{"id":11976,"date":"2024-10-31T16:50:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T21:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=11976"},"modified":"2024-10-31T16:50:41","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T21:50:41","slug":"no-more-money-for-incompetent-flood-control","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=11976","title":{"rendered":"No More Money for Incompetent Flood Control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vote No on Proposition A<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oct. 31, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Harris County Flood Control District is asking county voters for a property tax increase<\/a> to raise an extra $100 million a year for maintenance operations. The increase would nearly double Flood Control\u2019s annual budget (p. 80<\/a>), not including the money from the $2.5 billion bond program<\/a> approved by voters in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been monitoring the agency for ten years. Here\u2019s why the vote on Flood Control\u2019s Proposition A<\/a> should be NO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Unique Agency. Little Authority. Destructive Maintenance Practices. Private Profit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, it\u2019s important to note that Flood Control, the only agency of its kind in the state, has very limited responsibility. It does not manage flooding throughout the county and has no regulatory powers. Flood Control only has authority over our local bayous and creeks. And with little else to do, they have gouged out, straightened and stripped most of our streams of natural vegetation, turning them into ditches and concrete channels. Unfortunately this only increases flooding and erosion, as many experts point out. (p. 155<\/a>) The agency, which bizarrely misrepresents the causes of Houston\u2019s flooding<\/a> and dismisses effective non-engineering solutions<\/a>, is not responsible for storm sewers, street or neighborhood flooding. And these new funds are not for useful new projects, like a stormwater detention basin. This money is exclusively for \u201cmaintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Flood Control\u2019s so-called \u201cmaintenance\u201d of our streams and channels is not only outdated and backwards: it\u2019s also damaging, destructive, ineffective, pointless, and possibly corrupt. The main benefit is to the private engineering contractors (rarely if ever hydrologists or scientists) who do the (beneficial) analysis and then the work and reap millions in profits. Over and over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to mention that these private engineering reports have been filled with errors that happen to justify their contracts: exaggerating the amount of sediment deposited in streams and misrepresenting the causes of local flooding (see below), among other major mistakes, including the bizarre claim in the past that there\u2019s no sandstone and no vertical bank collapse, i.e. slumping<\/a>, in Buffalo Bayou, which is actually what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearing Debris<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, contractors are paid by the pound to collect woody debris in and along the stream after storms. Thus motivated they cut down healthy trees, scrape the banks and bottom with backhoes, grab fallen trees that should be left against the bank to provide habitat and defend against erosion. All of this destabilizes the banks and bottom, leading to more maintenance contracts<\/a>. It is hugely damaging to the ecosystem, killing creatures and vital habitat and ruining the natural system that slows and absorbs stormwater, cleanses the water and air, and keeps life flowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Contractor digging into sandy bank and bottom of Buffalo Bayou in search of woody debris. Photo May 19, 2018 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Clear-cutting a pine forest for a Harris County Flood Control stormwater detention basin on Clear Creek in Friendswood. Photo March 19, 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dredging or Mining Sand?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dredging streams can make flooding worse and cause more siltation<\/a>. (See also here<\/a> and here<\/a> and here<\/a>.) Left alone, streams naturally flush out sand and sediment, distributing it along the bank where it needs to go. But Flood Control\u2019s stream dredging operations are not only counterproductive. They appear to be basically an undercover sand mining operation \u2013 in a world where valuable sand is in short supply<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We examined engineering documents supporting County dredging contracts after Harvey that inflated the amount of sediment requiring removal in streams. The analysis counted only the sediment deposited on one bank and ignoring the sediment scooped by streamflow out of the other bank. Moving sediment from side to side is part of a stream\u2019s natural process. (p. 40<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our experts also have observed that contractors routinely dig into the banks to remove valuable sand and sediment. Flood Control over the years repeatedly has declined to answer specific questions about the fate of sediment removed from our streams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mowing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flood Control spends millions of dollars mowing channel banks<\/a> three times a year. This wasteful, counterproductive practice compacts the soil, making it less able to absorb stormwater. Mowed grass also has shorter roots. Longer roots help stormwater infiltrate the ground. Flood Control claims mowing helps remove invasive plants (Johnson grass) so that they can plant turf grass- hardly a native plant. Ugly, boring, and useless. Prairie experts recommend mowing only once a year. Note that tall grass bends with the flow. And shrubs and trees help beautify, shade, and stabilize the banks, cooling, cleansing, slowing and absorbing stormwater<\/a>, which is modern practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deepening and Widening<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deepening and widening channels and streams is a discredited practice<\/a> in an era when slowing stormwater runoff is the focus. Although Flood Control seems to focus on previously channelized streams with the goal of \u201crestoring the channel to its original [Flood Control engineered] design capacity,\u201d the irony is that streams, even modified streams, will naturally adjust to the shape and depth required by the flow. Engineers do not know best. And why \u201cdeepen and widen\u201d a channel that is naturally deepening and widening itself? Strangest of all perhaps, why increase the capacity of streams (Bear Creek<\/a>, for instance) flowing into the overburdened Addicks and Barker dams on upper Buffalo Bayou. Remember what happened during Harvey? Lawsuits still happening<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replace or Change<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Harris County Flood Control District was founded in 1937 to serve as the local partner with the US Army Corps of Engineers for its now discredited  and largely abandoned program of stripping, straightening and covering bayous and streams in concrete, which basically only increased flooding<\/a> and pollution. Brays Bayou is an example, first stripped and channelized by the Corps in the 1950s, more recently the focus of $480 million spent over 40 years for flood risk reduction<\/a>.  But Flood Control\u2019s recent Natural Stable Channel Design efforts<\/a> are hardly an improvement. (See also here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other parts of the country are focusing on undoing this sort of misguided work: removing concrete from streams, daylighting buried streams, restoring meanders and more<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris County Flood Control can be changed, though it\u2019s not easy. In 1993 its very narrow legal authority (which nevertheless included the regularly ignored responsibility for the \u201cconservation of forests,\u201d described in first paragraph<\/a>) was expanded to include wetlands mitigation and \u201crecreational and environmental improvements.\u201d<\/a> But a bill to reform and expand the agency<\/a> introduced in the legislature in 2023 apparently didn\u2019t pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, let\u2019s stop spending public funds destroying our natural environment for no good reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vote No on Proposition A Oct. 31, 2024 The Harris County Flood Control District is asking county voters for a property tax increase to raise an extra $100 million a year for maintenance operations. The increase would nearly double Flood Control\u2019s annual budget (p. 80), not including the money from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11976","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11976"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11982,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11976\/revisions\/11982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}