Island Re-Emerges

The Port of Houston Authority (PHA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have begun the undertaking of bringing several islands back to life along the Houston Galveston Navigation Channel. Once an important recreational feature in Baytown, Goat Island fell victim to subsidence.

Subsidence occurs

in certain areas when ground becomes lower in respect to the mean tide. It can be the end result of pumping large amounts of fresh water or oil from the earth, or due to the soft nature of the silt layers under water. Sand as a ground layer holds weight better than silt, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project engineer, Dale Williams.

The new, 200-acre Goat Island will be located in Crystal Bay, just west of Baytown. The project is easily visible from the lookout of the San Jacinto Monument.

"The Port along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are involved in a precedent setting project to create over 4,200 acres of marshland," said Jimmy Burke, PHA commissioner. "The port authority takes seriously its stewardship of the environment and its responsiveness to the community. Goat Island is an excellent example of this."

According to Burke, the widening and deepening of the Houston Ship Channel created an opportunity to restore Goat Island. The project is the result of an innovative effort to use dredged materials from the Houston Galveston Navigation Channel by the Beneficial Uses Group (BUG), a coalition of local, state and federal government agencies formed in 1990. Members of the BUG include Port of Houston Authority, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries Service, Texas General Land Office, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Luhr Bros. Construction of Illinois began work on the restoration with the construction of containment dikes in summer 2003. They will be using roughly 300,000 tons of limestone rock shipped by barged from their quarry in Missouri.

Two pods, or cells, connected by a breakwater are under construction. The north pod will be 80 acres in size. The south pod will consist of 130 acres. Luhr is primarily utilizing the mechanical placement of rock to build up the Goat Island levee. Digging flotation channels for the barges to access most of the work area would have increased the cost of the project, although sidecasting with a dragline was used for a portion of the work, according to Williams.

Geotextile and burlap placed on the inside slopes of the dikes will serve to stabilize the fill material. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. expects to pump about four million cubic yards of dredged material inside the levees to restore the island.

Creation of these new landmasses will serve as authorized placement areas for dredged material for the next 20 years, as ship channel maintenance is an ongoing process, according to Dalton Kruger, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "We will come back in future years to construct additional cells.

"The Corps of Engineers became involved in the project at the request of the PHA, when they wanted to deepen the shipping channel from 40 feet to 45 feet and widen the shipping lane from 400 feet to 530 feet," explained Kruger. "The channel had shoaled in and must be maintained to a 45-foot depth."

The Corps of Engineers evaluated the project for feasibility and Congress authorized about 75 percent of the funding for the project. The local entity, the PHA, must cover the other 25 percent of the project.

Other projects included in this restoration program include Bird Island, Red Fish Island, Alexander Island, Ed Bolivar Island, and Lost Lake, plus the creation of 4,250 acres of mid-bay marshes.

Restoration of Goat Island is scheduled to be complete by the end of this year, and will serve as a habitat for area wildlife, including numerous fish and bird species. The island will act as a barrier between the channel and shoreline, sheltering the Burnet and Crystal Bays shoreline and residential areas from ship wakes and natural wave action.

Photos courtesy of Turner, Collie and Braden, Gahagan Bryant, and J Simmons Group