Draft environmental impact statement: Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, Chocolate Bayou, Texas: Navigation.

Date

1971

Authors

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District

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Abstract

The Chocolate Bayou navigation project is a side channel to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway located about 26 miles west of Galveston, Texas. This proposed project includes deepening and widening a privately constructed channel and construction of an additional five miles of channel, a turning basin at the head of the navigation channel, and a basin to prevent saltwater intrusion into the upper reaches of the stream. The navigation improvements will stimulate industrial and commercial activities resulting in economic betterment of the area. The saltwater barrier will prevent movement of salt water upstream into irrigation water sources. Harmful effects to the environment include: approximately 170 acres of low lying lands displaced by the straightening and enlargement of the channel, spoil disposal temporarily eliminating vegetation on existing spoil banks and upland spoil disposal areas, some loss of habitat and fish and wildlife cover, alteration of some marsh areas, a temporary elimination of benthic organisms in excavated areas. Foregoing improvement is the only apparent alternative. Comments from interested state and federal agencies are included.

Description

9 p.

Keywords

environmental effects, dredging, channels, irrigation, navigation, dredge spoil, habitat

Citation