The Barbours Cut Container Terminal, or simply the Barbours Cut Terminal, is a major deep water port in the

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, is the fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States, encompassing nine counties along the Gulf Co ...

area in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It is part of one of the world's busiest ports by cargo tonnage.

Geography

Barbours Cut is situated along the Barbours Cut Ship Channel, between La Porte and

Morgan's Point, Texas Morgan's Point is located 30 miles east of Houston in Harris County, Texas, United States, located on the shores of Galveston Bay at the inlet to the Houston Ship Channel, near La Porte and Pasadena. As of the 2010 census, it had a populatio ...

. This channel, located at the mouth of

Buffalo Bayou Buffalo Bayou is a slow-moving body of water which flows through Houston in Harris County, Texas. Formed 18,000 years ago, it has its source in the prairie surrounding Katy, Fort Bend County, and flows approximately east through the Houston Ship ...

on Galveston Bay, is itself a tributary to the larger

Houston Ship Channel The Houston Ship Channel, in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston, one of the busiest seaports in the world. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between Houston-area terminals and the Gulf of Mexico, and it serves an incr ...

, which runs from

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, through the bay, to the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. It is located approximately from downtown Houston. The terminal is located near the Battleground Industrial District, a major industrial complex in the jurisdiction of La Porte.

History

Opened in 1977, the Barbours Cut Terminal was built at a cost of US$53 million (US$ in today's terms). The new terminal had a distinct geographical advantage over the old Turning Basin terminal. Whereas Turning Basin, situated upriver at the navigational head of Buffalo Bayou, is 6 hours or more from the Gulf, Barbours Cut requires only three hours travel time. In 2007 the terminal handled 15.4 million short tons (17.0 million metric tons) of cargo including more than one million cargo containers. The terminal both directly and indirectly contributes thousands of jobs to the

Galveston Bay Area The Galveston Bay Area, also known as ''Bay Area Houston'' or simply the ''Bay Area'', is a region that surrounds the Galveston Bay estuary of Southeast Texas in the United States, within metropolitan area. Normally the term refers to the mainl ...

and is a key factor in the economy of Greater Houston.

Description

Part of the larger

Port of Houston The Port of Houston is one of the world's largest ports and serves the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas. The port is a 50-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities located a few hours' sailing time from the Gulf of Mexico. ...

complex, Barbours Cut is the largest of the terminals and the first port in Texas to handle standardized

cargo container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...

s. The terminal has six berths with of continuous wharfs. The loading area covers , with of warehouse/storage space. The channel depth is at low tide. The facilities at Barbours Cut include a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

terminal. Until 2007

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6 ...

ran cruises from this terminal but currently there are no cruise lines operating from the terminal.

Environmental issues

Barbours Cut was the first port in the United States to implement the ISO 14001 environmental management standard, a rigorous set of requirements for minimizing a business' effects on the environment. Nevertheless, the

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...

, an environmental

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...

, has given Barbours Cut and the Port of Houston a

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also ref ...

of "F" citing "its deplorable treatment of local residents and its few noteworthy programs to reduce the effects of its operations on air and water quality."

Notes

External links

Port of Houston: Barbours Cut Terminal
{{Texas Galveston Bay Area Greater Houston Ports and harbors of Texas La Porte, Texas Gulf of Mexico Transportation buildings and structures in Harris County, Texas