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On the Spring 2011

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On the Spring 2011 on the Spring 2011 COASTa coastal issues newsletter from your Texas General Land Office Surfside Beach Restoration Surfside Beach was once known as Tex- dy ribbon. Hurricane Ike destroyed dozens of structures as’ premiere surf spot, but years of un- and the remainder of the beach, leaving the gulf’s waves checked erosion and damage from Hur- lapping at Beach Drive and threatening to claim more ricane Ike had left a dangerous mess. The victims. beach was all but gone, and the waves lap- After Ike, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson ping at Beach Drive threatened to destroy made the preservation and restoration of Surfside Beach roads, sewer systems and private homes. a priority. The result was a project to renourish the beach However, a recently completed Texas Gen- and rebuild and enhance the protective stone revetment eral Land Office project combined local, to withstand a 25-year storm event. Patterson said the state and federal money to renourish the state’s investment of $480,000 through the Coastal Ero- beach and repair a protective stone revet- sion Planning and Response Act helped leverage more Chief Clerk Larry Laine touts the beautiful new beach ment, essentially revitalizing the village of than $4.2 million in other funding to make the project at his old stomping grounds. Surfside. possible. Chief Clerk Larry Laine and Surfside Mayor Larry Da- The new beach is about a mile long and more than South Padre City vison cut a ribbon in mid-March to rededicate the expan- 100 feet wide, stretching from Jettyview Road to Whelk Beach Gets Much sive new swath of sand, more than 10,000 dump trucks Street. It now protects more than $53 million worth of Needed Sand worth shipped by barge and truck from the Port of Bay streets, sewers and homes. After the placement of more page 2 City. than 167,500 tons of sand, Surfside Beach is once again “Look at that beach, Surfside is back!” said Laine, a in business. one-time Surfside resident. “We worked hard to get this “I think members of the Legislature can feel good CMP Grant Cycle 17 project done before Spring Break so everyone can enjoy about their investment in this project,” Laine said. “Surf- Opens the best new beach in Texas.” side Beach is a great example of how a big beach proj- page 2 Surfside Beach suffers from one of the highest erosion ect, where it makes economic sense, can save millions of rates on the Texas coast. Years of erosion—sometimes as dollars worth of public infrastructure. Surfside is worth Mad Island much as 16 feet a year—had thinned the beach to a san- saving.” Shoreline Protection and Ecosystem Restoration page 3 Removing Derelict Vessels Makes the Texas Coast Safer page 3 Texas Coastal Expo set for June 18 at Moody Gardens page 4 Looking east on Surfside Beach before the project. Here’s what Spring Breakers found after project completion. South Padre City Beach Gets Much Needed Sand South Padre City Beach is wider and more alluring after a recent Texas and continue to make South Padre Island a sought after destination for General Land Office project placed about 370,000 cubic yards of sand beachgoers, visitors and vacationers. Similar very successful projects have on the popular destination. The nourishment project addresses one of the been funded and implemented in three of the previous five CEPRA biennial most critically eroding areas of beach along South Padre Island, earning cycles. the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association designation as a “Top Restored Beach.” The $6.2 million project was a partnership between the Land Office’s Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act (CEPRA) program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), and the city of South Padre Island, with $2.7 million representing the combined Land Office and city cost-share of the project and $3.5 million representing the federal contribution. Continued protection of South Coastal Coordination Council Padre City Beach, as well as pub- Chairman lic and commercial infrastructure, Jerry Patterson was helped immensely through a Commissioner of the Texas General Corps maintenance dredging proj- Land Office ect at the Brazos-Santiago Pass, Members part of the Brownsville Ship Chan- nel navigation system. The material Elizabeth Ames Jones Railroad Commission of Texas the Corps dredges from this sec- tion of the channel is composed of George Deshotels beach quality sand. South Padre City Beach before the project. Coastal Government Representative “The Corps needed to dredge, Bob McCan so we took advantage of the op- Agriculture Representative portunity to get high-quality, low- cost sand on our beaches where Jose Dodier it belongs,” said Jerry Patterson, Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. “Our job here at the Jerry Mohn Land Office was to get everyone Coastal Business Representative working together to get this done.” Edward Vaughan The project was completed in Texas Water Development Board only four weeks under a coopera- tive agreement with the Corps to Ned S. Holmes beneficially use material dredged Texas Transportation Commission from the Brazos-Santiago Pass. Robert “Bob” Jones South Padre City Beach was wid- Coastal Resident Representative ened by about 50 feet for a dis- Buddy Garcia tance of a mile, which will help Texas Commission on revitalize the beach/dune system South Padre City Beach after the project. Environmental Quality Robert R. Stickney CMP Grant Cycle 17 Opens Texas Sea Grant College Program The Texas Coastal Management Program (CMP) helps building oyster beds with recycled shells, just to name Karen J. Hixon ensure the long-term environmental and economic a few. A list of the selected projects is available at the Parks and Wildlife Commission health of the Texas coast through management of the Land Office website at http://www.glo.texas.gov. of Texas state’s coastal natural resource areas. The program is “These projects will get a lot of bang for the buck,” managed by the Coastal Coordination Council (CCC), a said Commissioner Patterson after grant funding was On the Coast is produced by the Coastal public/private council chaired by Texas Land Commis- approved by the CCC, which oversees the CMP. Resources Program of the Texas General sioner Jerry Patterson. Texas is one of the few coastal As the Land Office follows the successful imple- Land Office in cooperation with the Office states that pass substantial amounts of federal Coastal mentation of the Cycle 16 projects, the agency again of Communications. For more information Zone Management Act funds through to coastal com- held planning workshops to help potential Grant Cycle on the Coastal Resources Program or to munities for projects in the coastal zone. 17 applicants through the grant application process. subscribe to this newsletter, please call In February 2011, Commissioner Patterson an- Workshops were held in Port Lavaca, Port Arthur, Cor- Martha Zottarelli at 512-463-6119 or nounced $1.7 million of Cycle 16 grant funding for 16 pus Christi, Port Isabel and Galveston. Commissioner email her at [email protected]. Texas coastal projects selected by a competitive grant Patterson, as chairman of the CCC, expects $1.8 mil- gov or visit the GLO website at www.glo. process. The projects include habitat and marsh res- lion will be available for coastal projects during Grant texas.gov. toration, improving public access to the beach and re- Cycle 17. Mad Island Shoreline Protection and Ecosystem Restoration The Texas General shorelines, the breakwater curtails saltwater intrusion into brackish and Land Office, in col- freshwater coastal marshes. laboration with Freshwater and brackish marshes support aquatic vegetation that is the Texas Parks sensitive to changes in salinities yet important to fisheries and wildlife pro- and Wildlife De- ductivity. Erosive shortening of the bayous and erosion of the high marsh partment and The along the GIWW allows higher salinity waters into lower salinity marshes. Nature Conser- Within the marsh, saltwater intrusion destroys the existing vegetation in vancy of Texas, re- freshwater and brackish marshes, leaving the marsh soils susceptible to cently completed a erosion. Eventually, salt tolerant vegetation will colonize the area, but this 9,300-foot break- is usually after the marsh has eroded, resulting in less productive, open- Eroded banks of the GIWW at Mad Island before water along the water areas. construction. Gulf Intracoastal Thanks to the Waterway at the Mad Island Wildlife Management Area in Matagorda Texas General Land County. The project—funded by the Coastal Impact Assistance Program— Office and the CE- provides protection to one of the most pristine areas along the Texas coast. PRA project, emer- HDR Engineering of Corpus Christi designed the breakwater, and Luhr gent marsh vegeta- Bros. of Missouri constructed it. tion is expected to Completed in January, the new breakwater provides permanent protec- become established tion for critically important terrestrial and marine wildlife habitat. The between existing bayous and adjacent wetlands associated with the project area are part of shorelines and the a complex, very productive ecosystem ranging from saline to freshwater new rock breakwa- marshes. These marsh complexes provide habitat and refuge for high popu- ter, providing addi- lations of several commercially and recreationally important marine and tional critical ma- water-dependent wildlife species. rine habitats where Erosion rates along this portion of the GIWW are an estimated 5-10 none currently ex- The new breakwater shields the Mad Island Wildlife feet per year. By mitigating the effects of wave energy on unprotected ist. Management Area. Removing Derelict Vessels Makes the Texas Coast Safer On January 6, the staff of the Land Office’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response office in Nederland removed this odd derelict vessel from Adams Bayou in Orange County.
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