FM2100 Contractors Caught Dumping Fill in Lake Houston Floodplain

8/22/2026 – Look at flooding long enough and you will come to think of it as a series of debits and credits where the balance in the public-safety ledger is never quite clear. It feels as if flood-risk increases constantly offset flood-risk decreases. This morning, I witnessed contractors dumping fill in the Lake Houston floodplain.

Offsetting Efforts

On the plus side, a new clear-span bridge replaced a low-water crossing that backed up water in Bens Branch.

But on the minus side, last night around 7pm, I started receiving a barrage of text messages, emails and phone calls from people in Huffman. TXDoT contractors excavating a detention basin on FM2100 outside of the floodplain started dumping the dirt inside the floodplain…right next to a part of Lake Houston…that flooded badly…and that we just spent millions dredging.

*East side of Lake Houston. Fill site in center foreground. FM1960 in upper right.*

The trucks dumped their fill in a small trailer park east of the Lake Houston Brewery on the south side of FM1960. The area lies in floodplains and floodways.

*From FEMA Flood Hazard Layer Viewer. Cross-hatch = Floodway. Blue = 100-year floodplain.* *Red oval signifies approximate fill location.*

According to multiple residents, the dump trucks went all night and continued this morning. So I went to Huffman shortly before noon today and started counting trucks. At one point, I counted six in a ten-minute period.

They backed up to a little channel that residents say was just dredged. Then they dumped their loads. A small bulldozer spread the dirt out, pushing it toward the water as fast as it was dumped. The owner had no silt fences in place. Nor did he have a permit or stormwater pollution prevention plan posted at the site entrance as required by law.

Truckers’ Carousel

I then spent approximately an hour tracking the trucks to and from the excavation site, near where Huffman-Cleveland road intersects FM2100. The trucks made one round trip after another.

This is not the first time contractors were caught dumping fill in floodplains from that detention basin. Even if the property owner didn’t know better, the contractors and TXDoT should have.

Upon learning of the problem, Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger went to the dump site and shut down the operation. He said…

“The owner will likely face a fine and be forced to remove the fill.”
Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger

What Regulations Say

City of Houston regulations prohibit bringing fill into a 100-year floodplain or floodway. See Ord. No. 2018-258, Sections 19-34 and 19-43. The area where the dumping occurred lies inside the City’s limits.

*Three trucks and a bulldozer working simultaneously in fill area.*

*As quickly as trucks dumped their loads, the dozer would spread them out.*

No Adverse Impact Allowed

Flooding has been likened to the death of a thousand cuts.

Any displacement of floodwater in one area simply raises the level somewhere else. And many of the homeowners and businesses surrounding this site have flooded before on multiple occasions.

Adding fill to the floodplain reduces the area available to store floodwater during large storms.

So, if you see fill being dumped in a floodplain, please report it to the appropriate authorities. You could be saving your home from a flood that hasn’t yet happened.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/22/2026

3280 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.