DeWitt County Commissioners Court

Unclaimed tank floated down Guadalupe River

DeWitt County staff undecided on next steps

  • An unclaimed tank towers over DeWitt County Commissioner Precinct 1 Curtis Afflerbach on private property north of State Highway 72 on Thursday, Dec. 1.
    An unclaimed tank towers over DeWitt County Commissioner Precinct 1 Curtis Afflerbach on private property north of State Highway 72 on Thursday, Dec. 1.
  • The tank is estimated to be 20 ft. long with a 12 ft. diameter.
    The tank is estimated to be 20 ft. long with a 12 ft. diameter.
  • Curtis Afflerbach looks toward the Guadalupe River that deposited a large metal tank onto land north of State Highway 72 in Cuero.
    Curtis Afflerbach looks toward the Guadalupe River that deposited a large metal tank onto land north of State Highway 72 in Cuero.

    A massive steel tank estimated at 20 ft. long with a 12 ft. diameter floated down the Guadalupe River onto private property in Cuero after a flood earlier this year. While the abandoned tank has sat undisturbed for months, County Commissioner Precinct 1 Curtis Afflerbach said it could be hazardous to local infrastructure if a flood carries the tank downriver. 

     

    Afflerbach said the tank had no identifying information and a Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) representative told him they had no responsibility to remove it. 

     

    “It has been sitting here for a good while already. I called around to a lot of the oil companies to see if anybody wanted to claim it, but of course, nobody wanted to,” said Afflerbach while observing the tank last Thursday. “GRBA called back and said that they would not take responsibility for it, and they named several other organizations - the (Texas Corps of Engineers) and a few others - that said they did not have any responsibility for it.”

     

    While he did not remember the exact date the dented steel tank with a broken nozzle floated onto private property north of State Highway 72 in his precinct, Afflerbach said it likely occurred during the last heavy flood to affect the region before the summer. 

     

    “I have no idea where it came from other than somewhere upriver. That’s all I have, and there is no information on the tank,” said the Precinct 1 commissioner. “Right now, we are in limbo concerning if we can get somebody else to take care of it. In the end, we may just have to take responsibility for it, and it is not really ours.”

     

    Afflerbach said the tanks are common at oil field drilling sites and typically store oil, waste, brine and other things around the site.

     

    “There is still an argument between us and the GBRA; it is in their river bed. It is not on County or private property,” said DeWitt County Judge Daryl Fowler during the Nov. 28 commissioners' court meeting. “We’re trying to find out whose responsibility it is.”

     

    While no action was made, Afflerbach reported receiving a bid of about $2,000 to test the tank to determine if it could be safely disposed of by the county.

     

    “I will work up the Department of Emergency Management chain and see if we can get somebody to answer that question: Whose responsibility is it? Or, does it just stay there and float down on the next flood to destroy a TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) bridge,” said Fowler.