GALVESTON BAY, swimming with the dolphins, PCBs, and FECAL MATTER

GALVESTON BAY, swimming with the dolphins, PCBs, and FECAL MATTER

Greetings again kind friends and neighbors,

well, see there, i was not dreaming, i know what shit smells like when i smell it. i was not only fishing with the PCBs, i was also fishing in feces yesterday, right in our backyard, on Galveston Bay. wonder what the PCBs and the fact Galveston Bay is now being used as a toilet, just to flush feces down, wonder what that will do to bay front property values ??? the realtors and such keep telling me they call this progress. hmmm, some progress. yep, glad i threw that limit of specs away yesterday. that was the first time i had ever released a limit of specs, one by one off our pier. i don't like catch and release, especially when live shrimp is 10 dollars a pint. catch and put in freezer is my logo, and if you cannot do that, what's the use of going, especially when you smell like feces when you get out of the bay. oh well, business is booming, Bayport et al is running wide open, the shit channel is bigger and better, and Galveston Bay is now nothing more than a toilet full of feces, PCBs, and many other toxins, not to forget the deadly flesh eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, come on down and get your bay front, water front, property now. ...TSS

p.s. as of this morning, no identifiable lesions, and or open wounds yet. ...TSS

July 18, 2008, 11:15PM Buffalo Bayou tributary flushed Investigators trying to identify source of sewage

By ALLAN TURNER Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Hazardous materials workers began the laborious process of flushing a stagnant segment of Buffalo Bayou's Newman Branch on Friday after it was contaminated by raw sewage, possibly flowing from a broken pipe.

Most heavily contaminated was a section of the waterway between Interstate 10 and Memorial Drive.

Investigators from the city health department and other agencies arrived at the scene early Friday afternoon after nearby residents complained of the stench. The process of flushing the bayou with water from fire hydrants began at midafternoon.

Today, hazardous material workers plan to siphon scum from atop the water at a collection point set up with booms near the Memorial bridge.

Stephen Dicker, an investigator with Houston Police Department's environmental crimes unit, said workers trying to identify the source of the leak were hampered by the uncertainty of the location of underground sewer pipes.

Newman Branch flows north to south just east of Antoine. North of I-10, the branch is contained in storm sewers, Dicker said.

Houston oilman Dewey Stringer, who lives near the point where the bayou passes Memorial, said similar pollution has periodically plagued the waterway for at least five years. Generally, however, heavy rainfall dilutes the contamination.

Stringer, who was among residents to report the pollution to authorities, said the odor was so severe that he and his wife found it difficult to sleep. He had planned to relocate to Galveston this weekend and commute to work.

Stringer said he has developed eye irritation from vapors rising from the bayou and both he and his wife have developed persistent coughs.

In the past, Stringer said official response to pollution incidents had been lackadaisical.

Thursday night, he said, he began telephoning federal, state, county and city agencies he thought might have jurisdiction in the matter.

"No one is saying that there isn't a problem today," he said as investigators scurried along the bayou bank at his home. "They're all running around with red eyes."

While complete water sample test results were not available Friday, preliminary tests indicated the water's oxygen level was far below the level needed to sustain aquatic life.

Investigators have seen no signs of a fish kill, Dicker said.

At the point where Newman Branch passes Stringer's house, the water Friday afternoon was a metallic black, covered by thick pads of ivory-colored scum. Stringer said the bayou had been in that condition about a month.

Dicker said he has investigated previous pollution cases at Newman Branch — one involving dumping chemicals from a paint factory and one from construction runoff.

"This is the first time we've had apparent sewage pollution," he said.

Dicker said his investigation is complicated by the presence of both city and subdivision sewer systems in the area.

allan.turner@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5896226.html


In fact, much of Buffalo Bayou is tidal. Spartina alterniflora, the salt marsh plant in the low-tidal zone, seems to cut off upstream of the connection with the San Jacinto, up closer to around Jensen/Runnels street. I’m not sure if that’s due to the change in salinity or the abrupt change in topography there (from more flat estuarine-like along the edges to a deeper, narrow channel)

Further up the bayou, I have witnessed a dolphin at the intersection of White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou, as several newspapers described back in the 90’s; there are certainly small alligators and big fish as far upstream as it goes. FYI, there’s also a lot of submerged junk there, too.

There is flow to Buffalo Bayou, it is regulated by a dam up near Addick’s Reserviour, they can make it fast enough to make canoe races entertaining as evidenced by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s annual race. I don’t know of any spring-fed flow, I would find that very strange for this bayou in particular. Ground water certainly is a major contributor from adjacent urban areas, and major rains can cause a massive fish kill, I have an old picture of one if anyone’s interested. I don’t know the name, but some folks at the University of Houston - Downtown have done a little work on that.

One can see evidence of flow from floods in the trees: there are characteristic water lines formed by trash hanging from the high points among the branches.I would say that historically, Buffalo Bayou probably drained the Katy Prairie, which should be somewhat more wet than it is today. Today, it drains Addick’s. Also, the areas adjacent to the Bayou were and are drained as well.

In conclusion, there is flow generally towards Galveston Bay, but sometimes it reverses due to high tides and southeast winds, particularly in the summer. Thus, it is a brackish connection between the fresh upper reaches, and the lower saline/brackish estuary.

http://texasliberal.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/blog-readers-demand-to-know-dolphins-in-houstons-buffalo-bayou/


The Port of Houston faces the ongoing challenge of floating debris deposited into Buffalo Bayou and floating into the Turning Basin and Galveston Bay.

http://www.irconnect.com/poha/pages/news_releases.html?d=125640


does that include floating turds. ...

still disgusted in sunny, hot, baycliff texas, where Houston still flushes turds into Galveston bay (at-a-boy mayor), and where you cannot eat the fish and crabs due to the PCBs and other deadly toxins, and where the deadly flesh eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus lives, come on down. ...TSS

----- Original Message -----
From: TERRY SINGELTARY
To: steve@seabreezenews.com
Cc: judge
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 11:24 AM
Subject: LIMITED OUT THIS A.M. and i let them all go....first time that ever happened

greetings,

got a limit this A.M. before 10. the bay was flat, murky green, and the bay smelt just like sewage. or like it did in the late 50s, when you could walk the beach here in baycliff, and every house sewage went straight to the bay, that's what it smelled like. oh well, go figure, must have been the PCBs. also, while wading, it was like walking on potato chips. the bottom of the bay floor was littered with some kind of clam shells. every step you took, you would crunch a bunch of clam shells. no clams in them, they were all empty, just strange, had never seen that in this area before. where did the clams go? i was so disgusted, i sat on the pier and let them all go, one by one. i let a limit of speckle trout go. wasted 10 dollars on a pint of shrimp, just so i could let 10 specs go. probably the last time this year for that. what are we gonna do? do like most guides are doing and just play like everything is o.k., go ahead and fry em up, and feed our kids and grandkids these trout we now KNOW are tainted with PCBs? that seems what most of the guides are doing. just ignore it, play like it aint happening. i just cannot do it now, maybe later??? i think it's pathetic the way the public has flat out not responded to this. course with most everyone trying to convince joe q public, there aint nothing wrong with those specs, i am sure most will just forget about it, which is what most of the fishing industry is hoping. sad........

terry

GALVESTON BAY FISH CONSUMPTION WARNING DUE TO PCBs

http://galvestonbay.blogspot.com/


Monday, July 14, 2008

Heedless practices of Texas industry and DREDGING OF SHIP CHANNEL, now poisoning sport fishing industry, AND IT'S CONSUMERS

http://galvestonbay.blogspot.com/2008/07/heedless-practices-of-texas-industry.html


http://www.texashuntfish.com/app/forum/19324/GALVESTON-BAY-FISH-CONSUMPTION-WARNING-and-ship-channel-dredging-for-BAYPORT


TSS