{"id":9038,"date":"2020-09-30T21:28:58","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T02:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=9038"},"modified":"2020-10-01T20:35:59","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T01:35:59","slug":"flood-control-scrapes-bulldozes-healthy-banks-of-buffalo-bayou","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?page_id=9038","title":{"rendered":"Flood Control Scrapes, Bulldozes Healthy Banks of Buffalo Bayou"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Heart-Breaking<\/em><\/strong> Violation of County, City Mandates. Appropriate Use of Federal Funds?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sept. 30, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were hoping they wouldn\u2019t do it. That Harris County Flood Control would see it wasn\u2019t necessary. The bayou banks were healthy and stable, lush and green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the private consulting engineers had planned it. So Flood Control did it: scraped away the young trees and deep-rooted native plants holding the bank together, bulldozed what nature had successfully engineered, built, and planted in Buffalo Bayou Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They left bare dirt, disturbed, compacted, dead. Violated every established principle of good management of a riverbank, as noted by one of the federal agencies funding the project. (p. 14<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the bare dirt washed away in the rains that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the anchor of the surrounding network of deep-rooted plants, the remaining lone trees on the banks likely will soon fall, as happened as a result of Flood Control’s previous work.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The south bank of Buffalo Bayou in Buffalo Bayou Park just downstream from the Dunlavy after razing and grading by Harris County Flood Control. Photo taken looking upstream from the Jackson Hill Bridge on Sept. 17, 2020, before Tropical Storm Beta.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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They did it with public funds, spending over $2,000 per linear foot, claiming the purpose was to \u201ccontain erosion and bank failures caused by Hurricane Harvey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These particular banks weren\u2019t failing. We know because we climbed out of our canoes and up that gently sloping bank through the tall goldenrod and horseweed below the Dunlavy a couple of times in recent months. Flood Control\u2019s federal grant was supposed to be used to \u201creshape and protect eroded streambanks.\u201d<\/a> But none of these areas was eroded. The bank shape was fine. Maybe steeper after bulldozing, with less of a beach, but pretty much the same. Though bare and unprotected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The same location on Sept. 9, 2020. Note the north bank in the distance which had just recently been bulldozed.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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

Designed to Fail?<\/strong> Do It Anyway<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not even the private contractors paid to scrape it all away thought it was a good idea. In response to the observation that the denuded bank would fail as a result, one worker commented, \u201cThat\u2019s what we told them.\u201d He added, \u201cBut that\u2019s the way Flood Control wanted it.\u201d We responded that Flood Control had just destroyed a healthy bayou bank. The guys nodded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The same bank on Sept. 29, 2020, after Storm Beta. Water was still high from releases from the federal dams far upstream.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Like Harris County Flood Control\u2019s previous bank projects<\/a>, this one seems almost designed to fail, requiring more public funds, more maintenance and repairs, more contracts to be let.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason Krahn, Flood Control\u2019s former project manager for Buffalo Bayou Park, said in a phone call that the purpose of scraping the banks was to remove sediment accumulated from floods and take the \u201cbankfull bench<\/a> back down to the design elevation.\u201d He was referring to Flood Control\u2019s original 2010 plan, based on Natural Stable Channel Design<\/a>, for the channel and banks in the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the bank elevation of those sections looks pretty much the same. Floodplains naturally collect sediment, a reason they are so fertile, and a reason why artificially landscaping a park on a riverbank is complicated and costly. The huge amount of sediment deposited by Harvey on the upper banks had long ago been removed. We did see piles of sediment scraped together just before Storm Beta. We also saw backhoes spreading out sediment and packing it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n