Greens Bayou

Greens Bayou rises near the intersection of Jones and Mills roads, eight miles north of Jersey Village in northwestern Harris County (at 29°58' N, 95°35' W), and runs southeast for forty-two miles to its mouth on Buffalo Bayou, just north of Pasadena (at 29°45' N, 95°10' W). The bayou, intermittent in its upper reaches, initially runs through generally flat to rolling land with occasional local dissection. It then passes for most of its length through an area of low-lying shallow depressions with clay and sandy loam soils. Greens Bayou was one of the major streams that suffered serious pollution as a result of the Houston metropolitan area's rapid growth during the 1970s. Development strained the area's existing sewerage systems and municipal wastewater-treatment plants so much that during rainy weather millions of gallons of raw sewage and sludge overflowed into the bayous. This periodic contamination was a public-health hazard. A 1982 survey by the Texas Department of Water Resources (now the Texas Water Commission and the Texas Water Development Board) showed the extent of the problem in its estimate that 336 additional municipal wastewater-treatment facilities would be required to meet Harris County's needs between 1984 and 2000.