HCFCD 2026 Q2 Spending Update: San Jacinto Watershed Still Ignored

07/28/2026 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has released new figures showing where it has spent money through 2026 Q2. The County has spent only $49.15 million dollars in the entire San Jacinto Watershed since passage of the 2018 Flood Bond eight years ago.

That compares with $367,450,000 worth of projects advertised for the San Jacinto in the 2018 Bond Project list.

Thanks goodness HCFCD got a new executive director last month!

Little Money Spent on Construction

The previous executive director kept slighted the San Jacinto watershed for years. Studies dragged out for years with no end in sight. HCFCD spent little money in the watershed. Period. And it spent even less on construction.

When you look at the spending by project stage, construction ranked highest. That actually surprised me.

But of the $21.7 million total spent on construction, HCFCD spent only one third on capital improvement projects (CIP construction = $7.28 M). The remainder went to maintenance.

While maintenance spending is absolutely critical, we shouldn’t forget that it is designed to keep flooding from getting worse as opposed to CIP projects which actually improve flood risk.

So, in eight years, HCFCD spent only about $7 million to actually improve flood risk in the county’s largest watershed.

To date, HCFCD hasn’t come close to delivering what was promised in 2018.

What Did Bond Advertising Promote?

The final project list came with 13 Bond IDs for the San Jacinto Watershed; each contained one or more projects. Together the money allocated for them totaled $367,450,000. So, with only $49.15 million spent to date, just 13% of promised funding has been delivered in the last 8 years.

Start drilling down further; you will find even more egregious examples.

Floodgate Example

Take for example the new floodgates on Lake Houston. Initial plans allocated $70 million ($50 million coming from the federal government and $20 million from the flood bond as a local match).

If the reported figures are accurate, the county actually spent only $20,000 so far – one thousandth of the local match. And 1/3,500th of the total. In fairness, perhaps they’re waiting for the City to finish the engineering.

Dredging Example

And then there’s dredging. Dredging was supposed to receive $50 million ($10 million from local funds with a $40 million match). But so far, HCFCD reports only $7.28 million spent for dredging. (See CI-61.)

I’ll bet Charles Cunningham’s new Lake Houston Dredging District could use some of the difference!

How to Explore Data Yourself

There are millions of ways to slice and dice this data. Explore it for yourself. Here’s how.

1. Look up projects near you on the HCFCD website: https://www.hcfcd.org/Activity/Projects/San-Jacinto-River
2. See how much was allocated before the bond vote: https://reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2018bondprojectlist2018-08-06-1130.pdf
3. Compare how much HCFCD has actually spent through July 1 this year: https://www.hcfcd.org/Activity

Hopefully, Marcus Stuckett, HCFCD’s new executive director, can right some of the slights from the past administration.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/28/2026

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