Erosion control project complete
GLO commissioner here for dedication
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

PATTERSON

It's official now. With the snip of a ribbon stretched across Piper Channel, Jerry Patterson, commissioner of the Texas Land Office, brought to a close a $6.3 million project designed to keep land at the edge of the Port Aransas Nature Preserve from eroding into the Corpus Christi Ship Channel.

Patterson stood on the bow of a boat in Piper Channel to snip the ribbon. Piper Channel is the southernmost end of the project, which stretches a little more than two miles along the water edge of the proposed nature preserve.

Started in 2002, the project includes 4,700 feet of concrete bulkhead and another 6,000 feet of revetment - rocks placed at the water's edge to break the force of the waves and keep them from washing more land away.

Wakes from cargo ships moving in and out of the Port of Corpus Christi have been blamed for eroding as much as 17 feet a year from the ship channel side of Port Aransas. The bulkhead-revetment project should put an end to that.

As well, the project included putting what are called geotubes along the Harbor Island shoreline. Geotubes are tubular constructions that are also designed to break the force of waves.

STAFF PHOTO BY PHIL REYNOLDS Open at last Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office Jerry Patterson clips a ribbon from the bow of a boat to officially end a five-year-long project to protect wetlands adjacent to the Corpus Christi Ship Channel from erosion. The floating ribbon cutting took place at the junction of the new revetment and Piper Channel.

Ray Allen, executive director of the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, the chief backer of the project, said none of it could have been possible without the partners involved. He pointed to the City of Port Aransas, the Airport and Channel Corporation, which operates Piper Channel, the General Land Office, the Port of Corpus Christi and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for their help in financing and completing the project.

Patterson, who delayed the ceremony when his plane was held up by fog in San Marcos, was brought from Mustang Beach Airport down Piper Channel in a boat, walking ashore a matter of feet from where the speaker's lectern and a tent for attendees was set up.

He recalled that he and Charlie Zahn, Port Aransas parks and recreation board chairman, were on the same swim team when they attended Texas A&M University together. Patterson said as the then-newlyelected land commissioner, he knew little about the project when he and Zahn first discussed it.

"They said it would protect Charlie 's Pasture," Patterson said, referring to the wetlands area behind the revetment. "What did I know? I thought it belonged to Charlie Zahn."

Completion of the shoreline protection project gives the final green light to development of the nature preserve, roughly 1,200 acres of land between the ship channel and State Hwy. 361 and north of Mustang Beach Airport.

Planners are working on the design for the first phase of the preserve as well as working to get U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits.

When it's finished, the nature preserve should provide paths around and through the wetlands, including observation points at specific areas and an educational center.

Much of the preserve is being paid for with $2.2 million in certificates of obligation approved by the Port Aransas City Council in 2004. Other funding has come from state and federal agencies.