AP Texas News / Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5377811.html
Dec. 13, 2007, 10:24PM
Corps to open mouth of San Bernard River
© 2007 The Associated Press
BRAZORIA, Texas — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it will open
the mouth of the San Bernard River so that it flows directly into the Gulf of
Mexico, a strategy that it said should make the area safer for commercial
navigation.
The river's mouth has been closed off by a sandbar which "forces water to go
somewhere else," said Martie Cenkci, chief of public affairs for the Corps of
Engineers' Galveston District.
"One of our missions is to ensure safe navigation of America's waterways," she
said.
Officials offered no details on the cost of the project or when it might begin.
It will supersede a $300,000 Texas Department of Transportation plan to connect
the river to the Gulf by way of a canal, said Larry Heckathorn, the department's
Brazoria County area engineer.
TxDOT will offer assistance to the corps plan, Heckathorn said.
"We're here to help," Heckathorn told The Facts for a story to be published in
its Friday editions.
The decision was welcome news to Roy and Jan Edwards, who started the Friends of
the River San Bernard last year to push for opening the river's mouth.
"We're going to have a party and watch the river flow," Roy Edwards said the
newspaper.