History of the Lower San Jacinto River

 

The San Jacinto river starts from Huntsville and goes through Lake Houston and Conroe and joins with the Houston Ship Channel that flows into Galveston Bay. The San Jacinto Watershed goes through the cities of Houston, Galena Park, Baytown, Humble, Shoreacres and Seabrook. What is done to the river and how it is taken care of can affect a lot of people down the line. An early explorer of Texas by the last name of Moore, when first seeing the San Jacinto river said, “The San Jacinto is navigable about forty miles; its water is remarkably clear and wholesome.” Today the San Jacinto is nowhere near that description. It has been polluted by humans. The lower San Jacinto river has been damaged by several incidents in past years that have affected the river. The San Jacinto river goes through Highlands and Baytown and is affected by the residents that live near the river. Lyondell Petrochemical is one of the industries that resides near the lower San Jacinto River. Though the industries are strongly regulated by the state of Texas there is not a 100% chance that everything is safe. A de-inking plant is running near the river and another plant called Champion, a paper plant, used to be near the Lower San Jacinto river but no longer is there. Even though there is no intended harm to the river by these companies the lower San Jacinto river might be affected by the industries around it. There have been been a number of incidents that have occurred on the San Jacinto river that might have effected it, such as the Highlands Acid Pit incident and the flooding that broke the oil pipelines. These incidents had an impact on the water quality of the lower San Jacinto river.

The Highlands Acid Pit is located a mile and a half west of Highlands. There is an estimated 5,000 people where the drinking water well is 2,000 ft from the acid pit. There is a problem with the well being so close to the acid pit because there might be contaminated groundwater that can create a problem in human ingestion. The Highlands acid pit is within the San Jacinto river's 10 year flood basin which mans that it is vulnerable to flooding. The pollutants in the Highlands Acid Pit include organic compounds such as toluene, benzene, phenol, xylenes and inorganic compounds such as sulfate, manganese, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and beryllium. This can cause problems because the heavy metals and organics have strong odors, especially during hot wet weather. The Highlands Acid Pit was being polluted as early as the 1950's when industrial waste sludges were being dumped inside the pit. In 1961 there was a flood caused by hurricane Carla. As a result of the flood, waste from the contaminants within the acid pit leaked out causing a large amount of fish to die in Clear Lake. There have been contaminants from the acid pit found in run-off water and groundwater. There was a cleanup that took place and there was about 22,200 cubic yards of waste and soil that was cleaned up. Today there is a fence built around the pit so that no one is able to disturb it. Two years of studies were performed to see of the acid pit could affect the people that live near it. There was a gas and oil well built near the site by Etoco Inc. but it is said to have had no affect on the acid pit.

 

Dredging is anotherthing that has affected the San Jacinto River through the years. Dredging is the removal of mud from the bottom of water bodies to make it deeper. Dredging can greatly affect the ecosystem and destroy aquatic life. In 1924 dredging was done in the San Jacinto river to get sand. In 1932 and 1945 the Houston Ship Channel was dredged and this destroyed the town of San Jacinto. Dredging has caused subsidence along the river, and islands which used to be good habitat for wildlife and are now innundated by water.