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Derelict boat removed
from San Bernard River
Published February 15,
2007
The Spirit C once was a
sturdy shrimp boat, but it turned into an
eyesore on the San Bernard River, area
residents said.
“You would come over the Churchill Bridge
and it was ‘welcome to the trash view’ with
that boat,” said Vanessa Taylor, a member of
Friends of the River San Bernard, a
volunteer non-profit organization that
sponsors an annual river cleanup.
“This boat’s removal has been long overdue,”
Taylor said.
As Taylor and fellow members of the
organization watched this week, specialists
with the Texas General Land Office manned an
oil spill boom on the river while a private
contractor used large machinery to take
apart the aging boat. Representatives of the
Brazoria County Environmental Health
Department also were on hand if a spill
prompted their assistance.
The Spirit C had sat idle and deteriorating
for about a decade at its mooring next to
the High Five Bar and Grill, near FM 2611
and CR 659. Yetta Hustead, owner of the
business and the boat, said she couldn’t
afford to move the boat.
“I agree it was an eyesore to look at, but I
didn’t have any resource or money to move
it,” Hustead said.
But she might have to reimburse the state
the approximate $6,000 it cost to remove the
boat, said Bill Grimes, an oil spill
training and response coordinator for the
land office.
The “payback” provision is part of an
amendment to the Natural Resources and Parks
and Wildlife codes made by House Bill 2096,
which was sponsored by state Rep. Dennis
Bonnen and Sen. Kyle Janek in the 79th
Legislative session. It contains provisions
and penalties for addressing abandoned and
deteriorating vessels on intracoastal
waterways and beach areas.
Violators could be charged with a class A
misdemeanor, fined up to $4,000 and face up
to a year in jail.
The law, enacted in 2005, is intended to
help clean up the debris and prevent related
oils spills and other pollution hazards in
coastal waterways.
“This new law is a good tool to get rid of
derelict vessels,” said Scott Gaudet, an oil
spill specialist and assistant director of
Region 2 of the land office. He coordinated
land office personnel Tuesday as they manned
the spill boom laid in a circular perimeter
about 20 yards from the boat.
“We worry about the potential for people in
other boats to hit these boats at night,”
Gaudet said. “They could spill oil or other
pollutants. On the docks or at a beach, kids
could get on these boats and fall through a
deck and hurt themselves.”
Gaudet and several members of Friends of the
River San Bernard watched as Cary Kneupper,
owner of Cary Construction Co. in Point
Comfort, worked the large tractor hoe a few
feet onshore from the boat.
“He’s doing this smart,” Gaudet said of
Kneupper’s work. “He’s breaking the boat
apart from the back. Otherwise, if he broke
the bow first, the debris would leak out the
front.”
A mild wind also aided the work, pushing
toward the bow debris accumulated as the
stern and sides of the boat were broken
apart by the track hoe. The machine lifted
the planks and twisted metal of the boat’s
structure, depositing them in a large trash
bin.
Near the end of the work, after a crane
lifted the boat’s engine, Gaudet looked at
the oil containment boom and said less than
a quart of oil appeared to have emerged from
the boat. The land office’s containment boat
used absorbent pads that absorb oil but not
water, he said.
A pre-inspection of the boat revealed it was
unlikely that a significant amount of oil
was inside the boat.
“We probably lifted out about 70,000 pounds
of boat material,” said Kneupper. “I think
it pretty much went off without a hitch.”
David Pope, chairman of Friends of the River
San Bernard, who also was watching the
operation, said his group pushed to have the
boat removed by contacting county officials
and the land office.
“It used to be legal to scuttle your boat in
Texas, so there’s more than a hundred years
of litter in these bodies of water around
the coast,” Pope said.
The land office identified almost 40 boats
and structures, such as parts of detached
oil rigs, that needed removal in Brazoria
County, Gaudet said.
Terry Hagerty is a reporter for The Facts.
Contact him at (979)237-0151.
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