FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
CONTACT:  Katie Chimenti, 281-326-3343
                    Nancy Edmonson 281-471-4567

 

November 11, 2002

Audubon Joins Fight against Bayport Terminal

The Houston Audubon Society , a chapter of the National Audubon Society, has this month come out in opposition to the construction of a major new container port facility at Bayport by the Port of Houston Authority.

"Houston Audubon has decided to add its voice to the many others challenging the Bayport Terminal Facility," says a report in the November issue of its membership newsletter, The Naturalist, serving an audience of bird enthusiasts. The report notes that the proposed facility would occupy more than 1,000 acres on the south side of the Bayport Channel.

"Until recently," it continues, "Houston Audubon had not taken a position on the project because it did not appear to affect bird conservation in a discernable way. However, recent written objections of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to the project based on damage to prairie habitat that is certain to occur has made this a conservation issue affecting birds."

For three years the Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association (GBCPA) has spearheaded opposition to this location for port development. GBCPA is currently urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to require a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the plan because of the many inadequacies in the existing Draft EIS commissioned by the Port of Houston Authority.

"Houston Audubon is now on board with USFWS, Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association, EPA, and Texas Parks and Wildlife, and a number of other groups in objecting to this facility. What form those objections will take in the public forum will be announced at a later date," says the Houston Audubon newsletter.

Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association
P.O. Box 323, Seabrook, Texas 77586
Phone: 281-326-3343
Website: www.gbcpa.org
E-mail:  gbcpa@gbcpa.org