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Update: San Bernard River Mouth
Posted on Jul 10th, 2011

 
Mouth on July 9, 2011 at low tide. Channel to the southwest has stopped flowing.
Photo Courtesy: Albert Smith, Rio Vista
 
At H-GAC’s “Clean Water Initiative” workshop in Houston on June 22, 2011, a presentation was given by Karl B. Brown, Operations Manager for the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) concerning the Re-opening of the San Bernard River Mouth.
 
Nick Fratila, F.O.R. Mouth Committee, discussed with Mr. Brown the possible long-term solutions for keeping the mouth open longer.
Suggestions were:
  • Construction of a jetty coming out from the east bank of the mouth, but it would be much more costly than maintenance dredging.
  • Alternative sizes of the channel to be dredged in the next 1 to 2 years -- increasing the bottom to 150 ft wide instead of 100 ft, and 12 ft deep instead of 10 ft. to increase the water flow through the channel.
 
Mouth on July 9, 2011 at low tide. Channel to the southeast is still open.
Photo Courtesy: Albert Smith, Rio Vista
 
 
 
  • Possibly closing the west gate at Brazos River of every month to create a stronger water flow in the new channel.
  • Maintenance dredging of the mouth to keep it open will have to be performed more often than the five-ten year time frame that had originally been predicted.
The dredging of the mouth was placed in the Corps’ budget submitted to the OMB for fiscal year 2012, but did not make into the President’s budget. It will be submitted again for the 2013 budget that is to be submitted to OMB in February 2012.