Happy Thursday!
We went to the Greater Houston Port Bureau (GHPB) Commerce
Club Luncheon at the Houston Marriot South at Hobby Airport today.
The speaker was Colonel Rhett A. Blackmon,
Commander and District Engineer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Galveston District (USACE). Col. Blackmon is the leader of the water
resource district where he is in charge of over 600 civilian and military
professionals, and the respective projects from Brownsville to Beaumont. USACE – Galveston District is in charge of a
total of 50,000 square miles mostly along the Texas Coast. The USACE Galveston District has 7
core mission strategies to help the Texas Coastal communities by providing construction,
navigation, environmental restoration, flood risk management, shoreline protection,
regulatory and emergency management services. What these things mean in terms for us as
Port Bureau members is thy help with navigation on the waterways, help mitigate
flood risk from storms and help mitigate coastal storm risk from storm surge, as
well as provide us regulatory programs to help with permitting, ecosystem
restoration to help protect our coastlines and shores, emergency management and
response and interagency support to get things moving after storms. USACE is the federal connection to funds and
expertise to help the various area agencies accomplish various projects like
Project 11, Project 12, Sabine Pass, and Coastal Texas.
Col. Blackmon briefly spoke in
regard to some of the permits USACE offers. He strongly recommended you should set up a
preapplication meeting for any project in their jurisdiction as to avoid any
delays in permitting, to make things go more friendly and smoothly as well as
to understand the expectations. The 408 program
is a permit one needs if you want to go over, under or through any federal projects. The 404 program is a permit one needs, if in
regard to the Clean Water Act which means you want to work in, under, or over
U.S. navigable waters for example you need to work in any area wetlands. The last permit the Col. Blackmon spoke on is
217B which is in regard to real estate like docks or dredging materials. He mentioned in 1996 USACE was given authority
to accept dredging materials from non-government entities. USACE has hundreds of dedicated areas for
dredging materials under their jurisdiction.
Col. Blackmon pointed out many ports along the Texas coast have dredging
projects underway at this time and what is happening to their materials.
Col. Blackmon spoke on some of
the ongoing projects along the Texas Coast.
Project 11 in the Houston Ship Channel (HSC) has completed dredging in Sections 1A
and 1B and the materials have helped Long Bird Island and an oyster reef in the
area. USACE has awarded contracts for Section
1C. The project is moving along nicely
and its benefits are already being felt by the users of the channel. Project 12 they are trying to initiate. Col. Blackmon spoke quite a bit on Coastal Texas
which is also known as Ike’s Dike. USACE
has completed a $20-million feasibility study and have entered the pre-construction design stage of the
project where they have already come up with a concept and area leaders and
partners have helped them adjust their design.
One example of this is originally they were making islands asymmetrical;
however, when feedback rolled in, they changed to symmetrical ones. They have changed how the original gates were
designed to take into consideration low-tide, marine life, and even what happens
when it rains as well as how one would navigate them. They will have many public forums to get the
feedback of locals in the future. The
USACE end goal is have the right engineering and course for the right place.
Thank you, Colonel Blackmon! You are an interesting and informative
speaker, and we are looking forward to seeing how USACE and its partners makes
the Texas Coast more resilient to future storms.
As you see the speakers at the GHPB’s
Commerce Club Luncheons bring an informative talk to all that
attend. The next Commerce Club
Luncheon is January 9, 2024, at 11 a.m.
It is the Annual Meeting. Please
check out the website, if you would like to learn more. Commerce Club Luncheons - Greater Houston Port Bureau.
If you would like help in
figuring out how to get your product moving with less of a carbon footprint,
contact us via email on the Blog or give us a call: 281-901-5554. Check out our ESC website!
We may add more on this tomorrow, so stay tuned! Col. Blackmon covered a lot of ground.
We hope you have a great and productive rest your week!