cstocks
Platinum Member
You don't hear as much about subsidance as you did in those days. I know that the plants along the channel are not allowed to drill new water wells but are grandfathered on existing wells. If I had to make an uneducated guess about who caused the most subsidance I would have to say the plants did.
When I moved to Baytown in the late 70's I was amazed at what I saw. The land had subsided so much in some areas that one of my neighbor's old water well pipe and concrete casement stood up above the ground about three feet. One whole neighborhood, Brownwood, had sank to the point that the bayfront houses became bay houses... literally. The land around those houses had sunk so much that the houses were 30-40 feet out in the bay. I remember the first time I saw those nice one and two story houses sitting abandoned out in the water. I was awestruck and my jaw dropped in amazement.
I also remember looking at a rent house in that same neighborhood. Even though I was only around 21 and a new arrival from smalltown, AR I was smart enough to realize the funny lines on the wall about a foot from the floor were high water lines, which meant that house had been flooded by bay water sometime in the recent past.
The parts of the Brownwood subdivision that did not disappear into the bay through subsidance were wiped out in 1983 when Hurricane Alicia paid the Houston area a visit. The whole area was condemned afterward and the utilities were cut off to the few straggling home owners who did not want to move out. Nowadays what used to be Brownwood is a wildlife wetlands area.
Being as Baytown is located right on the eastern end of the Houston industral complex I would have a hard time believing rice farming was the cause for the extensive subsidance in the particular area. That is not to say that rice farming is/was not the cause of subsidance in other areas.
As far as rice fields on the southwest side of Houston go, I don't know how far out you had to go to see them. Houston has sprawled pretty far out on the southwest side these days.
I never heard of the Deepwater Power Plant. Where was it located?
Chris
When I moved to Baytown in the late 70's I was amazed at what I saw. The land had subsided so much in some areas that one of my neighbor's old water well pipe and concrete casement stood up above the ground about three feet. One whole neighborhood, Brownwood, had sank to the point that the bayfront houses became bay houses... literally. The land around those houses had sunk so much that the houses were 30-40 feet out in the bay. I remember the first time I saw those nice one and two story houses sitting abandoned out in the water. I was awestruck and my jaw dropped in amazement.
I also remember looking at a rent house in that same neighborhood. Even though I was only around 21 and a new arrival from smalltown, AR I was smart enough to realize the funny lines on the wall about a foot from the floor were high water lines, which meant that house had been flooded by bay water sometime in the recent past.
The parts of the Brownwood subdivision that did not disappear into the bay through subsidance were wiped out in 1983 when Hurricane Alicia paid the Houston area a visit. The whole area was condemned afterward and the utilities were cut off to the few straggling home owners who did not want to move out. Nowadays what used to be Brownwood is a wildlife wetlands area.
Being as Baytown is located right on the eastern end of the Houston industral complex I would have a hard time believing rice farming was the cause for the extensive subsidance in the particular area. That is not to say that rice farming is/was not the cause of subsidance in other areas.
As far as rice fields on the southwest side of Houston go, I don't know how far out you had to go to see them. Houston has sprawled pretty far out on the southwest side these days.
I never heard of the Deepwater Power Plant. Where was it located?
Chris
