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We will
restore, protect, promote and ensure a clean,
healthy, flowing San Bernard River for the sanity and
enjoyment of present and future generations.
Roy Edwards
River Mouth Chairman
Moving in the Right Direction
By Roy Edwards
Tuesday morning,
The Facts published a “teaser” at the bottom of the
front page stating, “ Coming Wednesday U.S. Department of
Interior allocates $48.6 million for Texas coastal
projects”. Of course, the first thing that popped into Jan
and my minds were – what the heck was going on ? – did it
include the San Bernard River mouth? Our inquiring minds
wanted to know - and we did not want to wait for Wednesday.
We called The Facts only to be told the reporter
doing the story was not in. So… we started making calls to
anyone who might know. None of our sources (initially) knew
where this story was coming from, either. Our river’s story
was caught up in what news people call a “breaking” story.
We kept looking for answers, so all our readers could have
some answers and below is a compilation of data we found
out. There will be more, later, but things that need to
happen to open the mouth of the river are beginning to move.
We’ll report in another post more information as it becomes
clearer.
The first thing we
learned (from Teresa Schlumpberger) was that KHOU also had
run a teaser about the coastal projects so we went to
KHOU.com and found this story:
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou070417_ac_coastalprotection.1a12149b.html
We sent this link
out to a lot of people and started getting more pieces of
the puzzle back. Next, we heard back from the GLO through
Commissioner Payne’s office the following information:
CIAP Coastal County Contacts:
Today, the Minerals Management Service (MMS)
released the amount of funds the State of Texas and its
coastal political subdivisions will receive in Coastal
Impact Assistance Program funding for the current and next
fiscal year. The amounts are less then the previously
minimum amounts MMS had indicated. It appears the lower
amount may be a result of MMS receiving a 3% administrative
budget from Congress not previously accounted for in their
calculations.
Therefore, please review the allocation
amount your county is to receive (included and attached to
this email) for this fiscal year and adjust your Tier 1
project(s) budget to reflect the current allocation. Please
provide to me at your earliest convenience; however,
no later than Friday, May
11, 2007 your revised Tier 1 project
amounts. These revised dollar amounts are needed so the
General Land Office may accurately reflect your projects in
the State Plan.
Please contact me if you have any questions
or need additional clarification. Thank you and I look
forward to receiving your revised Tier 1 information.
Sincerely,
Craig Davis
Craig Davis
Coastal Resources
Texas General Land Office
P. O. Box 12873
Austin, TX 78711
www.TexasCoastalConnection.com
Tuesday was
starting to get VERY INTERESTING. Next, we heard back from
Tom Lizardo in Ron Paul’s office:
Per the calls to Rep. Paul's offices . . .
FYI, my belief and understanding is that
this is the money that local communities have been applying
to receive from the GLO. If I am not mistaken both the San
Bernard River and the Surfside erosion were projects that
Brazoria County included. In fact, I think Dr Paul wrote a
letter of support for both of those.
This is not in directly related to USACE
project proposals for FY '08 made in our offices.
The last
information we heard before I wrote this post is the below
press release from the Mineral Management Service (MMS), the
governmental entity that will be administering the funds:
http://www.mms.gov/ooc/press/2007/press0416.htm
Looks like things
are starting to happen for our river. Oh, and make sure you
pick up a copy of Wednesday’s Facts and read the information
they gathered (we will put a link to it on this site as soon
as we get it). At any rate, you’ll know more when we know
more.
“Open her heart. Let the life blood flow –
‘Gotta get on our way ‘cause we’re moving too slow…”
-Gordon Lightfoot-
One of F.O.R.'s
primary functions is to educate the public
regarding the issues concerning the San Bernard
River and it's Communities. Contact Pat Webb
pat@sanbernardriver.com to schedule a
guest speaker for your group or special event.
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