Petition to End Avoidable Flooding

Citizens Call for Regional Oversight Based on Science, Transparency, and Enforcement

Jan. 17, 2017

A Houston group called Citizens Solutions to Flooding is circulating a petition calling for the creation of a long-overdue Houston-Galveston regional body to ensure that new construction and development does not increase flooding.

The petition focuses on the inadequacy and lack of enforcement of current regulations regarding stormwater drainage and detention. It calls for transparency in the permitting process and financial incentives for property owners to retrofit properties to conform to more effective standards for controlling stormwater running off impervious surface.

Houston’s natural tendency to flood has been greatly worsened by uncontrolled development and the proliferation of hard surface like parking lots, building rooftops, and roadways that rapidly collect and concentrate rainwater rather than slowing, absorbing, and dispersing it.

In calling for regional oversight, the petition notes that “watersheds know no county boundaries.” And development in one watershed can worsen flooding in another watershed.

Notably, the petition does not call for widening and deepening our bayous and streams, an outmoded, costly, ineffective, and environmentally damaging solution preferred by city and county engineers. More green space, not less, is the consensus of leading experts, including Phil Bedient, director of the SSPEED storm center at Rice University.

Sign the petition here.

Angry alligator snapping turtle, a threatened species living in Buffalo Bayou. Photo by Ashley Tubbs.

Angry alligator snapping turtle, a threatened species living on Buffalo Bayou. Photo by Ashley Tubbs.

 

 

 

Sign the Petition to the Army Corps of Engineers

May 28, 2014

Here’s an easy, fast way to make a comment to the Army Corps of Engineers before the June 30 deadline.

Buffalo Bayou riparian forest. Photo by Jim Olive.

Buffalo Bayou riparian forest. Photo by Jim Olive.

A friend of Buffalo Bayou named Jamie Campbell has started a MoveOn petition that you can sign.

It’s titled “Stop the Bulldozers on the Wild Banks of Buffalo Bayou in Houston’s Memorial Park.” It will be sent to the Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality before the June 30 deadline for comments on Harris County’s application for a permit to bulldoze the bayou.

You can sign the petition here. Pass it around. Tell your friends. We can stop this bad idea!