New spoil area off Noah's Ark

[STuma]

Spoil material from the Houston Ship Channel Expansion Project is being dumped a few hundred yards off Clifton's Beach (Noah's Ark and boat ramp) and east of TCYC.

Recent reports are showing depths to be 5.5' - 7'. I was out on 12/28/22 and saw no markers noting the area. In digging through the USCG Notice to Mariners, the San Leon Oyster Mitigation Site location is given as 29d 31.602000'N, 094d 57.52920'W.  All manned equipment will monitor VHF-FM Channels 13, 11, and 05A.

There is more detailed info at https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/local-notices-to-mariners?district=8+0&subdistrict=g and Week 52/22.

[shawn]

we are using E and H and should be clear for this series? Later on in the year the san leon yellow mark could be an issue. Didn't we have a map with the known obstacles on it?

[STuma]

we are using E and H and should be clear for this series? Later on in the year the san leon yellow mark could be an issue. Didn't we have a map with the known obstacles on it?

Shouldn't be an issue for Icicle, except for the crossing barges. We are attending an update meeting and will give details afterwards.  My personal concern is that the shoal area hasn't been marked. It may have by now. But, it goes from the normal bay depth to 5-ish feet deep - without any notice. I have not found any details on the shape or orientation of the shoal area. From one of their sketches in the referenced NTM, it extends pretty far NE into the Bay.

[STuma]

Chris and I attended an outreach meeting from the Port last night.

The website to get more information is www.expandthehoustonshipchannel.com

I am reaching out to get perimeter points for the new oyster reef area. The location of the San Leon Oyster Mitigation Site was determined by TPWD. There is no changing it. They are about 80% done with the base layers and will add rock on top for the oyster spat to attach to.

There are temporary PVC poles marking the general dump area. Per design, each "bar" is to be at least 18" tall from the bottom. I will give GPS cords once I get them.

[STuma]

Below are the coordinates for the San Leon Mitigation site area:

29.540124N
94.987045W

29.518253N
94.987117W

29.539992N
94.938287W

29.518122N
94.938369W

[STuma]

Per the https://www.dropbox.com/s/1z07wd4m6iqx0zz/The%20Recreational%20Boater%20Information%20Guy%20-%20March%202023.pdf?dl=0, I have more detailed coordinates and area of the mitigation site.

I RECOMMEND YOU GO TO THE LINK ABOVE TO VERIFY COORDINATES.

The coordinates below are rounded...

SLM Site 1A 29deg 32'01"N  94deg 58'22"W
SLM Site 1B 29deg 32'01"N  94deg 57'44"W
SLM Site 1C 29deg 31'07"N  94deg 57'46"W
SLM Site 1D 29deg 31'10"N  94deg 58'53"W
SLM Site 1E 29deg 31'27"N  94deg 59'06"W
SLM Site 2A 29deg 32'18"N  94deg 56'49"W
SLM Site 2B 29deg 31'50"N  94deg 56'18"W
SLM Site 2C 29deg 31'23"N  94deg 56'44"W
SLM Site 2D 29deg 31'54"N  94deg 57'13"W

[Osprey]

I added the new oyster reefs to the GBCA Obstruction Map:  https://gbca.org/ObstructionMap.

On Sunday, we saw two large mooring buoys about 1.25 nm ESE of the H-mark.  Nothing was tied up, but it seems likely these are related to oyster reefs.