East Fork Mouth Bar cost $18 million to dredge.

Costs of NOT Preserving Floodplains

7/29/24 – Yesterday, I reviewed a thought-provoking, academic study co-authored by Dr. Samuel Brody of Texas A&M about the relative effectiveness of three different forms of flood mitigation. Today, I would like to discuss a related topic – the costs of not preserving floodplains.

Land in a floodplain is cheap. But the initial cost to the buyer/developer does not reflect the subsequent costs homebuyers and tax payers may incur.

Colony Ridge Land, Inc. bought up a series of lots in Huffman next the San Jacinto East Fork. Harris County Appraisal District values the half- to one-acre lots between $10,000 and $20,000. The catch? They were under 38.7 feet of water during Harvey and 33.7 feet during the 1994 flood.

Assuming Colony Ridge develops these properties, the subsequent costs could far outweigh their sales prices. But it won’t be the developer bearing the costs.

I asked ChatGPT to catalog the costs of NOT preserving floodplains. Here’s how it responded.

“Costs of NOT Preserving Floodplains”

ChatGPT: “Not preserving floodplains can result in a variety of costs and consequences, both immediate and long-term. These can be broadly categorized into environmental, economic, and social costs:

Environmental Costs:
  1. Loss of Biodiversity: Floodplains are rich in biodiversity, providing habitats for numerous species. Development can lead to habitat destruction and loss of species.
  2. Decreased Water Quality: Floodplains filter pollutants from water. Without them, pollutants can flow directly into rivers and lakes, degrading water quality.
  3. Erosion and Sedimentation: The natural vegetation in floodplains helps prevent soil erosion. Without this, erosion can increase, leading to sedimentation in water bodies, which can harm aquatic life and reduce water quality.
Economic Costs:
  1. Increased Flood Damage: Without natural floodplains to absorb floodwaters, the risk of flooding in developed areas increases, leading to higher costs in property damage and infrastructure repair.
  2. Higher Flood Insurance Premiums: Increased flood risks can lead to higher insurance premiums for properties in flood-prone areas.
  3. Loss of Ecosystem Services: Floodplains provide various ecosystem services, such as water filtration, carbon sequestration, and recreational opportunities. Losing these can have economic impacts.
Social Costs:
  1. Displacement of Communities: Increased flooding can lead to the displacement of communities, causing social disruption and potentially leading to long-term relocation costs.
  2. Health Impacts: Poor water quality and increased flood events can lead to health issues, such as waterborne diseases and mental health stress due to displacement and property loss.
  3. Loss of Recreational Spaces: Floodplains often provide recreational spaces for communities. Development can lead to the loss of these spaces, reducing quality of life.
Long-Term Consequences:
  1. Climate Change Exacerbation: Floodplains play a role in carbon sequestration. Their destruction can contribute to higher atmospheric CO2 levels, exacerbating climate change.
  2. Sustainable Development Challenges: Unsustainable development in floodplains can hinder long-term sustainable development goals, leading to ongoing environmental and economic challenges.
  3. Intergenerational Equity: Failing to preserve floodplains can impose long-term costs on future generations, including degraded environmental conditions and increased financial burdens.
Mitigation and Preservation Strategies:
  1. Enforcing Zoning Laws: Implementing and enforcing zoning laws that restrict development in floodplain areas.
  2. Restoration Projects: Initiating projects to restore and rehabilitate degraded floodplains.
  3. Public Awareness: Educating the public and policymakers about the importance of floodplains and the consequences of their destruction.
  4. Incentives for Conservation: Providing financial incentives for landowners to preserve and maintain floodplain areas.

The costs of not preserving floodplains are multifaceted and can lead to significant long-term consequences if not addressed through proactive measures.”

Diving Deeper

Clearly, you can do a deep dive into any one of the bullet points above – plus others not shown – and come up with a long list of costs.

ChatGPT didn’t even mention dredging costs, buyout costs or the cost of flood mitigation projects that try to reduce flooding in areas that flood repeatedly.

For instance:

  • The City of Houston spent $18 million to dredge the mouth bar of the San Jacinto East Fork downstream from the wetlands developed in Colony Ridge.
  • An article in Nature titled “Assessing the Full Costs of Floodplain Buyouts” by William Curran-Groome, Haylee Haygood, Miyuki Hino, Todd K. BenDor and David Salvesen details 23 pages of costs related to buyouts. They include burdens on government staff involved in buyout funding, acquisitions that can take years, 5-year funding pipelines, and dozens of other transactional costs.
  • Close to home, it took HCFCD five years to purchase and tear down the Forest Cove townhomes. And it cost the Houston Parks Board $3.5 million to build a segment of the West Fork Greenway that goes about halfway between US59 and Woodland Hills Drive.
  • Those HCFCD regional stormwater detention basins, often built on bought-out properties, can cost tens of millions and take decades.

I plan to dig deeper into the costs of not preserving floodplains to see if someone has compiled a comprehensive list of taxpayer costs triggered by a floodplain development. More to follow.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/29/24

2526 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.