I remember reading the area was sold to private interests. Any insider have an idea on what the plans are? New housing tract or something?

There was a thread a while back on here. I dont remember the details. But since no one has responded I suggest Googling TexAgs and Gibbons Creek and searching there.

Think there was a thread on real estate and some in one of the school zone discussions on here. Everyone talks about subdivision on the lake but what i have yet to understand is that the lake is filled by pumping water from the navasota river and that permit is for the power plant to operate for the benefit of the public and since they blew it up why do they think they can pump from it for the benefit of some real estate development.

If the lake is already in existence, what would you prefer they do? You can't exactly get rid of things like that easily.

Not nearly as enticing when it has no water in it. The navasota river authority issued the pump permit and to my knowledge it does not transfer to the successors unless it is for the same purpose which is for a public owned power plant cooling lake. The lake is not self sustaining.

UmustBKidding said:

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Not nearly as enticing when it has no water in it. The navasota river authority issued the pump permit and to my knowledge it does not transfer to the successors unless it is for the same purpose which is for a public owned power plant cooling lake. The lake is not self sustaining.

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Interesting. Would there be adverse environmental effects if the pump permit were not continued? I guess that's the real question. Seems like some wetlands wildlife would be hurt or something. Dunno.

I am not the expert on any of this just told this by someone who was involved in the original deployment and engineering of the site. So the lake is man made so not sure how reverted it to its original state would be anything but better. To the epa. But they are nuts. They had full time staff to cater to their insanity, you need to put livestock on the old mine since there was cows on it originally. There are trails out there you cant do that, its from the cows you requested, you need to make them travel over different areas so they dont make trails. Id10ts

The pump permit was emergency in the case the creek didn't keep full in a drought for power plant cooling. I have no clue how often it was used. But I bet it wasn't that often. Interesting issue about transferring the pumping permit however.

There is a pipeline and pumps is what i was told. The watershed is insufficient to sustain the lake level that was required to cool the plant so im summer months the level was maintained by pumping water from the river to supplement it. Also said that lots of the fish species prevalent in the lake required the heat the plant generated to survive the coldest winters.

Gibbons Creek Reservoir (Brazos River Basin)

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Gibbons Creek Reservoir is located approximately 9.5 miles southeast of Anderson in Grimes County, on Gibbons Creek, a tributary of the Navasota River, which is a tributary of the Brazos River. The dam and lake are owned and managed by Texas Municipal Power Agency, who uses the reservoir as a cooling pond for a power plant that generates electricity. The reservoir was officially impounded in 1981. According to TWDB 2008 volumetric survey, the lake can store 26,171 acre-feet of water encompassing a surface area of approximately 2,576 acres at the conservation pool elevation of 247 feet above mean sea level. The dam controls a drainage area of about 75 square miles.

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Bryan Utilities Lake (Brazos River Basin)

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Bryan Utilities Lake (also known as Lake Bryan) is a man-made reservoir located about five miles west of Bryan in Brazos County, on unnamed tributaries of Thompson Creek and unnamed tributary of the Little Brazos River, which in turn is a tributary of the Brazos River. The reservoir is owned by the City of Bryan and operated by Bryan Texas Utilities as a cooling pond for the electrical generators in the Dansby Power Plant. The dam is made up of a compacted earth embankment with a length of about 18,570 feet. The top of the dam is at an elevation of 362.5 feet above mean sea level. The uncontrolled service spillway is located in the east embankment section and is a square drop inlet concrete structure with its crest at an elevation of 355.5 feet above mean sea level. The reservoir was officially impounded in 1974. According to TWDB 2016 survey, the reservoir can store 14,163 acre feet of water with a surface area of about 818 acres at the conservation pool elevation of 355.5 feet above mean sea level. The dam controls only 1.975 square miles of drainage area. However, the owner can withdraw groundwater to maintain a sufficient water level in the reservoir for the cooling operation.

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UmustBKidding said:

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There is a pipeline and pumps is what i was told. The watershed is insufficient to sustain the lake level that was required to cool the plant so im summer months the level was maintained by pumping water from the river to supplement it. Also said that lots of the fish species prevalent in the lake required the heat the plant generated to survive the coldest winters.

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That would require a pretty big pumping station somewhere on the Navasota don't you think? The drainage area was just posted so that pretty much clears up that there is enough drainage area.

What fish are you talking about, if the plant shuts down then that'll hurt the fish, not the water level. And isn't the plant already shut down?

Invasive species like talapia will die if the water gets too cold. With the plant demolished, there is less heat going into the water, and therefore Less evaporation. I doubt there is much need for addition water now.

I had a coworker who worked for Gibbons and I recall him mentioning they had the ability to pull water from the navasota to keep the water level up. Not sure that is still an option

I would assume all power plant lakes have connections to other water sources to maintain water levels if needed. Gibbons connects to the Navasota. Bastrop and Fayette connect to the Colorado.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/G_c0AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=TMPA%20is%20authorized%20to%20divert%20water%20from%20the%20Navasota%20River

I found an Environmental Impact Statement from April of 1981.

In section 3 page 50:

"If the flow is in Gibbons Creek is not sufficient to maintain the reservoir at th desired level, TMPA is authorized to divert water from the Navasota River and pump it into the reservoir..."

Somewhat surprised that the Texas Water Develepment Board reports didn't mention the potential sources of water to Gibbons. They are usually pretty thorough about that.

Could they do a temporary pump? It seems to me when the oil drillers were busy around here a few years ago the oil companies would string temporary pipe along the highway to connect a water source. Sometimes they stretched a couple miles or so. Anyway that could explain the lack of a pump station on the river.

"TMPA is Texas Municipal Power Agency (TMPA) is owned by the four-member cities of Bryan, Denton, Garland, and Greenville. TMPA operates as a non-profit municipality."

Since the lake is no longer connected to power production, I don't know how that changed policy, or the need to maintain a level.

I'm guessing, except for extreme drought, the lake levels would be fine. Some years "waterfront" property might be a "beach".

I have relatives that, at one time, had "waterfront" property on Lake Medina. Some years the waterfront was a pasture.

I live in the area and know multiple people that worked at the plant and/or were involved in its operations over the years. The lake always maintained a level high enough to support the cooling of the plant. Even in the big drought of ~2012, the levels stayed high enough to not cause any issues. That's standard that any lake cooled plants must have a plan to maintain the cooling capacity in the event of the watershed dropping...whether that be in the form of an agreement with a river authority to control flow until the lake is back to an acceptable level or through another water source (aka like Lake Bryan has with well agreements).

The power plant has been shut down since 2018. Fishing activity kept up until last year when they closed the lake to public access. Not running the plant in the winter did not kill off fish...just changed their patterns. The plant has been in demolition and the actual power generation units are completely gone now. I flew the area with a drone last week and all that is left are a couple of silos, old TMPA offices and workshops and the substation and transmission lines. Ground remediation work is still ongoing around the old coal piles and waste yards.

Charah Solutions originally bought the plant, lake, and all of the land surrounding the lake. They sold 80% of that land, including all of the lake, to a local real estate investment group in January 2022. That's where the discussion about new housing and private access to the lake is coming from.

The ~11,000 acre mine was split in the original sale and sold December 2021 for $75 million to an investment firm out of Houston. They have not disclosed what their intent is yet, but that 11,000 acres included the land going under Highway 30 and all the way to the old power plant, specifically to the high power transmission lines that are part of the Houston region of the ERCOT grid. It was highly marketed and platted to be set for a very large solar farm and/or battery storage facility. The 11,000 acres also has a large frontage of Navasota River.

https://money.yahoo.com/charah-solutions-completes-sale-80-113000169.html

https://republicranches.com/properties/texas/bluebonnet-country/gibbons-creek-ranch-2/

Messing around with google earth, I did see this on the river, it might be the intake pipe



3039'7.80"N
96 9'59.73"W

I was looking at that yesterday on google maps, I just couldn't quite track a right of way all the way to the reservoir, but that looks to be a good sized channel

BattleGrackle said:

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I was looking at that yesterday on google maps, I just couldn't quite track a right of way all the way to the reservoir, but that looks to be a good sized channel

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well somebody said there was pipe, that "intake" is up stream, maybe gravity would be enough.

again I don't remember them discussing pumping in the 2011 drought, if they made it thru that, then my guess is water level isn't a issue

Again im no expert in their systems but do know that the plant was run with derated output multiple times because the lake level was below the level required for full power operation.

Has anyone heard any kind of update on Gibbons Creek? Ive asked around but no one seems to know much.

BQ_90 said:

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Messing around with google earth, I did see this on the river, it might be the intake pipe



3039'7.80"N
96 9'59.73"W

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That is where the intake is. There is a set of pipes there, just below down stream is a weir type dam that slows the river flow enough to back water up into the pipes.

It's all pretty clear if you drive down there. I did it a few years ago.

It was bought and will be developed. No idea when or if that's changed but that's been the last I've heard from someone who knows the people that bought it.

Water Rights Permit Applications have been made. Search Gibbons. There has been an array of entities set up; many, but not all contain "Gibbons Tract ..." in their names.

Interesting. Lovely area. Would live to sell my home and in a few years move out there.

Not really an update on development, but more information through recent TCEQ filings show the new owners requesting change of usage for water discharged from Gibbons Creek Reservoir into the Navasota (downstream) as well as requested change of use for water diverted from the Navasota (upstream) into Gibbons Creek Reservoir.

The current allowed use for water diversion out of the Navasota is strictly for the power plant that's now gone. They are requesting water diversion to be allowed for municipal, industrial, agricultural, domestic and recreational use. They name the City of Bryan as an interested party for using Gibbons as an alternative water supply for municipal use in the future.

There is also a requested change of water usage for discharged water out of Gibbons Creek Reservoir through discharge points into the Navasota and Brazos rivers. An agreement for water sales between Gibbons Creek Lake and Land, LLC and Dow Chemicals in Freeport, TX is outlined. This would be the industrial use change for the Navasota River diversion (upstream) agreement with TCEQ.

https://www.tceq.texas.gov/downloads/permitting/water-rights/pending/admin-complete/gibbons-tract-1-lp-12-5311c-adcpackage.pdf

the pit man said:

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I was the lake ranger there from 2010 until it closed.

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I've heard there are trees in the lake. Does that it mean that it's not good for water sports and is limited to activities like fishing?

CN said:

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the pit man said:

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I was the lake ranger there from 2010 until it closed.

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I've heard there are trees in the lake. Does that it mean that it's not good for water sports and is limited to activities like fishing?

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There's many trees in the upper parts of the lake. In the part below the ramp it's relatively clear in most areas. Many folks used to ski and wake surf in that area