restoring the Coast Guards navigational buoys to our river, removal of 
the submerged, abandoned barges which are navigational hazards and 
eyesores as well as our need for limited navigational dredging where
the flood rearranged whole landscapes as well as the river channel. The
buoys are back, some barges have been removed, and Mother Nature has 
already done much to restore the river channel. Our thanks to our
Congressman for his attention to our needs. Don't forget him when the 
next election rolls around He'll need volunteers, money and voters. If 
we expect our public officials to be there when we need them, it's a 
two way street.

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR "DREAM TEAM" FROM THE NORTH CHANNEL AREA

	According to the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, we should
be proud of our own Senator Mario Gallegos and Representative Fred Bosse
who were named as two of the twelve Texas legislators who made up the 
"Environmental Defence Team" in Austin this past session. We should
reward such courage in public office when our representatives stand up 
to the lobbyist and the powerful politcal climate this year in 
Washington and Austin to gut environmental protection and public
participation in the permitting process. Many currently in power in both
in both state and local government want to undo the past 30 years of 
hard fought federal and state protection of the environment, endangered
species, even the public's right to know, let alone participate in, the 
process of the balanced use of our public air, water and land in this 
country. It is polically popular this year to disguise such wholesale 
undoing of our present and future public health in the name of balancing
the budget and lowering taxes. Let's not throw out the baby with the 
bath water!  Protect the environment or both your babies and your bath 
water will be thrown out by corporations and developers who don't want 
to clean up or pay to clean up the mess they have made and who want to 
continue to build in floodplains and shorelines, regardless of the 
future costs in human suffering and environmental destruction. Thank you
for your courage, Senator Gallegos and Rep. Bosse, we won't forget you at 
election time!

COASTAL MANAGEMENT PLAN FINALLY APPROVED

According to the Houston Chronicle Oct 6, 1995, after nearly a 
quarter of a century trying, Texas got a Coastal Management Plan by the
state Coastal Coordination Council in Austin. Texas and Georgia were 
the only shoreline states without comprehensice conservation plans for
managing coastal developement. Gary Mauro and the General Land Office
spearheaded efforts to develop a plan since the 1980's. Gov. Ann 
Richards had submitted the proposed plan but the new Gov. George Bush,
a republican, vetoed it for furthur revisions. Environmentalists think
it does too little to protect wetlands, beaches and dunes while 
developers think it interfers too much. During public hearings held all 
over the state last year, SJRA board members testified in Port Arthur,
Galveston and Houston. After the Texas Legislature and Gov. Bush 
approved the revised plan, the Texas Railroad Commission Chair Barry
Wilkinson unexpectedly introduced a number of rule changes in June which
Mauro and environmentalists as well as the NAtional Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration told Bush would not fly. Compromises were 
hammered out, federal acceptance will funnel $2 million to coastal 
communities for beach work and place federal projects such as channel 
dredging under the state's planned jursidiction. The complex plan will
provide protection for beaches, dunes, saltwater wetlands; coordinate
regulations amung state agencies; require the Corps of Engineers to seek
environmentally beneficial uses for dredged sediments from navigational
channels; and phase out the dumping of super-salt "brine" from oil wells
into coastal water and marshes. Some environmentalists say the plan is 
too watered down. The Port of Houston Authority has pledged to use the
dredge spoils from the Ship Channel for environmental restoration work
in the Galveston Bay area. Can our river be a part of their disposal
consideration.

KEEPING CONCERNS AT BAY

Corps of Engineers, environmentalists cooperate to multiply benefits of ship channel project

	The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects little 
opposition to it's plan to deepen and widen the 55-mile-
long Houston Ship Channel from the Gulf of Mexico to 
Boggy Bayou. 
	After all, just about every effected party has 
been part of the planning.
	The $397 million project would displace some 335 
million cubic yards of dredged material in widening the
channel to 530 feet and deepening it to 45 feet, as deep 
as any Texas port.
	The Corps anticipated concerns about such an
extensive project, so it formed a team of a dozen local,
state and federal agencies to offer suggestions. The 
advisory group, known as the Interagency Coordinating 
Team, provided many ideas that made their way into the 
plan draft.
	"This is the first time, to my knowledge and 
perhaps in the history of the corps, when this many 
diverse agencies and groups -- commercial, engineering, 
environmental and historical -- have banded together for
the sake of progress," said Col. Robert B. Gatlin,
Galveston District engineer for the corps.
	Even the Environmental Protection Agency has been
impressed by the results.
	"As a result of the coordination and cooperation
afforded through the ICT, there are no areas of 
controversy or unresolved issues associated with the 
recommended plan," said Jane N. Saginaw, regional 
administrator of the EPA.
	One of the primary concerns was how the dredged 
material would be used. A subcommittee of the ICT, the 
Benificial Uses Group, specially looked at developing 
ways to use the material to benefit the larger community.
	Some 4,250 acres of intertidal marsh in three 
spots of Galveston Bay and a 12 acre bird island near the
Bolivar Peninsula will be amung thge first places to 
receive the dredge material, said Ken Bonham, public 
affairs officer for the corps in Galveston. Also on the 
agenda is creation of a nearshore berm of earthen mound,
for habitat variation and storm surge protection on the 
east end of Galveston Bay.
	Bonham said the corps plan also calls for 
restoration of Goat Island near the port of Houston, and
Redfish Island in the Galveston Bay, if suitable material 
is found.
	According to a report by the Galveston Bay 
National Estuary Program, loss of wildlife habitat in 
the area is a major problem. By constructing the marshes
as planned in the Benificial Uses Group recommendations,
the widening and deepening project will restore about 
half the estuary program's goal of adding 8,600 acres of 
marshland over the next 10 years. 
	BUG chairman Dick Gorini said the project is 
expected to yield twice it's cost in economic impacts
to the area. Of the $396.7 million cost, $242 million is 
for the dredging work, $29.7 million for environmental 
restoration projects and $125 million to remove 
obstructions. 
	Gorini, environmental affairs manager for the 
Houston Port Authority, said using the dredge material 
for the BUG plan costs no more than the Corps of 
Engineers original plan to deposit it out in the Gulf.
	"This is probably cheaper than ocean disposal,"
he said, "yet this results in a net positive 
environmental impact on the bay."

Superfund Sites Along The San Jacinto River Saved From Watery Disaster

Some Superfund sites pose much greater health risks
than others. The Sikes Disposal Pits, holding more than 
500,000 tons of toxic waste, not only sit on the banks 
of the San Jacinto River, but are in a 100-year flood
plain. A flood could have caused enormous environmental
and economic problems. In this 1992 photo, a mobile
incinerator conducts a test burn of chemical sludges.


Houston Chronicle, October 24,1995

by Bob Sablatura

It took more than $90 Million to accomplish, but many people
believe Superfund diffused a time bomb on the San Jacinto 
River.
	Before undergoing the nations largest EPA led Super-
Fund Cleanup, the Sikes Disposal Pits held a lethal cache
of pollutants that included more than 500,000 tons of 
chemical wastes. 
	Beginning in 1961, the owner of the property started
charging haulers as little as $2 a truckload to dump the 
wastes in a series of abandoned sand and graval pits within
a stones throw of the river.
	Not only was the site located on sandy soil next to 
the river, it also sat in the middle of the 100 year flood
plain.
	"We were afraid that a big flood would come along and
wash the contents of those pits into the San Jacinto River and
then downstream into the Galveston Bay area," said EPA 
spokesman David Bary.
	Since the bay is a primary source of seafood for the 
area, the consequences could have been severe, he said.
	"That would have had not only environmental impact,
bu economic impact as well," said Bary.
	Since the property's owner did not have the financial
ability to remove the contamination, EPA paid for cleanup
operations out of superfund coffers.
	During the just-completed phase, a portable incinerator
was set up to burn more than 1 billion pounds of abandoned
wastes. In addition, 350 million gallons of water were also
treated. 
	The company conducting the successful incineration 
project was the same firm that just months earlier had 
pulled out of a similar operation at the Motco site in 
Galveston County.
	Following the closure of Sikes in 1967, the haulers
began dumping their toxic payload at an alternate site across
the road.
	That site is now the French Limited Superfund Site, 
which carried a price tag of almost identical to the Sikes
sueprfund site. This time, however, the $90 million cleanup
costs were shouldered by a coalition of 85 companies thta had
disposed of wastes at the site. 
	Also like it's sister site, French Limited's toxic 
wastes were dumped in abandoned gravel pits and the site
sat in the river bottom of the San JAcinto, smack in the 
middle of the flood plain.
	While most Superfund sites are view largely as 
community problems, such sites as Sikes and French Limited
illustrate the greater danger posed by some toxic waste
dumps.
	Theresa Lamson, executive director of the Crosby-
Huffman Chamber of Commerse, said the cleanup of the two 
sites was necessary to protect the river, a major recreational
draw for the area.
	"The San JAcinto Rivers gives us a tourst attraction,
someplace you can go boating and swimming and jet skiing,"
she said. "If it became polluted, naturally no one would want
to go near it.
	Businessman Chris Armstrong illustrates another 
benifit of the cleanup operations. In addition to owning an 
office supply business in Crosby, he works full time at the 
French Limited site in plant operations, one of many local 
residents to gain work at the two sites.
	Overall, the community was very accepting of the 
Superfund cleanups, he said.
	"We never had a problem with pickets of protesters
at the sites, " Armstrong said. "There was a very positive 
attitude withing the community."
	Dick Sloan, the project manager of the French Limited
site, said the potential danger posed by his site made it clear
from the beginning that it would need a full scale cleanup.
	But while containment of the toxic wastes was never
really an option at French Limited, Sloan said, it often works
welll as part of an overall cleanup plan and should not be
ruled out as option at other sites.
	"You have to look at the potential health risks at each 
site as a unique situation," Sloan said. "And then you have to 
work out a timely, cost effective approach."

County Indicates Flood Buyout Near Completion

HIGHLANDS-- It was one year ago on October 20th that the rains,
the floods,the fire, and the oil spill visited the peaseful and
beautiful San Jacinto River, causing havoc in the lives of most 
everyone that lived along the river. 
	Now, one year after the flood, Harris County has 
announced that public funds have purchased 44 flood damaged
properties, and crews are demolishing the acquired structures.
	County officials plan to start negociations October 21st 
with some of the owners of 114 addtional properties in harm's way
near the river.
	County permit officer Marvin Merek said that homes were
purchased within the following subdivisions and county commissioner's
precincts:
			Homes	Precincts
Banana Bend	 	  9	   2
Sandbar Estates 	 10	   2
Cypress Creek Estates     1	   2
Forest Cove		 23   	   4
Riverside Oilfield	  1 	   4
			-----
Total			 44

	Properties proposed for purchase are scattered within the 
following subdivisions and precincts, according to Marek:

Magnolia Gardens	  5	   1
Banana Bend Estates	  3	   2
East River Estates	  1	   2
Highland Shores		  2	   2
Riverdale		  2	   2
Reuben White Survey	  3	   2
Sandbar Estates		  6	   2
Lake Cypress Estates	  2	   3
Forest Cove		 21	   4
Forest Cove Condo	  8	   4
Forest Cove TH		 52	   4
Idleglen		  2	   4
Mary Owens Survey	  1	   4
Riverside Oilfield	  1	   4
			-----
Total			114


The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided the purchase 
funds and local governments, such as the county government, must retain
the properties and not allow the structures to be built on them.



< Picture of Todd and Tina's House >

DAMAGES BEYOND REPAIR

	This house and 157 like it, will be razed rather than rebuilt, 
using FEMA funds from the federal government, that will avert a 
repetition of the disaster.
	Banana Bend residents gathered last weekend in the house of 
Bruce and Debbie Griffiths,to share stories over a fish fry and remininsce 
about the dangers they faced one year ago. And the lingering question
they wondered... Can it happen again? Many questions the actions of San
Jacinto River authorities during the rains that preceded the flood. 
Thousands of law suits, agains pipeline companies, remain to be tried.

By 
David Floyd
Gilbert Hoffman