What’s Going on With the Memorial Park Demonstration Project?

The permit is still under evaluation.

[SBB Note: The “erosion control” methods to be demonstrated in Memorial Park have already failed in Buffalo Bayou Park and Fonteno Park.]

By Dianna Wray,  Houston Press, Jan. 4, 2016

The Memorial Park Demonstration project has been a point of contention since the plan was first proposed back in 2013. Since then there have been strident public disagreements and arguments over how the bayou should be handled — or if it should be altered at all — but the ultimate decision on whether to approve the project has been in the hands of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And so far, even though it’s been more than two years, the Corps has yet to actually choose whether to approve a permit that will give Harris County Flood Control the right to alter one of the last natural stretches of Buffalo Bayou running through the city.

At this point, we’re starting to wonder if the Corps is ever going to make a decision at all.

“The permit is still under evaluation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District staff is working to finalize a decision in the coming months,” Dwayne Johnson, regulatory project manager for the Galveston District office of the Corps, stated in reply to our inquiries about where things are in the permit process.

Read the rest of this story in the Houston Press.

Cut Fill Map

2 thoughts on “What’s Going on With the Memorial Park Demonstration Project?”

  1. Alison Tyler says:

    It is critical to leave Buffalo Bayou unaltered, as it would minimize flooding in surrounding communities. The paving of Braes Bayou exacerbated flooding in residential and commercial areas that surrounded it, rather than ameliorating it.

    Additionally, if Buffalo Bayou is kept natural, it will enhance much needed recreation and eco-tourism in the area that would only be possible if the bayou were left unpaved (e.g. canoeing and kayaking Buffalo Bayou)

    1. Thanks, Alison. You’re absolutely right.

      Do note, though, that they are not planning to pave Buffalo Bayou in the stretch that flows past Memorial Park. But after they get done digging it up and leveling it and planting it with grass and young trees that repeatedly wash away, they may eventually be forced to “harden” it.

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