Phase I of Giant Lauder Detention Basin on Greens Bayou Nears Completion

Phase I of the giant Lauder Detention Basin on Greens Bayou is nearing completion. The 90-acre Phase I of the project will cost approximately $18 million when complete. Excavation and grading are now finished but landscaping still remains on the to-do list for most of the site. It’s come a long way since I photographed this project in July.

Harris County Flood Control District gave this project the name C34. It’s project ID is P500-06-00-E005. These alpha-numeric descriptions do little to communicate the beauty of this massive pond complex. See below.

Phase I Lauder Basin Photos Taken 10/12/21

*Looking south from over Greens Bayou (right).* *HCFCD contractors have begun to plant grass, but much still remains to plant including trees. Also, the ponds will have aquatic plants that improve water quality*.

*Looking north from north pond. Culverts will convey stormwater at a controlled rate from ponds to Greens Bayou at top of frame.* *The cut through the tree line by the bayou appears to be an overflow spillway.*

*Water flows from one pond into another within the 90-acre complex.*

*Looking south toward Lauder from north end of pond. That’s JFK Blvd. in the upper left.*

*Looking south from the Lauder Road entrance to the pond complex in Phase 1. That’s Aldine ISD’s Mead Middle School in the background.* *Note the drainage ditch running off into the distance and read the caption below.*

Looking north from Lauder Road. *Notice how water from the ditch above (P138-01-01 in map below) is channeled into ponds now at the lower left instead of going directly to Greens Bayou.* Also note excavation equipment being loaded on flatbed trucks for removal.

The Flood Control District has received an $11.5 million grant from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service to help construct these ponds.

Phase II Still Being Designed

The detention basin shown above was purchased by the Flood Control District as undeveloped land in 2000. However, Phase II required buyouts.

*Looking west from over Phase I. Phase II when complete will occupy the wooded area in the upper right.*

Phase 1 is on right (E005), Phase 2 on left (E006). Phase 1 is in its final stages. Phase 2 is still in the design phase. Notice how each pond detains water from long channels before releasing it into Greens Bayou.

Phase II is immediately west of Phase I. It will be located on the property of the former Castlewood Subdivision, Sections 1 and 2. HCFCD completed preliminary engineering for Phase 2 in January 2021. The project is now in the design phase. It is budgeted for $20.5 million and scheduled to start construction in the summer of 2022.

Castlewood was built in the early 1960s in the Greens Bayou floodplain. It was also built in a former floodway of Greens Bayou before the bayou was rerouted and straightened circa the 1950s. Development occurred many years before the advent of Harris County’s first floodplain maps and associated development regulations in the 1980s. Since the late 1970s, there have been more than a dozen recorded flood events in the area.

*Artist’s rendering of pond layouts from HCFCD community presentation.* When complete, these basins will offer healthy recreational opportunities for area residents.

Together, Phases 1 & 2 comprise more than 200 acres – an area about 25% larger than Kingwood’s largest park – East End Park.

When complete, the ponds in both phases will have enough capacity to hold a foot of water falling across a two-square mile area. That’s water that won’t be going into Greens Bayou immediately during a big storm.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/14/2021

1507 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Phase I Lauder Basin Photos Taken 10/12/21

Phase II Still Being Designed

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