Manadas Creek business owner cited
for illegal filling of creek

Flow of Manadas Creek constricted by culvert & soil build-up Just behind the Resendez company at 8211 San Lorenzo, the flow of Manadas Creek has been constricted to move through a 48-inch culvert. Jerry Resendez was cited for altering the flow of the waterway without first studying water flow. Note the width of Manadas Creek before the earthen pad and re-routing and the creek’s exit from the Resendez property.

By Marìa Eugenia Guerra

The City of Laredo Environmental Services Department (ESD) has cited Jerry Resendez of Jerry Resendez Enterprises, Inc., for the illegal filling of Manadas Creek and for obstructing the flow of Manadas Creek without first conducting a study of the water flows of the creek channel. The Resendez property at 8211 San Lorenzo backs up to Manadas Creek, a tributary to the RÌo Grande. Resendez operates a waste hauling company from that site.

Resendez was cited by Gerardo Cantu of the City's ESD on January 31, 2002 in violation of City Ordinance 99-0-330.

According to City records, Resendez obtained a building permit for a steel structure at the site but did not submit a study before filling the Manadas waterway and installing a 48-inch culvert that constricts the creek to about a third of its width on the other side of the culvert.

"It is mainly the issue of flooding that has concerned us," said the City's director of Environmental Services, Riazul Mia. "What Mr. Resendez did upstream is put in a 48-inch pipe under the built-up fill that covers the flow of the creek. In a small rainstorm that culvert will not carry any increased flow. We are not telling them they can't build on the creek. We are telling them they have to study water flows and do their drainage studies before they put in a culvert. Everyone can construct a way to get across a creek, but what they do over creeks must be designed based on water flow," Mia said.

From the air it appears that the small culvert allows Manadas Creek to continue flowing through (under) the Resendez property and that a considerable amount of earth has been filled over the culvert to allow dump trucks an ample crossing over the creek to the back of the property. Assorted vehicles, trucks, and trailers are parked on the fenced supply yard that also contains piles of various materials including steel pipe, tires, lumber, and 55-gallon drums. Large fuel storage tanks which are not on a built-up pad like the metal building are adjacent to the creek and are not bermed for spills or quick containment. While part of the creek's edge is lined with erosion control fabric, much of it is not.

In a major flood, Mia said, fuel tanks, portable toilets, tires, rubble, gasoline storage tanks, and building materials could end up in the creek.

"Altering the flow of a natural waterway is a violation of Chapter 11 of the Texas Water Code," said Jerry Pinzon, director of the local Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission office. "The owner has the right to level his property, but he does not have the right to alter the flow of the creek. If the creek is 20 feet wide when it enters his property, it needs to be about the same size as it leaves his property," he added. Pinzon said he was "very interested" in the City's actions on the illegal filling of the creek.

Chapter 11 of the Texas Water Code addresses impoundment and overflow caused by diversions of water that could damage the property of another. Pinzon said a person whose property is injured by an overflow of water caused by an unlawful diversion or impounding has legal remedies for damages.

Resendez said he believes he has slowed water flow down "considerably" in the event of a flood. He also said he would comply with what was required of him and has retained an engineering firm to study the Manadas Creek channel at his property line. "I'd like to cite the City for the Las Cruces crossing where the creek rises three to five feet in a good rain," he said, adding, "I'd like to know when they are going to address that."

"That's great that the property owner wants to comply," said biologist Dr. Jim Earhart of the RÌo Grande International Study Center, "but he shouldn't have taken it upon himself in the first place to narrow down the creek channel. I believe this violates City ordinance, state law, and the federal Clean Water Act. I would think the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should look at this very closely."

Dr. Earhart said that the City needed to work harder to make builders, developers, and property owners understand that there are ordinances, statutes, and laws that govern development on a waterway, especially the creeks that feed into the RÌo Grande, the only source of drinking water for millions of Texans and Mexicans along the border.

"There are still places along Manadas Creek that are so beautiful, places in which maidenhair fern grows in its natural state. Just a few decades ago, Manadas Creek was a recreational resource. Very quickly as warehouse development increased along the Mines Road it became the receptacle for concrete dumped wet, tires, construction rubble, and household waste. Historically, it was a dump for antimony slag," Dr. Earhart continued.

"Degradation of water resources should not be the flip side of development. This is what really needs to happen -- we need to stop turning our backs on Manadas Creek, the RÌo Grande, and the watershed. Gravity will prevail. Sooner or later, running water after a downpour will carry the messes we make to the river," he said.