Friends Of the River San Bernard

***PLEASE NOTE: PICK UP MAN-MADE TRASH ONLY - i.e.: plastic coolers, bottles, cans, cups, toys, lawn and dock furniture, propane bottles, refrigerators, tv’s, etc. Organic biomass like tree trunks and limbs go to your burn pile.

RESCHEDULED

Annual River Clean-up

Sat Jun 22nd

8:00 am - Noon

“Most Interesting Trash” Award given

Hot Dog Social immediately following

Let's try this again...by now the TRASH MASH “outfitters” have handed out flyers, t-shirts and trash bags to neighbors living in their area of the river. Collect any trash floating in and around your dock area (and anywhere else). The trash is to be brought to one of three collection sites on TRASH MASH day, Sat Jun 22nd. Deliver by 11:30 am if possible.

Bring a boat, if able, to one of the three collection locations and you will get directions from the volunteers there. Dress dirty – gloves, rubber boots or adequate shoes, hat, sunscreen, bug spray, and trash grabber if you have one. Water, t-shirts and trash bags will also be available at the collection sites.

At noon, volunteers are invited to come dirty to the Hot Dog Social at the home of Jane and Tim Logan, 1144 CR 631A, Rio Vista area off FM 2918, 4 miles south of Churchill bridge. Thanks to the Brian Meagher family who will be providing food and drinks. A specially brewed craft beer "The Trash Mash", by brewmaster Valroy Maudlin, will be available for sampling.

Collection Locations:

Hwy 35 Hansen Riverside County Park Boat Ramp
FM 521 Bridge Boat Ramp
FM 2611 Churchill Bridge Boat Ramp

Note: Brazoria County Parks and Recreation Department scooped the majority of the mud out of the boat ramps at FM 2611 and FM 521.

TRASH MASH OUTFITTERS

West Bank:

Sweeny - Tom/Ange Ronayne

Riverview Ranch - Jim Hillis

Fishermans Point - Pat & Denise Wolever

Rivers End - Samantha Hill

East Bank:

Holiday Shores - Mike Goodson

River Rendezview - Fred Kanter

CR 310/496 - Cathy McDonald

Hansen County Park - Tom & Ange Ronayne

FM 521 - Vanessa Taylor

FM 2611 - Valroy & Adalia Maudlin

Environmental Committee at Work

Posted on Jun 12th, 2019 Comments (0)

Tim Logan takes a photo of the blue coffin-sized porta-potty overturned at the right of the photo. Response to GBF Action Network entry.

Tim Logan, FOR Environmental Committee Chair noticed an overturned portable toilet discharging its contents into the flood waters at the Churchill Bridge boat ramp area. This was during the height of flood waters on Fri Jun 7th. He took a photo of it and used the Galveston Bay Action Network app to report the situation. This app (download information) is free and allows anyone to report any land or water pollution. Reports are automatically sent to the proper authority, resulting in the quickest response to get the pollution cleaned up.

Four days later, on Jun 11th, Tim reported the porta-potty was upright and back in place. I guess you could say Tim was "Johnny on the Spot" in this case.

Fifteen Years of San Bernard River Levels

Posted on Jun 11th, 2019 Comments (0)

Graph by Bob Bailey. Click here for larger of version of graph

The graph shows a past 15-year history, from 2002 to the end of 2017, of channel depth gauge readings at the Phillips 66 San Bernard Terminal, now out of commission. Sea level on the depth gauge is approximately 10 feet, so the red line at 20 feet represents an approximate river rise of an additional 10 feet. Note that the river has risen 10 feet or more seven times in the last 15 years. This gauge was a "staff gauge" (lines and numbers painted on a board) and during periods of flooding the terminal operator used to report daily readings by phone to the National Weather Service so they could issue forecasts. The gauge has been replaced with an automated USGS gauge at Highway 35 bridge that is calibrated with zero at sea level, so it indicates the rise of the river directly without having to subtract channel depth.

You may want to know how to convert readings at the old gauge to comparable readings at the new one. That's one of many topics that will be addressed in FOR's flood program on July 13th, 10 to noon at the Community Center. This graph was first posted on the website on Feb 5, 2018. Historical flood data is now available on the USGS Hwy 35 Flood Gauge website (bottom of this page).

"What's the river gonna do?" Flood Program

Posted on Jun 9th, 2019 Comments (0)

"What's the River Gonna Do?" Flood Program

Sat Jul 13th

10:00 am - Noon

FOR Community Center, 20450 CR 510 B

Public Invited - FREE

Learn the tools available to you to help you know what to expect at your house when the river floods. But first, you have some homework prior to the meeting in order to get the most out of it.

First - when the current flood starts to subside, put a mark on your boat lift, a tree, the lawn, (hopefully not your living room wall!) that you will be able to reference in future floods.
Second - know the elevation of your ground floor.
Third - know the elevation of the lowest point leading from your home to the highway. This may be on your driveway or on the county road two miles away.
Fourth - if you already haven't, scroll to the bottom of the this page and click on NOAA Hydrological Prediction Service link. Don't worry if you don't understand what you're looking at, just be familiar with how to access it and be ready to discuss it at the meeting.

No one can predict exactly the height or timing of a flood crest at your house, but you and your neighbors can collectively learn enough to decide when to clear off the dock, pull the boat out, or in extreme cases protect things in the house and move people, pets and vehicles to high ground. So do your homework and we'll see you on July 13th!

Past Web Articles

Posted on Apr 3rd, 2013 Comments (1)

To view past web articles, click on "View Archives" on the right >>>>>>