8/14/25 – A State of Texas lawsuit against the Triple PG sand mine that began in 2019 will now be tried, at the earliest, in 2026. Meanwhile problems at the mine have gotten worse. Breaches in their dikes that triggered the lawsuit have recurred. And five pipelines carrying highly volatile liquids (HVL) are now exposed […]
8/12/2025 – The San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) will hold a special meeting of its board of directors on Friday, August 15, 2025, at 10 AM. It will be held at the SJRA’s Administration building at 1577 Dam Site Road, Conroe, TX. Directors will consider one item in executive session – settlement of its lawsuit […]
8/11/25 – The correlation between flood damage and flood-mitigation spending by Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) keeps dropping, indicating an increasing influence of other factors, such as race, on spending. What is Coefficient of Correlation? Coefficient of correlation measures the strength of association between two variables, for instance hours spent studying and exam scores. […]
8/10/25 – A reader asked me, “How could the July 4 Guadalupe flood tragedy happen?” He sent me an article that quoted an associate professor from Syracuse University who studied FEMA’s flood maps. The professor said that people knew Camp Mystic buildings were in the 100-year floodplain. Then she said, “It’s a mystery to me […]
In late July, the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced a bipartisan FEMA-reform bill. Committee leaders say it “provides the most robust legislative reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and federal disaster assistance programs in decades.” The Fixing Emergency Management for Americans (FEMA) Act of 2025 (H.R. 4669) was introduced after feedback the […]
8/8/25 – The Mercer Stormwater Detention Basin at FM1960 and the Hardy Tollroad along Cypress Creek illustrates the difficulty HCFCD will face as it attempts to build 11 comparable basins in the next year and a half. The Mercer Basin, originally projected to take one year – on an expedited schedule – has taken more […]
8/7/25 – Lina Hidalgo threw another temper tantrum in Commissioners Court today, left and never returned. She also received a censure from her colleagues, the commissioners. Worse, Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) seems adrift. Current HCFCD leadership seems to have no sense of urgency. Eight years after Harvey, less than a quarter of flood-bond […]
8/6/25 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has initiated a large-scale study called SAFER that will involve 11 of the county’s 23 watersheds and benefit two others – Addicks and Barker. SAFER stands for “Solutions for Advancing Floodplain Evaluation and Resilience.” The map below shows the study area. The study does not include the […]
8/5/25 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has released a high-level white paper on a flood-tunnel pilot program that could cost several billion dollars. The 15-page white paper lays out a starting point for implementation of the 1,860-page Phase II engineering study released by Black & Veatch in March 2022. The pilot project would […]
8/4/2025 – The San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) has unveiled a ten-year flood-mitigation plan for the river basin. For the most part, it’s built around continuations of previous efforts. Regardless, it’s interesting to see what SJRA hopes to focus on in the future. The plan contains eight main elements: Let’s look at each. Spring Creek […]