News Articles
| August Water Quality Text on San Bernard |
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Posted on Aug 12th, 2020 Comments (0)
H-GAC Texas Stream Team volunteers, Valroy Maudlin and Denise Wolever, use a test kit to measure the physical and chemical parameters of San Bernard River at two locations. Valroy tests off his pier at CR 496, 1.6 miles upstream from the Churchill Bridge. Denise tests off her pier six miles downstream from Churchill Bridge at CR 469. The test reports the pH level, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen and turbidity of the water. Two forms are usually shown for comparison as the data collected from two different locations can vary.
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| We're on our way to the Gulf |
Posted on Aug 7th, 2020 Comments (0) It’s official! After several inquiries at US Fish & Wildlife Service, where the permit to open the mouth had stalled, Friends of the River San Bernard received official notification that the “Mouth of the San Bernard River Restoration Project” was approved. It now goes to the US Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District to obtain approval of a permit required for the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States (dredging open the mouth).
When seeking federal permits, there is always uncertainty about when the work to dredge open the mouth could begin, but the projected estimated date has been set for early 2021.
The project of opening the mouth first started on January 2013 when representatives of Friends of the River (FOR) San Bernard attended the first meeting of the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council in Galveston, Tx. FOR President Wayne Head spoke about the need for reopening the mouth and presented an informative booklet of details and photos regarding the closed mouth to the Restoration panel. The Restoration Council was responsible for distribution of federal civil penalties resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill ligation.
These RESTORE ACT funds will be spent on three Brazoria County projects. Raising and extending the fishing pier at Quintana Beach, preventing beach erosion at Surfside Beach, and the majority of the $10.76 million will go toward dredging open the mouth project.
The mouth of the San Bernard was first dredged open in February 2009 but due to lack of planning to maintain the opening, it had silted shut by the end of 2012. Port Freeport and Brazoria County have a 25-year interlocal agreement to split the cost of future periodic maintenance dredging of the mouth of the San Bernard River to keep it open and flowing to the Gulf.
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| Drinking in the sunset |
| Posted on Aug 3rd, 2020 Comments (0) Photo Jason Allen 8-2-20
 At dusk, a boat travels up the San Bernard heading towards a golden sunset.
If you are ever at the mouth (see photos below) look for the the legendary green flash at sunset! The green flash happens just as the sun sinks into the water and only lasts a couple of seconds so you have to watch closely. You must have at a clear view of the horizon such as on the Gulf at the mouth. Here’s the hard part…it’s best not to look at the sun until it is nearly entirely below the horizon.
The scientific explanation is that the atmosphere bends the sunlight passing through it, separating the light into different colors, like a prism that bends and splits sunlight into rainbows. Water vapor in the atmosphere absorbs the yellow and orange colors in white sunlight, and air molecules scatter the violet light. That leaves the red and blue-green light to travel directly toward you. It’s said that once you’ve seen a green flash, you’ll never again go wrong in matters of the heart or that a soul has returned to the living.
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| It's wasn't Sharknado |
| Posted on Jul 20th, 2020 Comments (0) Photo John Swanson
 This waterspout was spotted over River’s End on Sun Jul 19th by FOR Director John Swanson.
Waterspouts are weaker versions of a tornado that occur over a body of water usually on the edge of a thunderstorm. Did anyone in River’s End see any bouncing frogs coming from the sky about that time? It is widely reputed that waterspouts can suck up animals near the surface of a body of water but is more likely that is caused by an overactive imagination.
 (Don’t believe what you saw in that old movie “Sharknado” where a waterspout sucked sharks out of the ocean and dropped them on Los Angles.)
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| Past Web Articles |
| Posted on Apr 3rd, 2013 Comments (1) To view past articles click on VIEW ARCHIVES at top of page.
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