HCFCD's SAFER Study Now Evaluating Alternatives for Tentative Plan

5/31/26 – Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) SAFER study is now entering Phase 2 of 5. SAFER stands for Solutions for Advancing Floodplain Evaluation and Resilience. It is a long-range planning effort to help Harris County and its communities become more resilient to future flood events.

HCFCD hopes to do that by developing large-scale flood-risk reduction strategies that are:

Eligible for federal funding (65% federal/35% local cost sharing)
Reflect local priorities (engineering, environmental, community)
Consider future conditions (i.e., regional growth).

In Phase 1, HCFCD scoped the study and screened preliminary alternatives.

Phase 2 will evaluate combinations of those alternatives, resulting in a tentative plan.

In the remaining phases, SAFER staff will:

Draft a feasibility report and environmental impact statement
Submit the final report and environmental impact statement to the Army Corps
Coordinate efforts to obtain Congressional authorization.

Study Area Includes 11 of 23 Watersheds

The SAFER study includes 11 of 23 watersheds that cover roughly half of Harris County.

Measures Being Considered for Inclusion in Comprehensive Plan

Staff is looking at alternatives that improve flood-handling capabilities of main-stem bayous and upstream tributaries.

They are integrating solutions across multiple watersheds and comparing traditional solutions, such as channel widening, to more novel solutions for Harris County, such as tunnels. The slide below shows types of measures they are considering.

Phase 2 analysis will answer the following questions.

The next two slides show the type of alternatives being considered in the various watersheds.

The full 27-page presentation (4-meg download) shows how the staff is evaluating several combinations of various alternatives in representative watersheds.

*One example of combinations being considered in full presentation.*

The staff hopes to finish evaluating alternatives by the third quarter of 2026. That will involve economic and hydrologic evaluations of each alternative. They then hope to brief the Army Corps on their tentative plan by the end of this year or beginning of next.

Phase 3 (drafting the feasibility report) should start in early 2027.

Observations

This study could someday result in flood-mitigation solutions that make a large portion of the county’s population safer. On the plus side, the SAFER study will result in a comprehensive evaluation of the most cost-effective solutions from a wide range of options.

But on the minus side, it covers less than half the watersheds in the county. The omitted watersheds, such as the San Jacinto, Spring Creek, Luce Bayou and Cedar Bayou are some of the fastest growing areas in the region. Omitting them now will make floodplain preservation and other conservation measures more difficult and expensive later.

HCFCD chose the 11 watersheds because of “existing federal interest, meaning the federal government has authorized work in these specific watersheds at some point.” Their reasoning? That makes those areas “better positioned to receive approval and funding from the Federal government.”

I guess the Army Corps dredging in the San Jacinto didn’t count.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/31/26

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