GBCPA Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2003
CONTACT: Katie Chimenti 281-326-3343
Nancy Edmonson 281-471-4567
The Texas Council on
Environmental Quality has the power to prevent development of a container port
proposed at Bayport, and State Representative John Davis is pressing the agency
to use this power with all due care. He drew public applause and private thanks
from bay area residents when he challenged TCEQ to stop the Bayport plan in its
tracks.
"Please deny 401 certification on this
project," Davis urged a TCEQ panel during an overflowing public hearing in
early April. The meeting was part of a review process in which TCEQ must issue
certification that the proposed mega-container port at Bayport will not
contravene state laws protecting wetlands or conflict with state water quality
standards.
"I believe there are practicable alternatives,
including Spillmanšs Island, Shoal Point (Texas City), and Pelican
Island," said Representative Davis. "As I understand it, TCEQ must
deny certification if there is a practicable alternative." He appealed to
TCEQ to exercise its power. "I ask you not simply to accept an assertion
by the Port of Houston Authoritythat these sites are not practicable."
Besidesthe question of alternative sites, Davis
raised two more issueshe found problematical in the certification
procedure. First, he said he was confused about which mitigation plan was
on the table. He said he had been informed that mitigation was being considered
on the Katy Prairie and at the Banana Bend of the San Jacinto Riverboth tens
of miles away from the project site, and very different from the mitigation
plan previously identified for public discussion.
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Davis Ratchets Up Pressure 2 of 3
TCEQ representatives present at the meeting gave no
clarification, and Davis indicated that confusion about mitigation was
undermining the public input process. "Residents of my district need to be
informed by public notice about mitigation plans," he said.
Second, Davis said he was concerned that the acreage
of "jurisdictional" wetlands losses delineated by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers for the project was too low. He urged the Galveston District
of the Corps, which has set the jurisdictional wetlands figure at 18.3 acres,
to request assistance from Corps headquarters in determining how large an
acreage of wetlands should be under consideration.
State Senator Mike Jackson likewise emphasized the
power that TCEQ holds in relation to the Bayport plan. In comments delivered by
a representative, Jackson reiterated what Davis had noted: "No 401
certification can be issued unless the project site is the least damaging
practicable alternative," said Jackson. But the Bayport draft
Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) released by the Corps of Engineers
"clearly demonstrates that alternative sites are less environmentally
damaging," Jackson added.
He echoed Davisšs unease about mitigation plans. In
view of the drop from more than 200 acres of wetlands initially tallied
to only 18.3 acres of wetlands now considered jurisdictional, Jackson
called for TCEQ to conduct its own independent assessment of the wetlandsthat
would be lost on the Bayport site if the project were built.
Mayors Robin Riley of Seabrook, Natalie OšNeill of
Taylor Lake Village, and Nancy Edmonson of Shoreacres all gave comments
opposing the project. Resource agencies have indicated that the DEIS is
biased, said OšNeill: "The agencies have spoken. The people
are speaking here. The TCEQ has the power to do the right thing."
Edmonson challenged the notion of mitigation far
outside the affected watershed: "I am baffled by the idea that you can cut
off my leg, and then mitigate by supplying someone on the other side of town
with a new set of crutches." She noted that Shoreacres operates wells
lying less than a mile from Bayport, and she called upon TCEQ to examine how
the proposed project would affect water quality in these wells.
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Davis Ratchest Up Pressure 3 of 3
Like Davis and Jackson, Riley underscored that there are less
environmentally damaging sites on Galveston Bay for a container port. "As
mayor of Seabrook, I ask you to move the container port to a better
location," he said.
El Lago Mayor Pro Tem Natalie Ong and Mayor-Elect of
Clear Lake Shores Katherine McIntyre both also addressed mitigation problems.
McIntyre said the discrepancies in the numbers of wetlands acres were simply
too far apart to be acceptable. She urged the Corps to reevaluate the site so
that the public could have confidence in the numbers.
Ong said of the various mitigation proposals that
a ditches-and-levees scheme "sounds like a rice paddy to me," and she
also said it was "too little and too far away." She further noted
that the Portšs "first-flush" holding pond, as proposed, was designed
to hold only one inch of rainfall, and that the project would destroy wetlands
not only on port-owned land but also on land owned by its neighbor, American
Acryl.
Attendees at the public hearing were startled to find
the meeting room divided into blocs of seating labeled "Oppose" and
"Support." All attendees, estimated to number more than 500 people,
were required to register on one side or the other upon entering the Bay Area
Community Center on the evening of April 3. Several busloads of people settled
into the "Support" bloc of seats, behind Port Commission Chair
James Edmonds and Port Executive Director Tom Kornegay. When the room filled,
the overflow crowd listened to the proceedings from outside. Only
one speaker was allowed from each elected body representeda TCEQ innovation
that drew sharp criticism from Natalie OšNeill, who said she had never attended
a public meeting where all the elected officials present were not allowed to
speak.
Hydrologist Dr. John Jacob said there was some question
over whether wetlands losses at Bayport could be mititgated at all. He
described the coastal prairie pothole habitat as representing a 50,000-year
geologic legacy with distinctive features. Jacob called for comprehensive
delineation of their uniqueness by Corps experts from Washington, D.C. and by
state universities. A second hydrologist, Larry Dunbar, said that in assessing
the wetlands, the Corpsš Galveston District was applying an idiosyncratic
standard not comparable to that in use in other Corps district offices.
"The result is that a unique set of wetlands is not being regulated
in the Galveston District," said Dunbar.
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Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association
P.O. Box 323, Seabrook, Texas 77586
Phone: 281-326-3343
Website: www.gbcpa.net
E-mail: gbcpa@ev1.net