History of Heartbreak: A Colony Ridge Chronicle
I wrote my first post about Colony Ridge in May 2020. Since then, I have written more than 60 about the controversial, Liberty County colonia that’s now 50% larger than Manhattan. Virtually all of them cover aspects of drainage, wetlands and flooding, as well as the development’s impact on people, the environment and surrounding areas.
The articles also include stories on surrounding developments by the same developer, but operating under different names. But you do not need those to support the 50% larger calculation above.
I’m listing all of my Colony-Ridge-related stories here to make them easier for readers to find.
Colonia Now Drawing National Attention
During the past 3+ years, the growth of Colony Ridge, an unincorporated development, has overwhelmed smaller incorporated areas around it such as Plum Grove and Cleveland.
As a result, fast-growing Colony Ridge has attracted national attention by numerous journalists, not all of it welcomed by the developer. My focus has been almost exclusively on flooding, drainage and water quality issues. Other journalists have focused on crime, cartels, drugs, illegal immigration, overwhelmed schools, predatory lending practices, evictions, the marketing practices of the developer and more.
Here is a list of the drainage related articles. I’ve also taken thousands of pictures – far too many to insert them all here. But I have included a few. See more when you follow the links below.
2020
May 3, 2020 Development Watchlist: Perry, Romerica, Colony Ridge and More
June 14, 2020 Rapid Runoff from World’s Largest Trailer Park Wipes Out Plum Grove Road in Liberty County and More
June 15, 2020 World’s Largest Trailer Park Has Only a Handful of Fire Hydrants
June 19, 2020 “The Developers Are Coming! The Developers Are Coming!”
June 23, 2020 48,000 Gallons of Fecal Contamination Found in Liberty County’s Colony Ridge Ditches, Streams; Problems Persist
June 24, 2020 Hidden Cost of Fecal Contamination: Removing It
October 14, 2020 TCEQ Fines Quadvest for 48,000 Gallon Sewage Spill in Colony Ridge
October 15, 2020 Plum Grove Sues Colony Ridge Developer Over Floodwater, Sewage Leaks
October 16, 2020 TCEQ Blasts Colony Ridge, Says Construction Practices Could Adversely Affect Human Health
October 22, 2020 How Loss of Wetlands Led to War
October 25, 2020 New Drone Shots Reveal Need for Better Flood Control in Liberty County
November 12, 2020 Flood Notes: Highlights of Current Happenings
November 20, 2020 Friday Flood Digest
November 27, 2020 Colony Ridge Declares War on Investigative Journalist, Too
December 1, 2020 Flood of Foreclosures: Hundreds to Lose Colony Ridge Homes Tomorrow
December 5, 2020 Colony Ridge Ditches Violate Liberty County Drainage Standards
December 7, 2020 Merry Christmas from Colony Ridge
December 10, 2020 Rivers of Mud: Largest Development in Liberty County Openly Flaunts Drainage Regulations
December 12, 2020 Rivers of Mud, Part Dos: Wayne Dolcefino Uncovers More Liberty County Dirt
December 14, 2020 Liberty County Strategic Plan … Dead On Arrival
December 16, 2020 Liberty County Hazard Mitigation Plan Contains No Mention of Largest, Most Vulnerable Community in County
December 21, 2020 “One of the Best Land Developers in Liberty County”
December 23, 2020 Preserve What Makes Lake Houston Area Unique
December 26, 2020 Colony Ridge Drainage Reports Misrepresent Soil Types, Underestimate Runoff; Many Reports Missing
December 29, 2020 When Developers Claim No Detention Ponds are Necessary…
2021
January 2, 2021 Guess Which Way to Colony Ridge
January 3, 2021 Flooding of the Fifth Kind: By Government Neglect
January 4, 2021 Liberty County Launches Major Investigation into Colony Ridge Irregularities
January 10, 2021 New Wetland Mitigation Bank Proposed for Areas Upstream from Lake Houston
January 11, 2021 Thousands of Acres in East Fork, Luce Bayou Watersheds to be Developed as Part of Kingland
January 17, 2021 Rosemay Fain’s Harvey and Imelda Stories
February 1, 2021 Colony Ridge Developer Sues Critics For More Than Million Dollars Based on Questionable Allegations
March 6, 2021 Photo Essay: How “Backslope Interceptors” Reduce Erosion, Ditch Maintenance, Flood Risk
April 23, 2021 Silence: Liberty County, Colony Ridge, Landplan Engineering Remain Mute on Missing Documents
April 25, 2021 Officials Slapped With Criminal Complaints for Failure to Produce Records in Colony Ridge Investigation
May 3, 2021 Rampaging East Fork Floodwaters Cut New Path Through Plum Grove Sand Mine
May 3, 2021 Floodwaters Converging Downstream on Lake Houston
May 4, 2021 Family Trapped For Three Days As Floodwaters Ripped Through Sand Mine, Then Under Their Home
May 27, 2021 State Highway 99 Construction Pushes South, Opening Vast Areas to New Development
June 5, 2021 Eight TCEQ Investigations Reprimand Colony Ridge Construction Practices
June 9, 2021 Follow-ups: Whatever became of…?
June 10, 2021 Colony Ridge Expanding North Into More Wetlands
June 20, 2021 What’s Going On in Your Neighborhood?
July 8, 2021 To Reduce Future Flooding, We Need to Focus on BOTH Mitigation AND Root Causes
July 15, 2021 FM1485: What’s Wrong With This Picture?
July 15, 2021 Town Fighting for Survival Stonewalled By County, State Officials at Every Turn
September 3, 2021 TCEQ Again Cites Colony Ridge for Lack of Pollution Controls
November 16, 2021 Sowing the Seeds of the Next Big Flood
November 29, 2021 How to Find and Verify Flood-Related Information: Part II
December 4, 2021 Grand Parkway Extension is Getting There
December 6, 2021 “…Care Will Be Taken to Protect All Vegetation…”
December 31, 2021 Top Stories of 2021 in Review
2022
January 20, 2022 What Does “No Adverse Impact” Really Mean in Drainage Studies?
February 16, 2022 Texas Land-Use Trends: Major Changes Coming
February 23, 2022 How Soon We Forget!
May 17, 2022 Grand Parkway Extension Opens Tomorrow
July 23, 2022 Controversial Colony Ridge Development Doubles in Size
July 29, 2022 Kingland West Clearing 1,123 Acres at FM1010 and Grand Parkway, Using Old Flood Maps
2023
May 31, 2023, How a Controversial, Little Understood Definition Affects Flooding
August 4, 2023 Colony Ridge Buying Up Floodplain Land in Huffman
August 13, 2023 Six Years After Harvey, Bridge Still Blown Out at Colony Ridge
August 16, 2023 Colony Ridge Stormwater Detention Basins, Ditches Fail to Meet Liberty County Standards
August 29, 2023 Harvey Flood’s Sixth Anniversary Passes Virtually Unnoticed
August 30, 2023 As Wildfire Weather Sets In, Fastest Growing Area in Liberty County Fails to Meet Fire-Code Requirements
September 9, 2023 Damn the Downstream Consequences, Colony Ridge Expansion Continues Relentlessly
September 17, 2023 Colony Ridge Now 50 Percent Bigger than Manhattan
October 1, 2023 Entire Texas Republican Congressional Delegation Urges Abbott, Paxton to Investigate Colony Ridge
October 5, 2023 New York Post Publishes Gripping Exposé on Colony Ridge
October 7, 2023 Colony Ridge Karma: Area Floods While Developer Hosts Lawmakers
October 8, 2023 Karma Strikes Again: Colony Ridge Drainage Systems Severely Eroding
October 9, 2023 Recommendations for Special Session of Texas Legislature on Colony Ridge
October 11, 2023 Harris County Commissioners Discuss Colony Ridge but Take No Position Yet
October 19, 2023 Paxton Letter Kicks Colony Ridge Concerns Up a Notch or Ten
October 20, 2023 Search for Sediment Solutions Should Lead Straight to Colony Ridge
December 12, 2023 DOJ, CFPB Sue Colony Ridge for Bait-and-Switch, Predatory Lending and More
2024
January 5, 2024 Harris County to Reconsider Colony Ridge Impacts
January 9, 2024 At Least Seven Investigations Launched into Colony Ridge
March 15, 2024 Paxton Launches Massive, Multi-Count Lawsuit Against Colony Ridge
March 31, 2024 Wildly Divergent Colony Ridge Population Estimates Pose Planning Problems
More to Come
This isn’t the end of the Colony Ridge story. I had breakfast this morning with a Kingwood resident who had given an old water heater to an acquaintance living in Colony Ridge. My friend later learned that his acquaintance piled wood under the heater and built fires to warm the water in the tank. Colony Ridge has thousands of stories like this. Come back for more.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/20/2023 and updated on 1/9/24
2213 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
