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Fifteen Years of San Bernard River Levels
Posted on Feb 15th, 2018
Graph by Bob Bailey

The graph shows a fifteen-year record of river levels on the San Bernard. Data came from the Phillips 66 terminal located two miles downstream from FM 522. The red line indicates a level of 20 feet where the river has crested over seven times in the last twenty years. Click here for larger of version of graph.
Eileen Kenneda, a member of the 2006 FOR Organizing Committee (OC) started keeping the first records. She used it for determining the water level at their dock in Smith Estates with the level at the Phillips 66 terminal so as to know when to get their boat lifted or out of the water. Since only a couple of days of info appeared online, she entered it on an Excel spreadsheet and updated every few days or the data was lost.
At the first open meeting of the OC, Eileen requested volunteers to maintain the spreadsheet. FOR Director Bob Bailey, who lives in the Lazy Oak Ranch area, volunteered and thus started his involvement with FOR. He now serves as Treasurer.
Today, there is usually 9 to 10 days data available from the Sweeny terminal. In the future, historical data will be available from the new Hwy 35 gauge. Bob makes notes during river rises to correlate the level at his dock with the reading at Sweeny.
The flood gauge on Hwy 35 bridge and San Bernard transmits river level data that you can receive at USGS Current Conditions San Bernard near Sweeny. Help in receiving automatic readings of data from this site can be found on the National Water Information System: Help System.
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