{"id":7182,"date":"2019-05-22T19:55:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T00:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=7182"},"modified":"2021-04-06T18:47:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T23:47:53","slug":"private-club-destroying-bank-of-buffalo-bayou-threatening-self-and-neighbors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=7182","title":{"rendered":"Private Club Destroying Bank of Buffalo Bayou, Threatening Self and Neighbors, with City Permission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Money to Burn: Leaders Reject Cheaper, Less Damaging Alternatives<\/h3>\n

A Cascade of Increasingly Costly Mistakes<\/em><\/h4>\n

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May 22, 2019<\/p>\n

Updated with photos from July 12, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

An elite private club on Buffalo Bayou has begun an $18-24 million \u201cbank stabilization\u201d project that will likely cause extensive damage to public and private property, including the club\u2019s own property.<\/p>\n

The River Oaks Country Club received a permit from the City of Houston Floodplain Management Office on May 6, 2019, to install over 1,500 linear feet of metal walls, concrete pilings, concrete rubble, wire baskets filled with rock (gabions), and other material in three locations on Buffalo Bayou below the edge of their golf course. The locations are opposite Memorial Park and the Hogg Bird Sanctuary, as well as private residential property.<\/p>\n

This type of bank hardening has been specifically rejected by the Harris County Flood Control District and the Galveston District of the US Army Corps of Engineers, which governs the coast and southeast Texas down to the Rio Grande. Both agencies nevertheless appear to have given their approval, despite knowing that such unnecessarily costly projects often fail, damage nearby property, and even increase flooding.<\/p>\n

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Solutions Creating More Costly Problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBank armoring at a single point of erosion has been shown to be ineffective along Buffalo Bayou,\u201d noted the Corps in a 2014 publication specifically referring to this stretch of the river. \u201cThe isolated bank armoring installed to deflect the erosive shear stress at the point of failure, in most cases, is attacked at one or both of its terminal ends, resulting in eventual failure. This type of armoring redirects stream energy to a new spot location downstream, creating a new point of stress.\u201d (p. 4)<\/a><\/p>\n

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (p. 8)<\/a>, the Corps, and the Flood Control District recommend against bank hardening projects due to, among other reasons, the \u201clack of shear stress reduction\u201d and \u201cthe erosive energy transfer it would place on the opposite bank of the bayou at a downstream location.\u201d (p. 21<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Heavy sheet pile walls being pounded into the south bank of Buffalo Bayou by the River Oaks Country Club. Area 3 of three locations receiving similar treatment. The water level was at base flow of around 145 cubic feet per second. The work was clearly being conducted in federally-protected waters below the Ordinary High Water Mark. There are also federally-protected wetlands here. Photo May 22, 2019.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Corps and Flood Control specifically rejected bank hardening \u201con the outside of meander bends\u201d for reasons that include, in addition to above, \u201cthe lack of habitat creation\u201d and \u201clack of natural occurrence\u201d on the bayou. All three locations for the \u201cstabilization\u201d project are on the outside of meander bends.<\/p>\n

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An outdated LIDAR topographic map shows an inaccurate path of the bayou channel flowing past Memorial Park on the north and the Hogg Bird Sanctuary on the northeast. Image from the April 2019 hydraulic analysis submitted to the City and Flood Control District by Binkley and Barfield on behalf of the River Oaks Country Club. Areas 1,2, and 3 are the “slope repair” project areas on the south bank of the bayou below the River Oaks Country Club golf course.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Damage to Others<\/strong><\/p>\n

The initial metal walls being pounded into the bank at the downstream end of the club\u2019s golf course are opposite residential properties. A preliminary analysis showed that they will indeed \u201cdisplace\u201d the club\u2019s \u201cerosion consequences onto their neighbors,\u201d and that the \u201cdisplaced consequences will be more expensive than the ones [the club] seeks to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The on-site analysis was conducted by a professional geologist working with Save Buffalo Bayou.<\/p>\n

The project will similarly cause increased erosion of the forested banks of Memorial Park upstream, a 1500-acre public park currently undergoing $300 million worth of landscaping. Management of the park is under contract to the Memorial Park Conservancy<\/a>. Of the 28 members of the Conservancy board, at least six are members of the River Oaks Country Club, including the chairman and vice chairman, as is a major donor.<\/p>\n

Among other problems, the project maps use an outdated LIDAR topographic survey of the area, possibly from 2008, that shows an inaccurate path of the bayou channel.<\/p>\n

The project maps also exaggerate the club’s property line, which only extends partially down the bank to the “gradient boundary.” The Port of Houston (the public) owns the submerged lands of Buffalo Bayou<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Less Damaging Alternatives<\/strong><\/p>\n

The club has other less damaging, less costly, and more effective methods of protecting its bank. In mid-April Save Buffalo Bayou contacted the club leadership with recommendations and information but received no response. The club is led by board chairman Randall B. Hale. Board member Steve Lindley has been in charge of the golf course and bank projects.<\/p>\n

In mid-April Save Buffalo Bayou also contacted the Memorial Park Conservancy, the Houston Parks Department, City officials, including the Mayor and City Council representatives, among others, about its concerns for the park. There was no response.<\/p>\n

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The bank hardening project is in the stretch of the bayou that was the location of a controversial plan, known as the Memorial Park Demonstration Project,<\/a> based on so-called Natural Channel Design, principles used by both the Corps and Flood Control. The club was participating in the $6 million project, which was promoted by Flood Control and the Memorial Park Conservancy, among others. The plan would have razed the trees on both sides of the bayou, including forest of Memorial Park and the Hogg Bird Sanctuary; dredged and rerouted the bayou along the entire length of the golf course. Taxpayers were footing $4 million of the estimated $6 million cost.<\/p>\n

The plan was based on a faulty analysis of bank collapse on Buffalo Bayou and would have failed<\/a>, leaving behind a wasteland after destroying one of the last publicly-accessible forested areas of the bayou, a historic nature area.<\/p>\n

However, the club could still use some form of Natural Channel Design, which is in theory (if not always in practice) a form of bank restoration and stabilization based on mimicking nature, including anchoring large woody debris onto the bank<\/a>. The club has already removed most of the trees along the three sections of the bank targeted for hardening, which is the main reason the club is having problems in these areas.<\/p>\n

Save Buffalo Bayou believes it is incumbent on the property owner to use, and the City of Houston to require, the least damaging alternative. Our nonprofit organization has requested that the City revoke the club\u2019s floodplain permit, issued under Ch. 19 of the City\u2019s Building Code<\/a>, and has asked for a hearing before the little-known Board of General Appeals<\/a>. Building officials, however, have been adamant that the board only hears appeals of permits denied, not permits granted.<\/p>\n

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The Impacts<\/strong><\/p>\n

But City building officials, and the Board of General Appeals, can and should recommend new laws and regulations to City Council that prohibit these kinds of damaging projects on the bayou, which only force more and more property owners to harden their banks in response. The end effect will be more flooding and environmental degradation, and the loss of a valuable public resource.<\/p>\n

Texas law prohibits the diversion of the natural flow of surface waters \u201cin a manner that damages the property of another by the overflow of the water diverted or impounded.\u201d (Sec. 11.086 of the Texas Water Code)<\/a><\/p>\n

The project could also result in an increase in flood insurance policy premiums for Houstonians by damaging the City of Houston\u2019s Community Rating under the National Flood Insurance Program. The Community Rating System rewards the protection of \u201cthe natural and beneficial functions of a community\u2019s floodprone lands.\u201d (p. 1<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Reportedly the Bayou Bend Collection downstream from the club is also now considering a similar sheet-pile method to harden its collapsing, irrigated bank. Irrigation worsens bank instability.<\/p>\n

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Self-Inflicted Problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

The club\u2019s bank problems are largely self-inflicted.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s property bordering the bayou was once heavily forested, a natural protection against erosion and drainage problems. The club was founded in 1923 among the tall \u201criver oaks\u201d of Buffalo Bayou, as was Memorial Park shortly after. Over the years the club has removed the forest to expand its manicured, watered golf course up to the edge of the bayou bank. This was done specifically in the three areas where the club is now spending millions to combat erosion problems.<\/p>\n

Most recently the club removed a large expanse of mature trees in the middle of the course as part of its 2015 golf course renovation led by board member Lindley. This has led to increased runoff and slumping of the bank in the middle Area #2 where the club is now having problems, which it has attempted to remedy by pouring large amounts of broken concrete onto the bank.<\/p>\n

This middle Area #2 was once a ravine with a small tributary flowing into the bayou. Likewise Area #3 was also the mouth of a small ravine with a stream emptying into the bayou. These small streams appear to have been filled in or buried.<\/p>\n

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