1/13/25 – The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has proposed new Best Management Practices (BMPs) for mining in response to a mandate from the 2023 session of the Texas Legislature. However, in my opinion, the recommended BMPs will do little to nothing to help control sediment pollution from mines in the Lake Houston Area. The […]
1/11/25 – On July 15, 2020, Neel-Schaffer Engineering delivered the Kingwood Area Drainage Study to sponsors Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), City of Houston and Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/TIRZ 10. HCFCD held a community meeting to discuss the results. The District delivered a 24-page high-level summary to the community at the time. However, I […]
1/10/25 – Sometimes it seems transparency issues with Harris County government just never cease. For instance… You go to the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) website to look for “active construction projects” in your area. But the “Active Construction Projects” page is not working. And it hasn’t worked for months. You wanted to know […]
1/9/25 – The widening of Bens Branch caused by ever-increasing amounts of water coming downstream from new upstream developments has forced the Bear Branch Trail Association to replace an aging wooden bridge with a new $300,000 steel truss bridge. The creek has widened from 32 to 50 feet since Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019. The […]
1/7/2025 – In the week after a holiday lull, Northpark construction is ramping back up and should reach some milestones later this week. According to the Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority website: In other news, crews will continue: See the pictures below, all taken on Tuesday morning, 1/7/25. New Lanes and Sidewalk Between Loop 494 and […]
1/6/2025 – Before New Year’s Day, I posted about the lack of best management practices (BMPs) at the Foster Elementary reconstruction site in Kingwood. A contractor let sediment-laden runoff escape the site, fill the street and flow into unprotected storm drains. Photos taken yesterday after a storm front passed show that it’s still happening. Partial […]
1/5/2025 – At a Community Resilience Flood Task Force Meeting in December last year, the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) announced that it would be kicking off a new feasibility study in Q1 2025 designed to make half of Harris County SAFER from flooding. SAFER stands for Solutions for Advancing Flood Mitigation, Equity, and […]
1/4/25 – In a Houston-area-flooding context, we usually consider erosion as a negative. It reduces the capacity of streams, channels and Lake Houston. It can also form sediment dams like mouth bars that back water up. But elsewhere, many consider erosion a tourist attraction. And I’m not just talking about the Grand Canyon. Welcome to […]
1/3/25 – Jeff Lindner, Harris County’s Meteorologist, provided this official holiday tornado report. Southeast Texas experienced a highly active period of severe weather from 12/24/24 through 12/28/24. It included several tornado outbreaks on both the 26th and 28th. Said Lindner, “While it is not uncommon to have severe weather and tornados in southeast Texas during […]
12/29/24 – Several rounds of intense rain in the past week triggered a slew of emails from concerned residents about the need for better construction management practices to control sediment-laden runoff. Chris Summers, a retired commercial photographer, included pictures of the runoff from the Foster Elementary site in Kingwood’s Trailwood Village. Contractors recently cleared the […]