DRAINAGE OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, TEXAS. 19 



LEVEES. 



HEIGHT AND CROSS SECTION. 



The height of the levees should be at least 1 to 2 feet above the 

 highest water expected. The gagmgs at Beaumont by the War 

 Department show a big rise in the Neches River after every heavy 

 rain over its drainage basin. Following the heavy rains of December, 

 1911, the gage registered 5.12 feet above Gulf level, but as the first 

 available record of this gage is for January 4, 1912, it probably does 

 not show the extreme height of the December flood. In March, 1912, 

 the gage registered 4.5 feet, and in May, 1912, 5.3 feet. Assuming 

 that the high-water profile of the Neches is a straight line, beginning 

 with the elevation 0.0 of mean low tide at the mouth of the river and 

 passing through elevation 7.0 at Beaumont, the high-water mark at 

 the mouth of Pine Island Bayou would be 9 feet; actual high-water 

 marks at the Neches Canal Co. pumping plant on Pine Island Bayou 

 have an elevation of 15.3 feet. This assumed high-water profile gives 

 elevation of 8.5 feet at CoUiers Ferry, 7.5 feet 1 mile above the Southern 

 Pacific Railroad bridge at Beaumont, 6 feet at Mansfield Ferry, 3 feet 

 at the Port Arthur Rice & Irrigation Co. pumping plant, and 2 feet 

 at Port Neches. Since the general elevation of the marsh of district 

 No. 6 is about 3 feet, the levee to protect it must be at least 13 feet 

 high at the Neches Canal pumping plant and 6^ feet high at CoUiers 

 Ferry. The levee for district No. 7, whose elevation averages about 

 2 feet, must be at least 7| feet high at CoUiers Ferry and 6| feet high 1 

 mUe above the vSouthern Pacific RaUroad bridge at Beaumont. The 

 levee for district No. 9 must be at least 5 feet high at Mansfield Ferry 

 and 1 foot high at the Port Arthur Rice & Irrigation Co. pumping 

 plant, assuming that high tides have no efJect above that point. 

 Before construction is begun on the levees for districts Nos. 6, 7, and 

 9 further investigations should be made to determine the elevation of 

 high water between Neches Canal Co. pumping plant and Port Neches. 



The daily range of tide in the Gulf along Jefferson County is ordi- 

 narily 0.5 to 1.5 feet, but heavy winds blowing directly against the 

 shore for considerable ))eriods cause rises of several feet. Sometimes 

 the storm tide affects only a smaU part of the coast line, sometimes it 

 extends the whole width of the county. The highest tide in this 

 locaHty was in 1900, when the water rose IG feet at Galveston. The 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey gages at Galveston show 

 that from 1 888 to 1 890 there were storm tides 2.7 feet or more above 

 mf;an lc;w tide, and from 1904 to 1909 there were 7 tides 2.5 feet or 

 more above mean low tide. The highest of these were 4.9 feet in 1890 

 and 4.8 feet in 1909. In the stniams and bi^yous several miles l)ack 

 from the coast the tides are neither so great nor so prok)nged. To pro- 



