Tell Flood Control: No! Stop Destroying Forest on Buffalo Bayou

Stop Stormwater BEFORE It Floods the Bayou

Take the Survey

May 30, 2018

Harris County Flood Control plans to destroy forest on the south bank of Terry Hershey Park in west Houston in order to create 100-acre feet of stormwater detention siphoned off of Buffalo Bayou. This minor amount of detention is to compensate for INCREASED stormwater that the City of Houston plans to drain into the bayou from surrounding neighborhoods. We need to stop stormwater BEFORE it enters our streams. Tell Flood Control you are OPPOSED to the project by taking their survey on this page. Do it now! They’re starting soon. The survey doesn’t really let you say no to the project. But you can express your opposition and displeasure in the comment box at the end.

Trail through the forest of Terry Hershey Park on the south bank of Buffalo Bayou in west Houston.

 

Planned detention basins in Terry Hershey Park on south bank of Buffalo Bayou. Project begins with Cell One. This plan is to compensate for MORE stormwater that the City plans to drain into the bayou. Image courtesy HCFCD

4 thoughts on “Tell Flood Control: No! Stop Destroying Forest on Buffalo Bayou”

  1. Ben Moore says:

    Prudent study will show this is an unlikely solution to a monumental problem. At the same time make misery for area tax payers, waste needed trees and spend enormous amount of borrowed money.

    1. Yes. Thank you for your comment. Among other things, Houstonians, particularly those living in the area, are stressed and anxious. Forest and trees are known to be beneficial for emotional, mental, and physical health. Not a good time to be losing the forest.

  2. Jim Stevens says:

    The obvious answer is more channels to the bay. Underground tunnels.
    Pave the bayou, make the paved channel wider and deeper so water does not stack up like it does now. Whatever it takes to increase the cross section area available for flowing flood water to stay out of homes. Retention, even if a computer model says it will work, won’t work because any system of restriction orifices and weirs will get clogged up and require constant maintenance.
    The development is not going to stop, there is too much money in it. The recent acceptance of faux engineering studies to justify more development prove I am right.

    1. The obvious answer is slowing down and diverting runoff. Flooding begins on the land. The faster the runoff the higher the peak flow in a stream. It’s called lag time.

      Widening, deepening, and paving Buffalo Bayou is never going to happen, for a variety of reasons, but mainly because it doesn’t work, causes more flooding, and is hugely destructive. Not to mention outrageously expensive.

      All flood management approaches require maintenance, but artificially widening and deepening streams requires the most costly maintenance.

      Big costly engineering projects like channels and underground tunnels do not work as well as nature-based, nonstructural projects. These fantasy projects are not going to happen here, and people concerned about flooding need to focus on rational, practical, cost-effective responses to flooding that can happen soon.

      Read this report on flooding from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

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