{"id":10701,"date":"2022-02-01T17:19:57","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T23:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=10701"},"modified":"2022-02-01T17:19:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T23:19:59","slug":"a-problem-nobody-wants-to-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=10701","title":{"rendered":"A Problem Nobody Wants to Fix"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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While Costly Fixes Wash Away<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update on Bayou Park Repairs and Damaging Stormwater Outfalls<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb. 1, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently we told you about the many drainage pipes jutting out from the banks of Buffalo Bayou and other streams that block the flow during storms<\/a>. These pipes, or outfalls, violate city, county, and federal regulations by pointing directly across the channel. They act like dams, cause stormwater to back up, flood, erode, and take out banks and expensive sidewalks, leading to costly and continuous repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Houston is in charge of the pipes that collect this stormwater that rains down on the city. The Harris County Flood Control District<\/a> is in charge of the channels and streams, both natural and artificial, that receive this runoff and send it out to the San Jacinto River and Galveston Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This
Giant outfall pointing at north bank in Buffalo Bayou Park blew out concrete riprap and concrete block installed by Harris County Flood Control in 2020. Sidewalk threatened once again. Dirt and concrete left in middle of stream. Photo taken just downstream from the Waugh Bridge, Jan. 15, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But there were still questions hanging when we published the “illegal” outfalls report a couple of weeks ago. In 2020 the flood control district spent nearly $10 million in federal funds scraping, bulldozing and \u201crepairing\u201d the healthy green banks<\/a> in Houston\u2019s popular Buffalo Bayou Park between Shepherd and Sabine. The project was meant to repair damage caused by Harvey in 2017, three years earlier. Of course, by the time the bulldozers were revved up and deployed to the banks for the \u201crepairs,\u201d the bayou had naturally repaired and replanted its banks with deep-rooted, stabilizing native plants<\/a>. Destroying these plants removed the natural network protecting the bank, causing at least one big tree to fall<\/a> (as others have following Flood Control\u2019s previous \u201cnatural stable channel design\u201d work<\/a> in the park).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the hanging questions from our previous report: why didn\u2019t Flood Control fix the many stormwater pipes in the park blasting away like cannons pointed at the opposite bank?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Same Answer: Not Our Pipes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n