{"id":1725,"date":"2015-07-11T01:04:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-11T06:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=1725"},"modified":"2017-10-11T17:57:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T22:57:40","slug":"while-we-wait","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=1725","title":{"rendered":"While We Wait"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Flood Control District\u2019s Failing \u201cNatural Channel Design\u201d Projects<\/h3>\n

July 11, 2015<\/p>\n

Well, the comments are in to the Army Corps of Engineers. The comment period that ended June 5 was not extended. So now we wait to find out what the Corps will do next about a permit for the Harris County Flood Control District\u2019s controversial $6 million Memorial Park Demonstration Project. The flood control district wants to destroy one of the last natural stretches of Buffalo Bayou as it flows past Memorial Park in the middle of the city so that engineers can \u201cbuild it better,\u201d thus demonstrating exactly the wrong thing to do for erosion control and bank stabilization on the bayou.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the wrong thing to do because the specially adapted trees and plants on the bayou (known as the riparian zone<\/a>) protect the land from erosion, slow storm water and runoff, filter pollution and bacteria (and trash) from the water, provide shade and habitat, among many other vital functions. Razing the riparian buffer, as this project would do, digging up and running heavy equipment over the banks and bayou bottom are all contrary to Best Management Practices and the policies of virtually every federal and state agency charged with protecting the health of our waters, our wildlife habitat, and our soil.<\/p>\n

What Are the Options?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what are the Corps\u2019 options? The Corps could deny the permit. (Never happens like that.) The Corps could decide to hold a public hearing. (Unlikely: they\u2019ve already received hundreds of public comments, the vast majority negative.) The Corps could decide that the purpose of this project was not clear (true) and that the environmental impact of the project was not clear (true, although rational people see that the impact would be damaging). In that event the Corps could declare the project an \u201cenvironmental controversy\u201d and require an environmental impact assessment.<\/p>\n

We believe there are strong grounds for requiring an environmental impact statement.<\/p>\n

The Corps could also approve the permit. That decision would have to be appealed in federal court. To stop the bulldozers, we would have to file for an injunction. That will take money, so please press the Donate <\/a>button now. We\u2019ll give you a free bumper sticker.<\/p>\n

Failing \u201cNatural Channel Design\u201d Flood Control Projects in Harris County<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The flood control district describes the Memorial Park project as \u201cnatural channel design,\u201d which is a term that apparently has come to mean just about any channelizing project that doesn\u2019t include concrete but does include curves. Natural channel design has a history of failed and washed out projects<\/a>, and we believe this controversial and destructive method proposed for Memorial Park has a risk for failure also. Let us look at the success of a couple of the district\u2019s previous \u201cnatural channel design\u201d projects.<\/p>\n

Buffalo Bayou Park<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Cottonwood<\/a>

Cottonwood downed by removal of riparian vegetation and weakening of banks in Buffalo Bayou Park “restored” by the Harris County Flood Control District. Photo taken Jan. 26, 2015, by Jim Olive.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even in its recent \u201crevised\u201d but essentially unchanged permit application, the district continues to tout its \u201cnatural stable channel design\u201d project in Buffalo Bayou Park between Shepherd Drive and Sabine Street downstream from Memorial Park. This is the most prominent of the district\u2019s \u201cnatural channel design\u201d or \u201cnatural stable channel design\u201d projects (see page 30)<\/a>. (At some point the district added the word \u201cstable\u201d to the \u201cNCD\u201d description, \u201cnatural channel design\u201d being a term invented and possibly trademarked by the controversial river guru, Dave Rosgen,<\/a> a founding father of the lucrative river \u201crestoration\u201d industry.)<\/p>\n

However, few people know this popular and nearly finished $58 million park between Allen Parkway and Memorial Drive is also a flood control district project.<\/a> The nationally-recognized park is best known as a model of urban design, with scenic concrete and asphalt walking, biking, and running trails, and much-needed recreational facilities for people and dogs. And indeed some parts are lovely, if you can get there and find a parking space.<\/p>\n

In 2012 the flood control district began working on a $5 million program to \u201crestore\u201d the two-mile stretch of the bayou between Sabine and Shepherd. The district removed trees and plants, bulldozed, scraped, and graded the banks, dredged and realigned the channel, destabilizing the riparian zone, although destabilization was not the plan.<\/p>\n

Since then the park has been suffering from sinkholes, massive and accelerated erosion, undercutting, collapsing banks, major tree loss, and more, even before being inundated by the recent Memorial Day flood<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Save Buffalo Bayou commissioned landscape ecologist Tom Hayes of the Environmental Conservation Alliance<\/a> to prepare a report on this natural stable channel design \u201cdemonstration project\u201d in Buffalo Bayou Park, a report sent to the Army Corps of Engineers. On a survey trip by canoe through the park last February, Hayes, observing the repeated futile attempts to repair eroding banks, commented that \u201cthey should just quit now.\u201d Let the bayou naturally rebuild and replant. Which is what the bayou is already doing there in places.<\/p>\n

Here is Hayes’ conclusion as written in the report sent to the Corps:<\/p>\n

“Due to the apparent multiple failures of the prior demonstration project [Buffalo Bayou Park] as discussed in this report and elsewhere, the next phase of the project proposed for Memorial Park should not be permitted. The unchannelized bayou within this public park\u00a0 [Memorial Park] currently contributes minimal sedimentation compared to the actively eroding condition produced by recent channelization. There is no reason to dredge the channel, destabilize the banks, and continue to remove the riparian forest, when the results of the present demonstration project have been increased erosion and downstream sedimentation, and destruction of vital ecosystem and community services.”<\/p>\n

Watch a slide show of Buffalo Bayou between Shepherd Drive and Sabine Street before and after the flood control district’s “natural stable channel design” project:<\/p>\n

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