Oil spill threatens Gulf Coast

(CNN) -- A huge oil spill oozing toward the Gulf Coast on Thursday threatens hundreds of species of wildlife, some in their prime breeding season, environmental organizations said.
The Coast Guard said Wednesday that the amount of oil spilling from an underwater well after an oil rig explosion last week has increased to as many as 5,000 barrels of oil a day, or 210,000 gallons, five times more than what was originally believed.

Although efforts to minimize the damage are under way and options under consideration include asking the U.S. military for assistance, wildlife conservation groups say the oil could pose a "growing environmental disaster."

"The terrible loss of 11 workers (unaccounted for after the rig explosion) may be just the beginning of this tragedy as the oil slick spreads toward sensitive coastal areas vital to birds and marine life and to all the communities that depend on them," said Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation for the Louisiana Coastal Initiative, in a statement.
Coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida could be at risk, the organization said.

"For birds, the timing could not be worse; they are breeding, nesting and especially vulnerable in many of the places where the oil could come ashore," she said. "The efforts to stop the oil before it reaches shore are heroic, but may not be enough. We have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, including a true catastrophe for birds."

"The best case is, the wind shifts and the oil doesn't hit," said Tom MacKenzie of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "I'm not real confident about that. ... We're doing everything we can to prevent it, but it could be a bad one."

It's not just birds that could be affected, although they are usually the first to feel the effects, said Gregory Bossart, chief veterinary officer for the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The birds are right at the surface, get covered in the oil and swallow it, causing liver and kidney problems.

"They need to be rescued and cleaned," he said.
But the coastline of Louisiana, with its barrier islands and estuaries, "is a very unique ecosystem. It's very complex," Bossart said.
Plankton found in the estuaries nourish organisms all the way up the food chain. Crabs, mussels, oysters and shrimp feed on the plankton, he said. Oil smothers the plankton, meaning they cannot eat.

Also, "the estuaries here are a nursery ground, literally a nursery ground, for the entire fish population in this area," Bossart said.

River otters in the region eat mussels and other animals. And "we know, in this area right now, that there are sperm whales. There are dolphins right in the oil slick," he said.
If an oil spill is small enough, animals can leave the area.
"Some of them can get away," Bossart said. "It's totally dependent on the size of the slick, and this is huge."

Exposure to the oil for a prolonged period of time can result in a toxic effect on the skin, and mammals can suffer lung damage or death after breathing it in, Bossart said.
"When the oil starts to settle, it'll smother the oyster beds. It'll kill the oysters," he said.

The Audubon Society, which is affiliated with the Louisiana Coastal Initiative, is recruiting volunteers in Florida and making its Center for Birds of Prey available for bird cleansing and rehabilitation. Elsewhere, Audubon said it was gearing up to mobilize volunteers and provide assistance as the oil reaches land.

The spill also threatens the Louisiana and Mississippi fishing industry, as crab, oysters and shrimp along the coast could be affected, along with numerous species of fish. Gulf shrimp are in their spawning season.

More than 400 species are threatened by the spill, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Thursday, citing the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
"When you stop and begin considering everything that this could impact, it really is stunning," Karen Foote, biologist administrator with the department, told the newspaper.

A handful of "Important Bird Areas" -- designated because of their value to bird species -- face immediate threat from the oil, the initiative said. They include the Chandeleur Islands and Gulf Islands National Seashore areas in Louisiana and Mississippi, along with the Active Delta area in Louisiana, which includes Delta Island National Wildlife Refuge and the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area.

Several species of birds are cause for special concern, the Louisiana Coastal Initiative said. They include the brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana, which nests on barrier islands and feeds near shore. The brown pelican's breeding season just began, according to the Initiative, and "many pairs are already incubating eggs."

The species was taken off the federal endangered species list last year, but "their relatively low reproductive rate means any disruption to their breeding cycle could have serious effects on the population."

More than 800 brown pelicans died when a smaller oil spill hit Louisiana's Breton Island National Wildlife Refuge a few years ago, MacKenzie said.

Species of beach-nesting terns and gulls, beach-nesting shorebirds, large wading birds, marsh birds and ocean-dwelling birds are also at risk, along with migratory shorebirds and songbirds, the Initiative said.

The migratory songbirds move across the Gulf during a two-week period from late April to early May, for instance.

"The journey across 500 miles of open water strains their endurance to its limits," the Initiative said. "They depend on clear skies and healthy habitats on both sides of the Gulf in order to survive the journey."

According to a 1998 study by Louisiana State University, more than 500 million birds fly over the Gulf and enter the United States along coastal areas in Louisiana and Texas each spring.
The barrier islands east of Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain have still not recovered from the blow dealt by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Bossart said, and a spill such as this one could seriously threaten their recovery.

"I think at this point it would be wrong to say it's catastrophic, because it really hasn't hit any area except out in the Gulf proper," he said. But "it's certainly a very serious thing" that could pose a long-term environmental challenge.

Plans have been under way to protect wildlife since the spill was discovered, MacKenzie said. "We know what we're doing to try to protect those key assets. ... A lot of people are leaning forward in the foxhole to address this."

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County reluctant on FM 3083 project funding

By Howard Roden
Updated: 04.26.10
Conroe city officials approached Montgomery County commissioners Monday about helping fund construction of the FM 3083 overpass at the Union Pacific railroad crossing.

But with the 2010-11 budget process around the corner, county leaders were reluctant to commit funds for the project before a proposed road bond election in November.

“Right now, we don’t have the money,” Precinct 1 County Commissioner Mike Meador told representatives from the Conroe City Council, city staff and the Conroe Industrial Development Corporation.

“We all support the project, but we’re talking about tapping into an operational budget,” said County Judge Alan B. Sadler. “The timing couldn’t be worse.”

The overpass is deemed important in Conroe’s plan to keep the FM 3083 corridor – from North Loop 336 (Veterans Memorial Loop) to Texas 105 – as an attractive location for development.

Cost of the overpass is estimated at $15 million, but Conroe officials will settle for $300,000 to keep the project on track. Lynn Spencer, a consultant for The Goodman Corp., said that amount is the minimum needed to complete the engineering of the overpass. The actual design costs $500,000, but the Texas Department of Transportation’s Area engineers agreed to complete the design for $300,000, she said.

The environmental work on the overpass is only 30 percent finished, but TxDOT’s local area again agreed to complete that work at no additional expense.

Spencer said getting the overpass “shovel ready” when funds – whether they are local, state or federal – become available is key to FM 3083’s future.

Larry Calhoun, Conroe’s Downtown Manager, suggested that the city, CIDC and county agreed to an even split of $100,000 per entity. But CIDC member Mickey Deison said the group was willing to contribute $55,000.

Meador said the commissioners’ plan to promote a $250 million to $300 million bond election would focus on county roads.

“We’ve spent a great deal of money on state roads, and county roads keep getting pushed back,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount work needed on county roads.”

In other action taken at Commissioners Court Monday:

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MCHD transfer: The Montgomery County Hospital District is taking over many public health functions in the county after commissioners voted unanimously Monday to transfer those responsibilities from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

MCHD will assume control of duties that include coordination of health and medical response to disease outbreaks – like H1N1 and tuberculosis – bioterrorism preparedness, immunization, and local planning and coordination of the Strategic National Stockpile.

UTMB will continue operating its maternal, child and nutritional services at the UTMB clinic on East Davis in Conroe, said Carolyn Nelson-Becker, regional UTMB administrative director.

“They (UTMB) are at a place where they need to concentrate on their core mission,” MCHD CEO Allen Johnson said. “We think we’ve got the expertise to provide a more effective and efficient response. We’re excited about the possibilities.”

MCHD board members agreed to take over some of the public health functions at their meeting earlier this month.

Panorama preserve: Commissioners approved the submission of a $116,000 grant to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for the development of a nature preserve at Panorama Park.

Located a half-mile west of Interstate 45 on FM 830, the 12-acre park will include 3,200 linear feet of crushed granite trail, parking area and a 576-square-foot covered pavilion that will serve as a classroom for schools and nature groups, said county Parks Director Corliss O’Shaugnessy.

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Bass Bigger in Texas!

Shannon Tompkins for THE CHRON

We Texans tend to brag a lot about our state, and sometimes we can even back it up.
Here, at the start of the week in which we remember the Battle of San Jacinto, is a bit of Texas crowing: We have the finest largemouth bass fisheries in the country.
That covers a lot of ground, seeing as how largemouth bass are the most popular game fish in the nation and are found in every state except Alaska.

And, admittedly, there’s some subjectiveness in this claim. It’s hard to quantify “finest.” But by any measure, Texas can argue its largemouth fisheries are unmatched.
Access to the fishery?

We have more than 500 public reservoirs, every one of which holds these fish. And that doesn’t include the rivers and other public waterways that hold them. Almost without exception, any angler in Texas is within an hour’s drive of a healthy bass fishery. (Except, perhaps, for folks in the Trans-Pecos, where fisheries of any kind are a little thin. But even anglers in the farthest corner of the Panhandle aren’t that far from Lake Meredith.)

Abundance of fish?
Texas has dozens of lakes boasting bass densities and numbers as high as any in the country. Most states are doing good to have a dozen or more really good bass fisheries. We have scores of them.

Management?
The inland fisheries division of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is largely responsible for the incredible bass fishery in this state, and its decades of cutting-edge management — from conservative bag limits to research and hatchery/stocking programs aimed at improving the genetics of largemouth bass stocks — are the envy of other state fisheries managers. We have incredibly smart, talented, dedicated and effective people, and it shows.

Sizing it up
But those things are, admittedly, open to debate. Minnesota has a lot of water, as does Florida and a few other states. Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi waters can produce as many bass as Texas waters. And states such as Missouri have incredibly talented, progressive and well-funded fisheries agencies.
But there’s one area in which it’s hard for any other state to challenge Texas’ largemouth fishery: big bass (fish weighing more than 10 pounds).

Yes, three or four states have produced largemouths heavier than the 18-pound, 2-ounce Lake Fork largemouth that holds Texas’ state record for the species.
Georgia, which stakes claim to having produced the world-record 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth, is one. But that fish was taken 78 years ago. A 10-pounder is a monster bass in Georgia these days.

California’s record largemouth is a 21-pound, 12-ounce fish. The state produces some truly monster largemouths, but they all come from a handful of small, deep, clear lakes that don’t support large populations of bass.
Odds are pretty good that more largemouth bass are caught from February through June on Sam Rayburn, Falcon, Fork, Choke

Canyon, Conroe, Amistad or any one of a dozen other Texas lakes alone than in all of California in a year.
Mississippi’s state record largemouth is an 18-pound, 15-ounce fish caught in 1992. And while Mississippi certainly has some fine bass fisheries and produces a good number of 10-pound-or-heavier largemouths, it doesn’t come close to Texas in overall quality and quantity of bass.

Florida has a great largemouth bass fishery. Its official largemouth record is a 17-pound, 4-ounce fish — almost a pound less than the Texas record.
The bigger the better

Here are some pretty telling numbers about Texas’ big-bass fishery:
TPWD maintains a list of the 50 heaviest documented largemouths landed in the state. The bass holding down the 50th spot weighed 15 pounds, 5 ounces.
That 15-5 is heavier than the state record largemouth in 36 states.
This past weekend, Texas’ ShareLunker program saw its 501st entry.

The ShareLunker program, which TPWD began in 1986, is the first of its kind. It solicits anglers who land a 13-pound-or-heavier largemouth to lend the live fish to TPWD for use in the agency’s fisheries research and hatchery production projects.
The idea is to integrate the genetics of these huge bass into the fish produced for stocking into Texas public waters, with the aim of spreading the genetic predisposition for top-end growth into the fisheries. (It works, by the way.)

Since the ShareLunker program began, 61 public waters in Texas have coughed up qualifying largemouths that have been donated to ShareLunker. One lake — Fork — has produced almost 250 of those entries.
So far during the 2009-10 ShareLunker season (fish are accepted Oct.1-April 30), 30 13-pluses from 13 different public reservoirs (and two private lakes) have been entered.
The heaviest of those 30 largemouths, a 16.17-pounder caught at Caddo Lake last month, is heavier than the state record in 39 states.

Every one of those Texas ShareLunkers is heavier than the fish holding the state record in 28 states.
The odds are good that somewhere in the state today one of the million-plus Texans who target largemouth bass will catch a 13-pounder.

Several will land a bass weighing 10 pounds or more. Most will catch a few bass, and many will catch a bunch.
And that — the very real possibility of an angler on any body of water in this state catching a huge largemouth and the near certainty of his landing at least a few — makes Texas stand taller than any other state in the world of bass fishing.
Having a state with the best bass fishing probably wasn’t on Sam Houston’s mind 174 years ago this Wednesday. But he’d probably be proud about it. Texas anglers should be, too.
shannon.tompkins@chron.com

Man Sentenced in Brother's Shooting Death

ALEXANDER SUPGUL
NEW CANEY, Texas - A jury in Montgomery County has sentenced a New Caney resident to more than 37 years in prison in the shooting death of his brother.

William Phillip Norris Jr. was sentenced on Friday following a trial that lasted almost two weeks. The jury convicted Norris of first-degree felony murder on Thursday.

During the trial testimony, witnesses said that Norris arrived at the house where his younger brother, Steven Michael Morris, was staying and started shooting at him. Prosecutors said that William Norris was enraged when he confronted his brother.

Dan Zientek, a detective with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, testified in court that the brothers had a dispute over $2,000 that led to the shooting.

William Norris' defense attorney said that he acted in self-defense and in defense of someone else. Norris also said that he brought the gun with him for protection after allegedly finding his home ransacked.

During the trial testimony, William Norris said that because his brother was allegedly attacking his father, he fired two warning gunshots, then closed his eyes and fired five more shots to his brother's torso area. Norris said his brother was a methamphetamine user.

One of the prosecutors said that William Norris was a methamphetamine dealer with a violent record.

William Norris will not be eligible for parole until approximately 19 years into his prison sentence.

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Suspect identified in East County Shooting

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit has identified a suspect in the Easter morning shooting in East County. The offense occurred in the Summer Hills subdivision at the intersection of Wisp Ct. and Gooseberry.

Witnesses stated that there were multiple shooters involved in this offense. The deceased victim Jorge A. Chavana was driving with his wife when suspects pulled their vehicle in front of the victim’s vehicle near this intersection and began shooting. Mr. Chavana did not survive the attack and his wife was struck twice and was later transported to Ben Taub Hospital where she has since been released.

On Friday, April 9, 2010 Detectives filed a complainant against Julio G. Gonzalez-Nieto of Houston and the arrest warrant was signed by Judge P. McDonald. The investigation is still ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-392-STOP (7867) or the MCSO Criminal Investigations Division at 936-760-5876.


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Deadly Crash in Porter

By Howard Roden
Updated: 04.08.10
A Shepherd woman died Thursday morning after her pickup truck slammed into the back of a slow-moving construction vehicle on a U.S. 59 frontage road.

A 1994 Chevrolet Silverado, driven by Demetria Torres Cruz, 46, rear-ended a water truck traveling south on the feeder just past the entrance to the Forest Colony subdivision around 10 a.m., DPS Trooper Roger Wolsey said.

Wolsey said the larger vehicle, which was being used by Texas Sterling Construction of Houston, was irrigating the newly planted grass between the feeder and the main lanes as a finishing project for the expansion of U.S. 59 through Montgomery County.

The water truck, driven by Texas Sterling Construction employee Clarence Gibson II, was on the inside lane when the wreck occurred, the trooper said.

The speed limit of that section of frontage road between Community Road and FM 1314 in Porter is 55 mph. The speed limit on Cruz’s vehicle at the moment of impact was between 75 and 80 mph, Wolsey said.

“Family members said she (Cruz) was headed to work in Porter,” Wolsey said.

The trooper said an eyewitness traveling south on the U.S. 59 main lanes reported Cruz’s truck passed her vehicle. The eyewitness’ vehicle was traveling 65 mph, Wolsey said.

While there were no pre-impact skid marks, Cruz, who was wearing a seatbelt, must have noticed the water truck at the last instance, the trooper said.

“She attempted to evade the truck by swerving into the middle lane,” Wolsey said.

The pickup struck the back right of the water truck, triggering a 90-degree spin.

Members of Cruz’s family at the crash scene declined comment. Cruz’s body was transported by Rosewood Funeral Home to the Southeast Texas Forensic Center in Conroe for autopsy.

While no charges are pending against Gibson, Wolsey said the water truck will be tested for possessing the proper placards, and whether its hazard lights were working properly.

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Montgomery County death ruled accidental

Montgomery County sheriff's detectives said they don't believe foul play was involved in the death of a man whose body was discovered last week in a ditch in The Woodlands.

On March 26, a man walking his dog came across a body later identified as Andrew Lee Harrison, Jr., 48. He was lying in a drainage ditch with about 12 inches of water along Tangle Brush and Green Haven in Montgomery County, authorities said.
The body was taken to Southeast Texas Forensic Center in Conroe for an autopsy. Harrison's death was ruled as a drowning. Montgomery County sheriff's officials said he also had previous medical problems.

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