CHANNELVIEW – According to the C.H.I.C. community action group, residents in the San Jacinto River Estates area along the San Jacinto River near the Waste Pits received a notice letter last week from the Corps of Engineers, calling attention to a dredging and mooring project in the river near Meadowbrook Park and asking for comments within 15 days.
This is apparently a continuation of a project that was attempted last year, by the landowners TimTom Holdings and Holtmar Land LLC. In that project, excavated materials from the south side of I-10 were to be hauled to Beach City, and deposited in a landfill site near a park and residential area. Complaints by citizens and the city government managed to stop that work.
Carolyn Stone of C.H.I.C. says she believes that this project is using an old permit, with a different description of the work. She believes they would need a new permit for this, which is a different project.
According to the Corps, the applicant proposes to mechanically dredge approximately 15,000 cubic yards (405,000 cubic feat) of material from a 2.50- acre area of the San Jacinto River. The dredged material would be placed in a scow barge, transported and off loaded into watertight haul trucks for final disposition on a 5.O acre upland tract lined with a geosynthetic clay liner.
The final dredge material placement area is located approximately 35 miles northeast of the project site in the city of Devers.
The project also involves the installation of 576.75 linear feet of bulkhead to stabilize the shoreline in two separate areas and three 36-inch steel monopile moorings within the San Jacinto River and two on land. Barges would be secured to these moorings.
C.H.I.C. has asked for broad support to oppose this project, which may endanger the Waste Pits, and awaits more information from the Corps of Engineers.