San Jacinto River Group Creates 'Web' Home Page

by Terri Juneau
Lake Houston Sun
May 9, 1996

While most "river rats" would argue the likelyhood, surfers from across the state and even the world are landing on the San Jacinto River, discovering it's beauty as well as it's plagues.

Their waves are linked documents and their boards are computers. They surf for information. They surf for fun. An now, thanks to a local computer hobbyist, they can see and learn about the river from hundreds, even thousands of miles away via a new San Jacinto River Association home page on the World Wide Web.

Within the last few years, the WWW has become one of the most popular ways to access Internet resources. Using software such as "browsers" and an Internet provider, multimedia documents (text, graphics, audio and animation) with links to related documents can be created and explored.

Banana Bend resident Mike Taylor says he created the Association's page to bring attention to the river and the grass-roots organizations efforts to protect and enhance it.

He wanted it to be a contact point where those interested could "rally around the river" to exchange information and "pull together."

"I think it is an extremely powerful tool for networking, especially for the smaller environmental groups," says Taylor. Located at http://www.neosoft.com/users/m/mtaylor/sjra.htm, the page includes an introduction to the non-profit group, it's objectives and future goals, local news articles, aerial photographs, river levels and weather forcasts, documents related to geology of the river, an environmental guide for personal watercraft operation, links to area environmental resourses, and even one to Taylor's personal home page.

Taylor, who says he began working with computers after high school, created the Association's page about eight months ago, and continuously update's it. Jeni Taylor, Patsy Goss and a few other Association members act as "reporters," he says, gathering the information and photos that he scans into the computer.

Anyone with recreational photographs at least 10 to 20 years old, news articles or other historical data relating to the river is asked to contact him at (713) 843-2413.

"Once I find something new, it's posted," says Taylor

The page has been accessed or "hit" upon, about 2000 times already, he says. Geology students from the University of Houston, biology students from Texas A&M, and numerous high school students responded by e-mail with questions and comments.

Congressman Ken Bentsen's staff uses the pages for reference, Taylor says, and environmental including the Sierra Club have also contacted him.

"They read the articles and are having the same problems, such as sediment contamination and pollution discharge from industries," says Taylor. "They're curious how we are fighting it as a grass-roots organization."

Taylor says he even received e-mail from former residents familiar with the river who now live in Austin, Dallas and elsewhere, and comments from people in countries including Australia, Japan and England.

I'd love to see more people in the (local) area get out there and get on it," says Taylor

Although many, especially students, are interested, Taylor says often people seemed "spooked" by the Internet and are reluctant to learn.

"They think it's all complex and spooky out there,and it's really not," he says. "It's really geared for novices and newcomers. If you have the right software, it's a piece of cake."

Taylor recommends beginning with a commercial service such as America Online, which generally offers free software and trial usage.

"For the person who just wants to dabble in it, to see what's out there, it's the perfect way to get started," he says.



State, federal government should share barge removal

Editorial
Lake Houston Sun
May 9, 1996
Legal nets are intricate and omnipresent in today's society: We have ordinances, regulations, laws, bylaws, codes, ad infinitum.

We also have a multitude of governmental bureaus and workers who can oversee just about every disturbance to the public equilibrium imaginable.

Occasionally, however, something still manages to slip through Big Papa Government's cracks -- and when it does, people may get angry and confused.

Abandoned barges on the lower San Jacinto River between Highlands and Rio Villa are just such crack-slippers.

They are, in short, big chunks of river garbage and they're not really anyone's responsibility. Yet, they're everyone's problem, too and a unique one at that.

For these barges almost, but do not quite, fulfill a number of environmental, health, safety or legal criteria which might put tax dollars to work for their removal.

But they don't. No dollars are set aside for barge removal, much as we might imagine or wish so.

The original litterers have long since absconded into an international fog which reportedly ends in Hong Kong. The only bonafide culprit, and let's not forget who started it, is gone.

The Coast Guard, indeed has the authority to remove the barges. But the local Marine Safety Office of the Coast Guard does not, as best we know, have the authority to remove the barges. Authority, yes. Responsibility? Absolutely not.

The barges are a terrible eyesore, but they do not represent a hazard to commercial navigation.

Nor are the seven vessels located at Mule Shoe Hole apparently any kind of environmental hazard. It is these seven which some residents seem most concerned about as eyesores and recreational hazards, two obviously important concerns.

Stronger federal laws are being formulated to ensure barges require more permanent identification. This is excellent.

The Coast Guard has tried to find the owners of the seven barges near Highlands, but the trail has long since grown cold.

We must remember that the damage with the barges was really done years ago whn they were abandoned by their unidentified operators and left.

In future, we, the public, must be more vigilant about commercial shipping traffic which operates on our waterways. If a company leaves one of these "500 ton trash cans" on the river,we must report it to the Coast Guard quickly -- not years later.

It merely says the Guard "may" remove them. It should surprise no one that the Coast Guard is not jumping to spend the estimated $4 million it would cost to remove the barges when Congress seems poised to pay the bill.

Until the barges are removed, however, people who use the San Jacinto River recreationally need to be wary of the dangers. Motor boaters, especially need to be careful.

PArtly because one of the chief dangers to the public is to recreational boaters, we believe the state has some role in helping fund the removal of the barges.

The Coast Guard should indeed coordinate the removal of the barges. But the Coast Guard should not be expected to pay for the job, nor be blamed for lacking the funds to clean up this rather big mess.

State Rep. Fred Bosse puts it well: "There is enough blame to go around for everybody."

With the owners evidently not identifiable, the federal government has the main role in paying for the barge removal.

We praise Congressman KEn Bentsen's efforts in securing special funding for this.

But let's also remember: The Coast Guard says about 1,200 such barges exist nationwide and the number is growing. At about $150,000 a pop to remove, that's about $180 million. We best have compelling reasons to justify spending that kind of sum.


Bosse, others continue looking for owners of abandoned barges

by Bill Broun
Lake Houston Sun
May 9, 1996

Last week, state Rep. Fred Bosse has high hopes that the government has finally located the owners of several abandoned barges in the Lower San Jacinto River.

He based those hopes on rumors about a pending lawsuit against a barge company by a water skier injured last summer.

Hearsay about the lawsuit was skipping across the San Jacinto river like dozens of flat stones.

If a defendant could be named, so the logic went, then liability might be established for the barges.

Bosse was excited. In fact, lots of people got excited.

As it turns out, the lawsuit by Crosby resident Luke Latino against Parker Borthers and Houston Barge Line, Inc was dismissed March 8 in district court.

Ant the trail to the barges' real owners appears, once again, ice cold.

Thus it appears Bosse, despite months of hard work, is no closer to finding the owners of the barges which have caused such a stir among local residents, politicians and the media.

Bosse, along with the Coast Guard, U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen (25th district), Precinct 2 County Commissioner Jim Fonteno and Baytown Mayor Pete Alfaro, Bosse (128th Texas District), has been trying for months to find parties responsible for abandoning 22 barges in prime recreational waters of the San Jacinto River.

San JAcinto River association activists also want to find the barge owners. Residents in the local environmental group say the barges are eyesores and possible safety hazards.

The Coast Guard, which has the authority to dispose of the barges, says it cannot afford the estimated $4 million that removal would cost.

Texas Parks and Wildlife, whose dredging permits indirectly allowed these barges to make an appearance north of the Ship Channel, doesn't have the money either, guesses Bosse.

And although Bentsen has gone before Congress to ask for special funding for the Coast Guard, most everybody agrees that getting the owners to pay for removal is the best solution.

The owners are financially responsible for removing the barges, according to the Abandoned Barge Act 0f 1992. But enforcement of the Act, according to a Coast Guard spokesman in Washington, has been unclear. The White House's Office of Management and Budget is exploring how it could be funded.

Pinpointing the companies which have done dredging in the San Jacinto is a matter of public record, says Bosse.

Dredgers must get permits from Texas Parks and Wildlife. But the dredgers do not necessarily own the barges. They simply lease the vessels, says Bosse.

"Everybody knows that Parker Lafarge (a Houston Company) was involved in some dredging activities," says Bosse. "But that doesn't mean they owned the barges."

In 1988 Parker Lafarge bought a concrete manufacturing division of the dredging company Parker Brothers, according to Parker Lafarge spokesman PAt Strader.

And that, says Strader, is Parker Lafarge's only connection to Parker Brothers.

If Bosse learns what company left the Barges at the site, he will pass the information on to the Coast Guard, which has the power to levy a fine and make the owner financially responsible for removal of the vessel.



Refinery wins permit to release wastewater

by Bill Dawson
Houston Chronicle
May 16, 1996

Exxon's Baytown refinery won a new state permit to discharge industrial wastewater to Galveston Bay on Wednesday after charging that County Officials had been "meddlesome" in urging stricter requirements.

The Texas Natural Resourse Conservation Commission voted 3-0 to grant Exxon's new permit, rejecting appeals for stronger controls by Harris County, the environmental group Texans United and the TNRCC's public interest council.

But TNRCC staff's executive director sided with Exxon.

Besides the technical issues, recent talks leading to the vote included a disagreement over the role of the county, which offered recommendations late in the permit application process.

In an April 25 argument to the TNRCC, Exxon said the county was making "meddlesome suggestions" about the discharge permit.

"It is deeply troubling," Rob Barrett, director of the Harris County Pollution Control Department, responded in an April 30 letter, "that Exxon's lawyers characterize the comments of the local government agency primarily responsible for protecting public health from pollution as 'meddlesome.'"

Exxon's previous permit expired in 1994.

A major issue before the tNRCC was the plant's practice of sometimes mingling untreated wastes with it's stormwater discharge into Galveston Bay.

The TNRCC staff director initially said the refinery's "combined sewer system" for wastewater and stormwater would continue to pollute the bay in violation of state law.

That allegation was dropped last year when Exxon agreed to pay a $600,000 fine for violations involving storage, handling and disposal of hazardous wastes at the refinery.

Texans United continued to oppose the mingling of plant waste water with stormwater, and Harris County joined that opposition this spring.

The county Pollution Control Department urged the TNRCC "to focus on better environmental solutions" and to order Exxon to study whether it could feasably stop "using the storm sewer as a chemical sewer."

Exxon argued that it's prior discharge violations resulted from excessive precipitation with lttle environmental harm and that recent plant improvements have reduced the chance of recurrences.

An Exxon spokesman said the company was pleased by the commissioners' decision, adding tht since 1994, the refinery has "voluntarily and reliably" operated under stricter draft permit requirements.

Texans United director, Rick Abraham, charged the new permit "will allow and encourage even more discharges of untreated wastes to our public waters," and that the vote by the three appointees of Gov. George W. Bush indicated they will "not get tough with corporate polluters."

Texans United is pursuing a federal lawsuit against Exxon related to the company's discharges.

To meet their stated goal of minimizing untreated discharges of Exxon's polluted stormwater, the commissioners ordered that such discharges be allowed only after 6 inches of rainfall in the previous 27 days. County officials must receive prompt notification.

The county had argued that similar industrial plants can retain 8 to 13 inches of stormwater that falls over 24 hours. The TNRCC's public interest council recommended that Exxon be required to retain water from a 6 inch rainfall over 24 hours.

Exxon argued that industrial dewer systems that combine or only partly separate wastewater and stormwater "are prevalent throughout the Texas Gulf Coast area including Harris County."





Scientist study serious effects of 'Gender Benders'

by Mark Jaffe
Knight-Ridder Tribune News
May 15, 1996

Cancer has, for decades, been "the" threat when it came to environmental pollution. But research is now starting to show that an even greater risk may be the disruption of the body's hormones by man-made chemicals.

Studies have already indicated that these chemicals, known as endocrine disruptors, can play havoc with sexual developement in laboratory animals and wildlife.

After pesticides were accidentally spilled into a Florida lake, for example, male alligator hatchlings showed elevated estrogen levels and abnormally small phalluses.

In England, male trout living downstream from a sewage treatment plant were found to be producing a protein used in making eggs -- only female fish are supposed to produce that protein.

Such conditions have earned these compounds the nickname "gender benders."

"There is clear evidence wildlife has been affected," said Michael Gallo, a toxicologist at the Environmental Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University. "The question is, are they having any effect on humans?"

It is a potentially serious question for endocrine disruptors are found throughout the environment. They are ingredients in paints, detergents, plastics and herbicides. Some of the most notorious toxins -- like DDT, PCB's and dioxin -- are also disruptors.

There are also naturally occuring chemicals that can act as disruptors in wheat, berrys, nuts, cow's milk and other food stuffs.

Traces of these compounds have been detected in fish swimming in the Great LAkes and in human breast milk.

"There isn't anyone born on the planet today who has not had some fetal exposure," said John Peterson Myers, a co-author of Our Stolen Future, a book chronicling the risks of these chemicals.

Concern over the impact of the chemicals has been heightened by studies that found: "The scientific evidense ... is of concern," said Lynn Goldman, a senior official with the Environmental Protection Agency. "But we don't think this should be a cause for panic for the public. We are not saying that people should throw away away their plastic or that women should stop breast-feeding. We are not saying that people should change their lives."

Some scientist and policy analysts caution, however, that data are still sketchy and that the risks of endocrine disruptors may be hyped.

"It's a hypothesis masquerading as a fact," said Rutgers' Gallo. "It's a good working hypothesis, but people are overstating the case We've got a long way to go before we can link it to specific diseases."

Stephen Safe, a toxicologist at Texas A&M University, points out that humans have been exposed to many of these compounds naturally for generations and that the man made chemicals are barely detectable. Safe calculates that the man-made chemicals make up less than 1/1000 of 1% of all the estrogen like substances to which a person is exposed. The rest come from natural compounds in the foods people eat.

"There is a tendency to come upon a new risk and make it a solution to unexplained problems," said Lorenz Rhomberg, a professor at the Harvard University Center for Risk Analysis.

For example, Rhomberg said, every time a new environmental problem has been identified -- ozone depletion, global warming and now endocrine disruptors -- it has been linked to the puzzling worldwide decline of frogs and other amphibians. "There is this desire to find 'the' solution to a problem," he said, "...but when dealing with the environment, sometimes it it more complicated. There may be no single answer."

Rhomberg, however, does not dismiss the potential threat of endocrine disrupting chemicals. "There are some real issues here," he said. "The magnitude of their impact on te population as a whole has to be worked out."

There is little dispute that certain chemicals -- some man made, some found in nature -- can act as hormone mimics in cell cultures and lab animals.

The endocrine system helps regulate development and body functions through hormones that are released from glands and travel through the blood. These chemical messengers trigger activity in cells to do things as diverse as create sexual organs and generate more heat for the body.

But in laboratory tests, researchers have found that endocrine disruptors can scramble cell activity.

They can initiate the wrong reactions or the right reactions at the wrong time. They can also thwart cell reactions that should take place. Often it takes just infinitesimal amounts of the disruptors to have an effect, particularly in developing fetuses. There is also ample evidence that these same chemicals have had an adverse affect on wildlife. In 1980, there was a massive spill of dicofol, a DDT tainted pesticide in LAke Apopka, a large lake near Orlando, Florida.

Six years later, biologists began to notice that the aligators living in the lake were having reproductive problems. There were large numbers of unhatched eggs, and those animals that did hatch has abnormal sex organs. Particularly hard hit were the male alligators. The dominant sex hormone in their systems was estrogen, not testosterone, and as the hatchlings matured the penises of the males were markedly reduced in size.

In the Great Lakes regeon, the chemicals DDT and PCB's have been linked to birth deformities in bald eagles. Tests have shown that two durable chemicals are lingering in the environment, even though they have been banned for 20 years. They are being absorbed into the food chain and then concentrated in the larger animals. The fish consumed by the eagles, research showed, were heavily contaminated.

"There is no question that there have been effects on wildlife," said Texas A&M's Safe.

The question is what effect, if any, have these chemicals had on humans? There the data is not as clear, the debate more intense and the questions still unanswered.

Is a trace exposure the same as a massive one? Can the diferent chemicals be sorted out? And can the adverse impacts on wildlife be extrapolated to humans?

Consider the vast array of chemicals that are able to lock into the estrogen receptor. "Molecules of all shapes and sizes, man made and natural, seem to fit, but that doesn't mean they are all the same," said John Katzenellenbogen, a University of Illinois chemist.

In fact, the potency and effect vary greatly. "Some compounds are weakly active .. others can be 10 million times more potent," said Katzenellenbogen, "but they all fit."

In addition, when they lock in, some promote cell activitys, while others inhibit it. It has been theorized that a small amount of some of these chemicals may be benificial, because it may block dangerous promoters.

Katzenellenbogen pointed out that what is considered a healthy human diet "contains large quantities of weak estrogenic substances." These substances are found in grains, nuts and berries.

Researhers theorize that these plants produce these pseudo- estrogenic substances as natural birth control chemicals to limit the population of grazers that feed on the plants.

"Some species may be much more sensitive to hormonally active compounds," Rutgers' Gallo said. "For instance, we know that alligators are exquisitely sensitive to estrogens."

"Human diets are so varied, lifestyles are so varied," Gallo said. "A blue heron eats the same thing every day... I'm not sure that is a good comparison with humans."

In addition, some of the studies have shown possible human impacts-- such as the decline in male sperm counts -- are still being debated.

"New studies on sperm counts have shown mixed data," Safe said. "Sperm counts are declining in France and Denmark, but are up in New York and San Francisco. So is this a widespread problem or a geographic problem?"



Miller's "History of Highlands" featured

by Gilbert Hoffman
Star-Courier Staff

HIGHLANDS-- Author Vern E. miller will be featured speaker at this weeks Greater Highlands Chamber of Commerse luncheon, meeting at noon Thursday at the Highlands Community Center.

Miller has just completed and published his first book, "Highlands- Lynchburg Area History", almost 200 pages about the origins and legends surounding this San Jacinto River area.

Miller spent almost two years researching and writing his book. Much of the source material was available previously, at the Stratford Branch Library, the Chamber of Commerse office, and the files of the Highlands Star newspaper and the Baytown Sun.

Miller has also added his own interviews, and letters and papers of local citizens interested in preserving history.

Some of the authors include Nancy Meador, of the Highlands Art League, Annie Thach Doss, Mary W. Roper, Roy and Pauline Cutbirth, PAt Mann, Capt. Calvin Evans, Morris Nelson Hall, Wanda Orton, and others.

A particularly nice addition to the book are the pen and ink sketches of most of the important buildings or landmarks of the area, drawn by and contributed by the Highlands Art League. The Art LEague published these sketches in a popular calender series, with history, for several years. However the calenders are no longer issued and the league does not currently meet.

Miller typeset most of the book himself, made copies and then had the covers printed by B&B Printing of Highlands, and the binding done professionally. He is currently selling the book for $10.00.

They may be purchased at B&B PRinting, Olde Cedar Inn, and Bev's Bookstore in Highlands. In addition, Highlands State Bank has indicated they will host an autograph party and author's reception in the near future.

Readers interested in Highland's history will find a wide realm of stories in Miller's book. He starts with the indians and Spanish Friers, around 1750. Then in 1822 Nathanial Lynch settled in the area near the present ferry, and our modern history began.

Also about this time the White family settled further up river near what is now know as White's Cemetary. The book covers the period from 1902 to 1926, when the town was known as Elena. Then it continues with the rice farms and the fig orchards, and mentions the leaders of that day, Harry Johnson, Tyrell and Garth of Baytown, and the Hares of Crosby.

One particularly intereting section relates the time Elvis Presley played at the old Riverview Inn, and stayed with family in Highlands.

Also covered is the history of our own railroad, or interurban, the Houston Northshore Railroad, that ran on what is now the Missouri PAcific tracks up until 1961.

A complete listing of residents from 1949 is included, in the form of a city directory listing about 1200 households by name and address.

Vern E. Miller, a deputy in Constable James Douglas' Precinct 3, says that he plans to expand and update the History in the future. But for now he has written a runaway success!



Urbanization threatens Sheldon Lake

by Bill Dawson
Houston Chronicle
Environmental Writer

Sheldon Lake State Park, a popular fishing, boating and birdwatching spot, is becoming a biological island in the middle of a rapidly urbanizing area, it's superintendent says.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials say the popular wildlife at Sheldon is jeopardized by upstream development and drainage projects, which have greatly reduced the flow of water to the park's lake and marshes.

The park has lost about two-thirds of it's watershed since 1987, mainly because of government funded roadway and ditch construction, the agency estimates.

After months of talks at lower staff levels seeking other agencys' help, the parks department executive director recently appealed to high ranking officials at the Army Corp's of Engineers and Texas Natural Resourse Conservation Commission for help in restoring flows to Carpenter's Bayou, Sheldon's tributary.

"It's been very frustrating," park Superintendant Robert Comstock said of earlier discussions with other agencies. "All I'm trying to do is protect the integrity of tje resources here."

"This is an important urban fishery and recreation area for an economically depressed area" of northeast Harris County, said Rollin MacRae, the agency's wetland resource coordinator. "We could lose it all in a dry summer and this could be that summer.

Already there are fewer ducklings this year at the park, and a prolonged rain shortage could kill gamefish this summer and harm herons and egrets next year, department biologist Andy Sipocz said.

Alligators inhabit the swampy, cypress studded lake, once a water supply reservoir, and 200 bird species have been identified at the park. The tops of a few downtown skyscrapers are visible from Sheldon, where a major environmental education center is planned for area schoolchildren.

In letters to Col. Robert Gatlin, who heads Corps of Engineers operations in this region, and to Dan Pearson, executive director of the TNRCC, states parks director Andrew Sansom identified three major public works drainage projects that have had an impact on the park.

One was a City of Houston drainage ditch about 2 miles from the lake, he said, and another was construction of the northeast corner of Beltway 8 by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Sansom said talks have been proceeding with state and local officals about those projects, but asked Pearson to require that water they diverted from Carpenter's Bayou be restored to it. A TNRCC spokesman said the matter was "still under review."

The other major issue cited by Sansom was construction of the West Lake Houston Parkway. a new roadway north of the park.

Although a Corps of Engineers permit issued to the Harris County Engineer's office for the road had required that only the road itself be drained, it is "depriving the (Sheldon LAke) watershed of it's legitimate flows and draining adjacent wetlands without authorization," Samson told Gatlin.

Corps of Engineers official Dewayne Johnson said his agency agrees that Sheldon Lake has "a problem" because of upstream projects.

The Corps is working with the County Engineer's office toward resolving the issue and will investigate the parkway to determine if it is draining nearby wetlands, Johnson said. The Corps regulates development in federally protected wetlands.

Terry Anderson, the Harris County Engineer, said "there wasn't any violation of anything" in constructing West Lake Houston Parkway.

He said he was surprised to learn from the Chronicle about Sansom's letters, because he thought the county, the parks agency, the Corps and METRO (which funded the parkway construction) "were all in concert" on how to address the drainage concerns.

Early this year, the agencies agreed on several actions to keep water in wetlands near the the roadway and out of storm sewers, Anderson said.

He said METRO was supposed to hire a new contractor to carry out this work. METRO officials familiar with the project could not be reached for comment.

Land along West Lake Houston PArkway is being developed as the Summerwood subdivision by McCord Development Inc. which Anderson said hired consultants to design the portion of the West LAke Houston Parkway now built.

Charles Leyendecker, president and CEO of McCord Development Communities, said the company is concerned about the future health of Sheldon Lake, which he called "a heck of an asset for Harris County" and "a big amenity to Summerwood."

Signs near the Summerwood entrance promote the community's "private lakes," which are visible near the West Lake Houston Parkway. Sipocz said he believes these lakes will reduce drainage into Sheldon, but Corps official did not believe the area where they were created qualified as protected wetlands.