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Show Your Support to Open the Mouth
Posted on Aug 27th, 2016
Show your support to open the mouth of the San Bernard River by emailing your comments regarding the USACE project to restore the mouth of the San Bernard River to the original channel as restored by the Corps in 2009. Read entire USACE Public Notice.
- Comments should include your name, address, phone number and the Department of the Army permit number Public Notice SWG-2015-00603.
- Send your email to: swg_public_notice@usace.army.mil
- All comments pertaining to this public notice must reach this office on or before
16 September 2016.
Following is FOR's official position concerning the USACE project. Feel free to copy and use all of it or use it to guide your own thoughts. Just do it...
Friends of the River (FOR) San Bernard, a 501(c)3 organization with a mission to preserve and protect the San Bernard River, enthusiastically supports the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project to restore the mouth of the San Bernard to its historic location as described in USACE permit SWG-2015-00603. In addition to the marsh restoration benefits described in the public notice, the project will have following positive impacts on the environment and economy of the area.
1. Restore fresh water and salt water exchange at the mouth of the river, allowing plant and bird habitat as well as migration of marine life between estuaries and the Gulf to return to their natural states.
2. Restore tidal flushing of the river. Bacteria sampling on the lower Bernard indicates that bacteria levels increase during extended periods of dry weather. Watershed Protection Plans developed for the San Bernard, Cedar Bayou and Bastrop Bayou have modeled and documented the benefits of tidal flushing for removal of bacteria and other contaminants and for increasing dissolved oxygen levels.
3. Reduce dangerous currents in the Intracoastal Waterway from storm runoff and tidal exchanges that previously flowed through the mouth of the river.
4. Restore navigable access to the Gulf, providing the following benefits:
- Allow the return of commercial fishing and catch processing that moved away when the mouth silted in.
- Restore recreational fishing to previous levels, along with the commercial activity to support it.
- Provide Gulf access for environmental and other projects. (When access to the Gulf was lost, TCEQ abandoned plans and sold a two acre riverside property it intended to use for storage of artificial reef materials.)
Friends of the River San Bernard requests approval of the project to open the mouth of the San Bernard River and provide subsequent dredging required to maintain a stable, navigable channel. We believe the project meets all of the selection criteria for funding under the RESTORE Act.
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