Send to Corps of Engineers by Friday, May 31

May 28, 2019

(Updated May 29 with correct email address for sending comments to the Corps)

Should we spend billions to dig a gigantic concrete tunnel to drain stormwater from the west side of Houston directly east into Galveston Bay? (At the same time that we spend over $1 billion to build a 39-mile giant pipe to bring drinking water from the east to new development in the west.)

Or should we buy up land, protect it as greenspace, and use it for natural stormwater detention, slowing the runoff before it overwhelms the dams and adds to flooding in Buffalo Bayou? And maybe buy flood-prone houses and other structures, move them out of harm’s way.

The US Army Corps of Engineers is asking for public opinion as it studies ways of reducing flood risk along Buffalo Bayou and its many tributaries. This includes upstream and downstream of the federal flood control dams Addicks and Barker, both of which drain into Buffalo Bayou. Homes, schools, and businesses were badly flooded upstream and downstream of the reservoirs during Harvey.

Public comments are due by Friday, May 31. The study is known officially as the Buffalo Bayou and Tributaries Resiliency Study (BBTRS). Comments received will be used in the development of an Environmental Impact Statement in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, according to the Corps.

The diverse measures being considered by the Corps in cooperation with the Harris County Flood Control District include tunnels, bypasses, levees, a new reservoir/dam, detention, “channel improvements,” as wells as “property acquisition,” flood proofing, signage and flood warning systems, public education, increasing storage capacity within the existing reservoirs, and more.

A study recently released by the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium concluded that a Third Reservoir on the Katy Prairie near Cypress Creek in northwest Harris County would do little to reduce flooding.

BBTRS@usace.army.mil is the email address for asking questions and sending in your comments and suggestions about what the Corps and the Harris County Flood Control District (and Fort Bend County) should be doing about flooding. Note that this does not include what the City of Houston could or should do.

You can also mail your comments to the Corps. Be sure they are postmarked by May 31, 2019.

Send to: USACE, Galveston District, Attention: BBTRS, P.O. Box 1229, Galveston, TX  77553-1229.

The three primary problems being addressed by the Corps are:

• Flooding downstream of the reservoirs on Buffalo Bayou
• Performance and risk issues related to flow around and over the uncontrolled spillways
• Flooding upstream of the reservoirs

In April and May the Corps held several public meetings in west Houston and Katy to explain the study and the process and to gather public input. Here is a link to the Corps’ presentation at the meetings. Here is a link to the storyboards presented at the meetings.

Save Buffalo Bayou is in favor of stopping and slowing stormwater runoff before it floods our bayous and streams. This is modern floodplain management. That means more trees and greenspace, more wetlands and prairies, more detention in neighborhoods and shopping malls, more permeable surface. Focusing on collecting and conveying more stormwater faster—and destroying our natural landscape and drainage system in order to do it—only leads to more flooding. Dredging, deepening, and widening the bayou and other streams only leads to bank collapse, constant maintenance and repair, and more flooding.  (See here and here and here.) It’s like building bigger freeways: it doesn’t work.

Preserving old stands of trees, natural swales, wetlands, oxbows, vegetated riparian areas, and meanders; building small weirs, sediment structures, wet gardens, and setback levees; lengthening streams, and accepting large woody debris in the channel are useful techniques. Using these practices to work with the natural motion of the river is more effective – and less expensive – in reducing flood damage and helping us realize benefits from the water.

Floodplain Management: A New Approach for a New Era, p. 137

SC

Buffalo Bayou flowing past the Hogg Bird Sanctuary, Bayou Bend Collection parking lot, and the River Oaks Country Club golf course. Flow was relatively high, around 700 cubic feet per second, covering the banks. Photo May 5, 2019, by Jim Olive.

More Stormwater Running Off into Addicks Dam and Buffalo Bayou

Keep in mind that the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium recently found that stormwater detention requirements for new development were not working. But we knew that. If they were working, we wouldn’t be talking about billion-dollar flood tunnels and deepening and widening our bayous.

The vacant land is located west of Addicks Dam

By Jen Rice, Houston Public Media, May 24, 2019

Houston City Council approved a new municipal utility district in the 100-year floodplain, despite opposition from some members who say additional development could make flooding worse.

More than 600 acres of vacant land in the Katy area will be developed for single family residential and commercial use. The land is located west of the Addicks dam, which flooded surrounding neighborhoods during Hurricane Harvey. The nearest major drainage facility is South Mayde Creek, which flows into Buffalo Bayou, then the Houston Ship Channel.

Councilmember Brenda Stardig, who represents parts of West Houston, voted against the measure based on guidance from flooding experts.

“When someone that’s in the know about that dam tells me the development west of that dam has contributed to the issues, then I have to hesitate,” Stardig said. “My district would probably not appreciate me supporting this at this time because of the fact, like I said, that it’s outlined that it’s in the floodplain.”

Read the rest of this report at Houston Public Media.

Signs pointing to the future on the Katy prairie. Photo by Shannon Harrison for Houston Public Media.

By Nick Powell, Houston Chronicle, May 10, 2019

A long-discussed idea for a third reservoir to prevent extreme Hurricane Harvey-level flooding in beleaguered neighborhoods along Cypress Creek might not be the flood mitigation panacea it was conceived as, according to a Rice University study.

After tens of thousands of homes flooded in the watersheds of Cypress Creek and the Addicks and Barker reservoirs during Harvey in 2017, regional planners revived an idea originally conceived nearly 80 years ago by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — a third reservoir to supplement the capacity of Addicks and Barker in the event of a major flood.

But the study by Rice University’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education, and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center revealed the difficulties in attempting to eliminate flooding in the Cypress Creek watershed, which covers over 300 square miles in northwest Harris County and features over 250 miles of open streams.

….

The study also concluded that the remaining undeveloped land in the Cypress Creek area should be protected against development, specifically the Katy Prairie west of Houston, where vegetation and wetlands provide flood protection.

Harris County Commissioner Jack Cagle, whose northwest Harris County precinct includes areas likely to be affected by any future flood mitigation effort, believes that prairie land could be a significant component of a future reservoir.

Read the rest of this article in the Houston Chronicle.

 ….

The Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium is holding a free public event, Tuesday, May 14, from 3:30 to 6 p.m. at Rice University’s Bioscience Research Collaborative, 6500 Main Street, to present the findings from the Cypress Creek study as well as other recent research and reports.

Corps Studying the Issue. Public Comments Due by May 31.

Last Public Meeting Tonight

May 9, 2019

The Corps of Engineers is studying ways of reducing flooding along Buffalo Bayou and its many tributaries, including upstream and downstream of Addicks and Barker dams in west Houston, as well as the federal dams themselves.

The Corps’ Galveston District has been conducting a series of public meetings explaining possible approaches to reducing flood risk and seeking public comment. The last public meeting is tonight, May 9, from 6 to 9 at the Cypress Ridge High School, 7900 N. Eldridge Parkway. But the public comment period doesn’t end until May 31.

Here is a link to the Corps’ presentation at the meetings. Here is a link to the storyboards presented at the meetings.

And here is the email address for asking questions and sending in your comments and suggestions about what the Corps and the Harris County Flood Control District (and Fort Bend County) should be doing about flooding. Note that this does not include what the City of Houston could or should do.

The three primary problems being addressed by the Corps are:

• Flooding downstream of the reservoirs on Buffalo Bayou
• Performance and risk issues related to flow around and over the uncontrolled spillways
• Flooding upstream of the reservoirs

The various suggested approaches are heavy on big engineering projects like flood tunnels, bypasses, new dams and reservoirs, increasing the storage capacity of the reservoirs, and “channel improvements” along Buffalo Bayou and other streams flowing into it.

But the alternatives also include floodproofing, better warning systems, signage, and public education; stormwater detention, and “property acquisition,” which could mean buyouts of flood-prone properties as well as preservation of forest and prairie, which help slow and absorb rainwater.

Save Buffalo Bayou is in favor of stopping and slowing stormwater runoff before it floods our bayous and streams. This is modern floodplain management. That means more trees and greenspace, more wetlands and prairies, more detention in neighborhoods and shopping malls, more permeable surface. Focusing on collecting and conveying more stormwater faster—and destroying our natural landscape and drainage system in order to do it—only leads to more flooding. Dredging, deepening, and widening the bayou and other streams only leads to bank collapse, constant maintenance and repair, and more flooding.  (See here and here and here.) It’s like building bigger freeways: it doesn’t work.

Another problem with hard structures: They don’t move. Nature does.

Preserving old stands of trees, natural swales, wetlands, oxbows, vegetated riparian areas, and meanders; building small weirs, sediment structures, wet gardens, and setback levees; lengthening streams, and accepting large woody debris in the channel are useful techniques. Using these practices to work with the natural motion of the river is more effective – and less expensive – in reducing flood damage and helping us realize benefits from the water.

Floodplain Management: A New Approach for a New Era, p. 137

Image courtesy of the Galveston District, Corps of Engineers

Flood Control Destroys Forest on Buffalo Bayou

May 6, 2019

(Updated May 7, 2019, with clarification from Harris County Flood Control.)

They’ve done it. Last week the Harris County Flood Control District began knocking down towering sycamores and pines in one of the last remaining forested areas open to the public on Buffalo Bayou.

This tree-cutting is not new. The Flood Control District has been razing forest next to streams all over the county for decades, mainly to excavate floodwater detention basins. Slowing down, holding back rainwater runoff is a good idea. But trees do that. And more. Flood Control is damaging the environment, destroying the limited access we have to nature in the city, while doing little to reduce flooding. Possibly even making it worse.

Their private consultants don’t consider the benefits of trees when they spend millions of taxpayer dollars on flood studies and plans. And there are significant benefits, including flood protection.

Because Leaving Trees in Place is Not a “Project”

The problem is, as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) points out (see pp. 7-9), leaving trees in place—nature-based flood risk reduction—is not considered a “project.” There is a political bias in favor of costly, large-scale structural approaches, despite the obvious advantages to small-scale, non-structural, green or natural approaches to flood management. (Although in this case, they seem to be doing the project because it’s “cheap and easy.”)

Trees cleared on the south bank of upper Buffalo Bayou in Terry Hershey Park. Trees were cleared on the north bank in the Nineties. Photo by SC May 5, 2019

“Protection of a natural channel and adjacent river corridor, floodplain or wetland often does not meet the conventional concept of a ‘project,’” notes FEMA.

The District needs “projects” in order to look like it’s doing something, especially after county voters approved $2.5 billion in bonds for flood reduction “projects.” And contractors don’t make money from not doing or not designing “projects.”

Other factors preventing more enlightened, more effective flood management include the lack of multidisciplinary expertise, leading to a dependency on old, traditional, and familiar engineering approaches, points out FEMA.

Like spending millions repairing the channelized banks of the bayou in Terry Hershey Park where the straightened stream is attempting to restore its natural meanders. Allowing the bayou to recover its bends, thus lengthening itself, would increase its capacity naturally and for free. (p. 11)

Because That’s What They Always Planned to Do

The trees recently downed by Flood Control were on the south bank of upper Buffalo Bayou in Terry Hershey Park, a semi-wild wooded area beloved by hikers and bikers. The 500-acre rolling linear park runs for some six miles on both sides of the bayou below Addicks and Barker dams in west Houston.

Read the rest of this post.