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One
Step Closer to an Open River Mouth
Navigating commercial traffic through the
Brazos River Diversion Canal at the flood
gates on the Intracoastal Canal has become
increasingly costly as the mouth of the San
Bernard River closed and sent its current
eastward toward the gates. The strong currents
experienced at the west gate of the
Brazos Diversion channel, therefore, is
an increasingly urgent argument for re-opening
the San Bernard River to the Gulf of Mexico
through its mouth’s original location.
Two
weeks ago, Roy Edwards acting in his capacity of
Chairman of the Mouth Committee for Friends Of
the River San Bernard, contacted Tom Lizardo,
chief of staff for
Congressman Ron Paul (R – Freeport)
requesting cost figures regarding tripping,
repairs to the gate structures, delays incurred
during structure repairs, and the cost of any
other type of delays for commercial traffic at
the gates of the
Brazos. Edwards also asked what
percentage of those costs was due to the
flow/currents through the gates as a result of
the closure of the mouth of the San Bernard
River.
The
following e-mail exchange between Tom Lizardo,
and Raymond Butler (Executive Director of the
Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association) gives you
an update on the current situation. For more
information, refer to the one page GICA
Navigation Issue sheet
(See
March 5, 2007 post)
Add up
the numbers below. These “low ball” estimated
costs of navigating the flood gates per year is
more than the estimated cost of opening the
mouth of the San Bernard River.
From:
Lizardo, Tom
Sent:
Monday, February 26, 2007 1:10 PM
To: 'Raymond Butler'
Cc: 'arthur.j.janecka
Subject: San Bernard impact on Gates
The TxDOT report to the 80th Texas Legislature
(2005-2006) states that "tripping" at the west
gate, due to the influence of the currents
generated by the closure of the mouth of the San
Bernard River, costs the commercial barge
industry 2 million dollars a year. "Tripping"
is the word used to describe the process of
breaking a multi-barge tow into single units and
enlisting other tow boats to help "push the
current" in order to navigate the gates. Would
it be possible for your office to furnish us
with actual repair costs to the gate structures
and total yearly hours that the gates are closed
for repairs? Also, can you give an estimated
cost of each hour's delay while the gates are
closed?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
From:
Raymond Butler
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 9:52 PM
To: Lizardo, Tom
Subject:
Brazos Floodgates/ San Bernard River
Impact on Gates
Tom,
Here is what our friends at the Galveston
District have provided us on costs at
Brazos Floodgates. See the below note
from Galveston District O&M. Unfortunately, (as
is the case with most locks on the USACE system)
we don't have complete enough data to properly
evaluate the economic penalties at stake. Here
is my take on it:
1. Damages...We obviously have about twice as
many incidents at the West Gate as at the East
Gate. The West Gate is the one that is
primarily influenced by the plugged San Bernard
River mouth, since the current flows through
this gate and out the
Brazos River to the Gulf of Mexico. In
my mind, this confirms our theory that the
currents from the San Bernard are a primary
factor in these accidents. Relative to costs,
(in the absence of confirming Corps data) let's
assume that every accident costs a minimum of
$15,000 each. I think this is probably on the
low side, but at least we'll be conservative in
our totals. This yields and average of at least
$315,000 per year in damages to the structure.
2. Delay Costs. The attached data indicates that
delays logged by the locks do not include those
involved with breaking down a tow to "trip" the
locks, but rather are times spent waiting for
lock passage, for various other reasons. My
guess is that the majority of this delay is for
tows to wait for acceptably safe current flows
in order to transit the lock at all. These
costs amount to some
$220,000 annually for
direct transportation-only cost penalties. Of
the roughly 18 tows that transit the lock every
day, an accurate, conservative assessment is
that one third of them "trip" the locks due to
currents. Average "trip time" is on the order
of a minimum of 6 hours, so we add 6 hours per
day, per tow to the cost. This yields a
Brazos Floodgate Tripping Penalty of
approximately $3.2 million annually. While
solving the current flow issue at
Brazos may not eliminate 100% of the need
to trip barges, if even half of the tripping is
eliminated, we have a
transportation savings of over $1.6 million
annually from avoided tripping of barges.
3. Hourly Costs to Industry for
Brazos Outage....Based on 18 tows per day
on average, a one hour outage of the
Brazos Floodgates results in a
transportation-only penalty of approximately
$4500
per hour.
4. These cost penalties are all
"Transportation-Only" costs, which do not take
into account the added penalties incurred at a
customers' facility to adjust for delay in
receiving equipment or cargo. We have learned
from major waterway closures (hurricane/oil
spill, etc.) that these costs very often dwarf
the "Transportation-Only" costs incurred from
the equipment delay only.
Tom, I feel that these cost estimates are very
conservative, and even though they are truly
estimates, they probably vastly underestimate
the true costs incurred from the problems we are
coping with at the
Brazos Floodgates. We are not even
addressing the safety risk that is taking place
because of this situation.
I have this project and the
Galveston Railroad Bridge as well as
several others in my GICA request package that
I'll bring with me when I see you at noon on
Thursday. I'll send you a separate email with
all the GICA projects attached.
Thank you so much for taking time to consider
these Tom.
Raymond Butler
Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association
From:
Tom Lizardo
To: Roy Edwards
Subject:
Brazos Floodgates/ San Bernard River
Impact on Gates
The San Bernard issue is
Rep Paul's #1 priority for this year's
E&W bill (you may recall it was #2 last year).
We have decided the best strategy is to ask for
$5 Million immediately and to skip any further
study monies. This is a bit risky but we want
to try to move this forward quickly.
Tom
Now is the time for those of you interested in
the health and future of the San Bernard River
to respectfully contact your local, state and
federal elected officials and urge them to
support the policies and legislation that
directly affect the San Bernard River.
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