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By Michael Wright

Published February 24, 2005

More than 3,000 barges travel Chocolate Bayou every year, bringing raw materials to the plants there and taking finished products away.

That supply line is now in jeopardy because the bayou is getting shallower and the vessels are having trouble getting through. The bayou is normally dredged every four years, but because of tightening federal budgets, the work hasn’t been done since 1999.

“It is getting to a critical point,” said Harlan “Dunny” Toy, Solutia’s team leader for environmental, safety and health concerns. “It could result in the facility not being able to operate.”

Solutia, BP and Equistar, which have plants off FM 2004 along Chocolate Bayou, are working with the Economic Development Alliance for Brazoria County to secure the $4 million in the federal budget it will cost the Army Corps of Engineers to complete the project.

“We’re talking to everybody we can about it,” said David Stedman, president and CEO of the Alliance. “With the strength of the Texas congressional delegation and having a president from Texas, you’d think we’d be able to get this done. Unless we make a little noise about it, we’re not going to get where we need to be.”

The Corps did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Stedman is seeking resolutions from local governments supporting the project. Brazoria County commissioners approved a resolution at Tuesday’s meeting.

The barges need at least nine feet of water to get clearance. Some areas of the bayou are as shallow as 7-and-a-half feet, Stedman said.

“They have to put something in front of it to try to plow it or they need to lighten the barges,” Stedman said.

Together, the three plants employ 1,600 people, generate $130 million in annual revenue, pump $240 million into the county’s economy and create $30 million in taxes, Toy said.

“We have a large economic impact,” Toy said.

Failure to get the bayou dredged could affect the plants’ profitability, said Lillian Riojas, regional public relations manager for Lyondell, which is Equistar’s parent company.

“I think it could have some future impact that we want to all avoid,” Riojas said.

The project has been approved in the Corps’ Dredge Material Management Plan, said Dick Gregg III, an attorney for Conservation and Reclamation District No. 3 who is working to get the funding.

Gregg is lobbying to get the Chocolate Bayou funds attached to a project dredging the Intracoastal Waterway.

“Monies will be found to dredge the Intracoastal Waterway,” Gregg said. “It seems to be a great deal more difficult to get it for these tributaries.”

Michael Wright covers politics for The Facts. Contact him at (979) 849-8581.