Anyone have another article not behind a paywall? We are close by and this is a big deal.

If you, Google Formosa permit, you should find a few. There were a lot of Enviro type websites that were in the top set of my results, but I'm sure there are lots of others from reputable sources.

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/08/texas-reservoir-formosa-chemical-expansion/

Do you have any idea what's going on with that reservoir? I fly over it all the time and it looks like a giant cluster.

Thanks. The thing seemed like a joke from the start, it's too far downstream to support much rice, and not enough water to support much of Matagorda county anyway. The committee that formed it was a joke, I sat in some meetings with them and they had no good answers for challenges those of us in the ag industry saw with it. We figured it was built for the plants and to keep a steady supply at the relift for the Corpus water line in Bay City, but pulled at the public's heartstrings by claiming it was for farmers to get the proposition passed.

31b permitted gallons is almost 100,000 acre feet of water diverted away from the natural watershed. I had a hard time finding a number for Lavaca river basin, but if this site is right, that's almost 1/6 of average annual flow.
https://texastejano.com/history/lavaca-river/#:~:text=Even%20though%20the%20stream%20is,as%20far%20upstream%20as%20Hallettsville.

I've driven past that Lane City reservoir a hundred times and I always assumed they were building a landfill. What a boondoggle

As of last fall there was still work going on in it, I didn't pay attention flying over it this winter. It'll be another month before I'm back over it but I'll be looking to see what's going on.

You are off on the conversion. 9500 acre feet is 31B gallons. Better to talk in terms of acre feet on these things. Lot of folks will tune you out for using gallons. I believe Lake Somerville is 11,000 acre feet for reference. No dog in the fight just pointing that out.

Thanks for checking me. I did it on my phone a couple of times and I guess I kept consistently getting an extra zero in the number.

Edit: no, I think 95k is right.

3.1e10 /43560 / 7.48

We had to hire the Watershed atty Jim Blackburn probably ten years ago when the turds wanted the phase 2 to dam the Lavaca. It cost several thousands of dollars but Formosa backed off and it was agreed for a powerful offset pump and pipeline were installed for water coming out of the Lavaca watershed.
Now they want more water, but they cannot say this is for the good of the community, they got away with the other projects by selling some water rights to the City of Corpus Christi. I say hell no, let them build a desalination plant. The cheap *******s got the money, use it. They're bad stewards of the watershed!
The story is online in the Texas Monthly, I was interviewed by the author and several other landowners in the 2 watersheds.

Thanks for giving this some attention. Comments submitted.

maroon barchetta said:

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Formosa does indeed have a bad reputation of pollution and big fines. They just pay them and keep doing business the same way.

I've got a story I can share sometime about them doing a little espionage on their major competitor, Shintech in Freeport.

They do appear on the completed investigations page of the Chemical Safety Board for at least one major incident (last I looked). They've had some others that could have gone major.

My dad worked in more plants than I can count over his career. He said that was the most unsafe plant he ever worked in and he was glad to be done with the last project he did there.

They aren't good stewards of the environment at all.

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I've never worked there, but had several of my crews that did projects there when I was in the industrial world.

They said pretty much the same thing - it has a bad rep all around.

CenterHillAg said:

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As of last fall there was still work going on in it, I didn't pay attention flying over it this winter. It'll be another month before I'm back over it but I'll be looking to see what's going on.

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Unless they decide to invest the right amount of time, money and effort into it - they are just burning $100 bills at this point.

Most of the water from Lake Texana goes to Formosa and Corpus Christi, primarily for Petrochem down there. I guess you'd get some overflow on extreme events, but that whole bay system already has a ton of water quality issues. Would rsther not make it worse.

You are correct. My calculator shut me off at billions and I didn't catch that. Roughly 325,000 gallons/ac. ft so your original estimate was accurate.

SanAntoneAg said:

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I'm surprised there is any flow in the Lavaca or Navidad rivers.

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There's not much as it's mostly under tidal flow.

CivilEng08 said:

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Most of the water from Lake Texana goes to Formosa and Corpus Christi, primarily for Petrochem down there. I guess you'd get some overflow on extreme events, but that whole bay system already has a ton of water quality issues. Would rsther not make it worse.

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Corpus is about to build a pretty significant desal plant, so hopefully that will ease some of the water demands on Texana. I say "about to", it's still a few years out but they are actually going to do it this time it appears.

I think we'll start seeing more desal along the coast in the future. I've heard that another one may be going in around the Freeport area as well. I'm glad to see that desal is finally making some inroads.

As far as Texana being a supplemental source, there is a ton of available water from the Colorado - especially during higher and high flow events. I would expect there are contengency plans to pump hard from Bay City to Texana if the Colorado is up and excess water is available, then open the gates at Texana to increase flows to Lavaca, then pull to a new reservoir. There are always about 4 or 5 different mechanisms available, it is rarely just a single option for things like this.

Alice is also building a desalination plant. This will reduce their reliance on the water bought from Corpus Christi.

Have some family that lives near there. They've provided tons of jobs, but damn it's sad reading about all of the damage they've done.

Wanted to bump this thread. I have driven by the Formosa plant in PC for a couple decades, had no idea they were habitual environmental offenders.

Also received an email from CCA today requesting public comments, as I'm sure many of you did.

Take 5 minutes and submit a comment, it was easy.

Link: https://www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/?permit_num=WRPERM%2013728

Here is the CCA email. Interesting that Formosa Plastics isn't mentioned directly by CCA:


I hope you're week is going well. We'd like to inform you that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has issued a draft water use permit (WRPERM 13728).

Here's what you need to know.

This water permit would enable the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority (LNRA) to construct and maintain a dam and a reservoir impounding 240 acre-feet of water on the Lavaca River within the Lavaca River Basin.
Additionally, it would permit the diversion of 31 billion gallons of water annually from a designated reach on the Lavaca River for industrial, municipal, and mining purposes across several counties within the Lavaca River Basin, as well as the Colorado-Lavaca and Lavaca-Guadalupe Coastal Basins.
The permit would also grant authorization for the use of the bed and banks of the Navidad River (Lake Texana) to convey the diverted water and/or store it in a proposed 16 billion gallon off-channel reservoir, located on Keller Creek between two points identified as Latitude 28.887744N, Longitude 96.618490W and Latitude 28.876220N, Longitude 96.611804W in Jackson County.
Moreover, it would allow the LNRA to overdraft Lake Texana under specified conditions, reuse of diverted water for industrial purposes, and temporary utilization of 1,500 acre-feet of the authorized water for industrial activities.

CCA Texas has requested that the TCEQ provide the public with a comprehensive overview of the permit by holding a public meeting. This meeting will be instrumental in presenting detailed insights into the environmental and ecological impacts expected from the proposed activities. It should also include anticipated future industrial purposes for the diverted water and the cumulative effects of future industrial expansions on water quality, habitat and fisheries in Lavaca, Cox, and Keller Bays.

However, we need YOUR help.

Please consider submitting public comments on this water use permit and help us advocate for a public meeting.