fair use etc http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/805018 $27,500 fine proposed in Sienna Plantation water case

"By ERIC HANSON Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle ARCOLA -- State officials have proposed a $27,500 fine for a levee improvement district accused of diverting water from Oyster Creek south of Houston without a permit. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission proposed the fine after a two-year investigation that began when Fort Bend County landowner Lisa Rogers complained that the creek level was dropping sharply. Rogers, who raises cattle and horses on a 2,600-acre tract along the Fort Bend and Brazoria County line, said her livestock and the wildlife in the area depended on the creek. After the flow dropped to a trickle and most of the water was stagnant, she said, she traced the problem to a levee and flood gate that had been built upstream near the Sienna Plantation development. "They were diverting water to the Brazos River," Rogers said. Attorneys for the Sienna Plantation Levee Improvement District dispute the findings of the investigation. "We believe that the diversion of Oyster Creek resulted from the construction of facilities that are neither owned, operated nor constructed by the the District," attorney Richard L. Muller Jr. told the natural resource commission in a letter last month. During the state agency's two-year investigation, Rogers said, she had to drill a well to pump water to her animals. "It has cost us about $10,000," she said. According to a statement issued by the commission, "Sienna Plantation constructed a levee under a plan of reclamation authorized by the state in 1980. That plan requires that except during flood events, the flow of Oyster Creek should pass through the levee and back to the creek." Nancy Fierstien, spokeswoman for the TNRCC, said the district has 60 days to respond to the proposed fine order, which was issued Friday. "If they agree to the order and pay the fine, then they have a year to bring (the levee) into compliance," Fierstien said. oe Householder, a spokesman for Vinson & Elkins, the law firm for the levee district, said district officials are discussing the matter with the TNRCC and could not comment further...."

-- tex (tex@tex.com), January 24, 2001