News - Reduce Flooding

After Quitting Time, Contractor Pumps Silty Stormwater into Street

1/31/24 – At 5:20 today, about the time government inspectors usually knock off work and the sun was setting, I got a tip from a reader. The reader alerted me to flooding on Kings Park Way near West Lake Houston Parkway, adjacent to a new Trammell-Crow apartment complex that Harris County Engineering had cited for stormwater violations. I hustled down there. Here is what I found.

One Lane Flooded

The contractors were pumping silty stormwater into the street and flooding one lane of the road.

The hose pumping the water into the street appeared to be at least 4 inches.

They had placed sand bags around one storm drain to help filter the silt.

But the silty stormwater was so deep, it flowed in both directions…

…straight into another unprotected City of Houston storm drain down the block.

Mud covered sidewalks ankle deep…

…while an excavator dug a trench to make more muck flow toward the pump.

From the wet marks on the pavement, it appeared that the discharge had covered the entire right lane at one point.

This is Phase II of an apartment complex development. The land you see is owned by Kingwood Residences HTX and HTX II LLC. Both LLCs are owned by High Street Residential, a wholly owned operating subsidiary of Trammell Crow Company in Dallas. Their local headquarters are on 2800 POST OAK BLVD STE 400, HOUSTON TX 77056-6169. In case you chose to write them.

Public-Safety Issue

According to one study, “Sediment pollution is the single most common source of pollution in U.S. waters. Approximately 30% is caused by natural erosion, and the remaining 70% is caused by human activity. Construction activity is the most common source of sediment pollution. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, sediment pollution causes approximately $16 billion in environmental damage annually.”

Clogged drains affect road safety. Clogged rivers affect flood safety.

After Hurricane Harvey, the Army Corps found that sediment had blocked 90% of the West Fork. Dredging cost hundreds of millions of dollars. And another email from a boater that I found waiting for me when I got home from the disaster site alerted me to the fact that sediment is building back in at an alarming rate.

Perhaps Mr. Crow could help with the next round of dredging. In 2020, Trammell Crow Holdings was worth an estimated $19.6 billion.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/31/24

2346 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.

Developer on WLHP Cited for Stormwater Violations

In response to citizen complaints, Harris County Engineering has visited a construction site on West Lake Houston Parkway three times and issued an unspecified number of stormwater violations.

Both phases of the development, Kingwood Residences HTX and HTX II LLC, are owned by High Street Residential, a wholly owned operating subsidiary of Trammell Crow Company in Dallas. Apartments are being built on Phase I. Meanwhile, Phase II is still in the clearing phase.

According to Danielle Cioce, Manager of the County Engineering Department’s Watershed Protection Group, “They are in the process of making the necessary repairs. We will continue to monitor the site to ensure it comes into compliance and remains that way.”

However, as of today, the developer appeared to fall short of compliance. I saw no activity on the portion of the site still being cleared. The reason was unclear. Cioce did not respond to multiple requests for comment today.

Effective Stormwater Measures Still Not in Place

I visited the site myself three times in the last week and have seen few changes since my initial post on this subject two weeks ago in response to a reader complaint.

The developer lacked normal safeguards against sediment escaping from the site, such as silt fences. Neither did the developer have sandbags to catch sediment in street gutters before it entered storm drains.

Such sediment escaping into the San Jacinto West Fork has been connected with flooding in the Lake Houston Area. The Army Corps estimated that the San Jacinto West Fork was 90% blocked near here after Hurricane Harvey.

How much of the sediment in the river is natural and how much man-made? One study found that approximately 30% of sediment pollution is caused by natural erosion, and the remaining 70% is caused by human activity. Construction activity is the most common source of sediment pollution, according to the study.

During a break in the rains last week, I photographed the High Street Residential site on West Lake Houston Parkway. It lies between Upper Lake and Kings Park Way. Without any of the normal safeguards, silty water poured off the site straight into storm sewers.

*Photo taken 1/24/24 at West Lake Houston Parkway and Kings Park Way shows silt stormwater escaping into street.*

*Same day. Slightly different angle shows volume of muck.*

*Same day. Ground level shot shows runoff streaming into unprotected drain.* *Note lack of silt fence.*

*The Army Corps, City, and TWDB recently spent $220 million on dredging the East and West Forks.*

What Construction Plans Say Should Happen

I received the approved construction plans from HCFCD via a FOIA Request. They clearly state that contractors should have sediment protection controls in place before starting construction. Regulations also require the contractor to:

Document the date of installation of erosion control measures
Retain measures in place until permanent stabilization of soil
Make field adjustments as needed to maintain the effectiveness of all measures
Keep a record of weekly inspections that verify measures are functioning properly.

But that’s not all. See the two screen captures below from the construction plans.

Photos Taken 1/29/24 Show Aftermath of Last Week’s Rain

I returned to the site today, two and a half days after the rain stopped. Water was down slightly, but contractors still had not installed effective stormwater control measures.

Silt fence was missing. So were sandbags to guard the storm drains. In some places where silt fence had been installed, it had fallen over from the weight of runoff accumulated behind it. In other places sediment had collected knee-high to the top of the silt fences. See below.

*Silt fence guarding the stormwater detention basin overwhelmed by eroded sediment*. *This suggests volume of runoff in other areas* *without silt fence.*

*Phase I has no silt fence along most of the perimeter. Shown* here: *construction in progress along Upper Lake is guarded by a chain-link fence.*

The developer had installed sandbags in a gap in the silt fence, but left gaps in the line of sandbags.

*Note gaps in silt fence toward corner. That faint line guarding the corner is a line of sandbags.* *But…*

The gaps channeled stormwater straight toward the storm drain in the first sequence of photos. See below.

*Enlargement from previous photo shows gaps in line that channeled runoff toward street drains.*

Accidental or intentional. You be the judge.

Someone will have to spend a lot of time in the “how come” room on this one.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/29/24

2344 Days since Hurricane Harvey

All Floodwaters Receding, But Flood Warnings Remain in Effect

1/28/24, 2PM – After a week of near-constant rain and flooding, all river and lake gauges in the area show floodwaters receding, even if they aren’t below flood stage yet.

Whew! If you didn’t flood, you can stop worrying.

Nevertheless, the National Weather Service (NWS) still has flood warnings in effect for the areas:

Near the San Jacinto East Fork at FM1485 in New Caney. The warning affects people in Montgomery, Harris and Liberty Counties. Expect moderate flooding, primarily in low lying areas through Tuesday. The river is currently at 62′; flood stage is 58′ at that location.
West Fork around US59 until Monday afternoon. The river was at 51.4 feet, but bankfull is 45.3 feet.
Around Sheldon, below the Lake Houston Dam until tomorrow morning.

Photos Before, During, After Flood Crests

Below are 18 pictures I and a reader (who prefers to remain anonymous) took this week shortly before and after flood crests arrived. Each is dated and appears in chronological order. Together, they give you an idea of the extent of flooding. People who live in low-lying areas near major rivers were most affected.

But others, still suffering PTSD from previous floods, watched and waited with a sense of impending doom, wondering whether the water would claim their homes. It was a week of high anxiety and sleepless nights for many.

East Fork at Plum Grove

*FM2090 over East Fork San Jacinto at Plum Grove. Thursday, 1/25/24.*

It was hard to tell where the East Fork was at times. The river had penetrated an adjacent sand mine in multiple places and was flowing through it.

*East Fork (upper left) broke through dike of abandoned sand mine and started flowing through it.* *Thursday, 1/25/24.*

*Rising water flooded the sand mine and isolated an adjacent house*. *Thursday, 1/25/24.*

*Looking west toward West Fork across Northpark South. Despite the ditch that contractors dug to drain the wetlands,* *a lot of water is still ponding. Thursday, 1/25/24.*

West Fork in Humble/Kingwood Area

*On Friday, 1/26/24, rising West Fork floodwaters near US59 invaded the neighborhood north of the bridge.*

*West Fork at US59 on Friday, 1/26/24. Rising water flooded turnarounds under the freeway on both sides of the river.*

*Friday, 1/26/24. Confluence of West Fork (right) and Spring Creek (left)*. Contrast enhanced to show that flow came predominantly from West Fork at this time.

*Saturday 1/27/24. Homes isolated by floodwaters just south of New Caney ISD’s New West Fork High School (upper right).*

*Looking west, farther downstream on the West Fork at homes along Lake Point and North Shore Drives.*

*Saturday 1/27/24. KSA River Grove Park parking lot, boardwalk, and bridge to soccer fields were all under water.*

*Saturday 1/27/24. Golf course near Barrington subdivision flooded.*

*Saturday 1/27/24. Edgewater Park at US59 and West Fork partially underwater.*

*Kingwood County Club’s Forest Course becomes a Water Course south of Kingwood Greens subdivision.*

*At Kings Harbor on Saturday 1/27/24, water topped the pier, and the riverwalk, but didn’t get into businesses.*

*Sunday, 1/28/24. Looking at West Fork and adjacent sand mines from Northpark Woods. Note multiple breaches in dikes of two abandoned sand mines.* *Photo courtesy of reader.*

Sunday 1/28/24. Courtesy of reader. Looking west past Northpark Woods (lower right). Note level of water in ditch. Google Earth measurement shows the water extends more than 3,000 feet up the ditch. That’s more than half a mile.

*Farther up the ditch, you can see silty water from the mines on left and right mixing with water in the ditch.* *Photo courtesy of same reader.*

Takeaways from Flood

I took several things away from this experience.

Sediment mainly moves during floods. It’s too early to tell how much moved and whether it will be enough to impair the conveyance of rivers, bayous, creeks and ditches. But this flood represents a major opportunity for the engineers conducting the SJRA’s sedimentation study.
Even relatively small amounts of rain (a couple inches per day) caused some major heartburn.
The SJRA’s modeling nailed the flood peak on the West Fork. Even when the National Weather Service was predicting a peak in the 52′ range at US59, the SJRA said it would be 53.5′. The actual peak was 53.71, within tens of an inch.
SJRA claimed the rainfall in the Lake Creek watershed was a major contributor. They don’t control that. It joins the West Fork downstream from the Lake Conroe Dam. A gage on Lake Creek showed 9.8 inches fell there in five days – among the highest totals for the region.
The recent freeze killed a lot of vegetation that would normally have slowed runoff. That contributed to faster, higher peaks, according to testimony given during the SJRA board meeting last week.
The SJRA did a much better job of communicating its gate operations to the public during this storm than ever before. It sent out a stream of press releases explaining what it was doing and why. I even received a personal call from an SJRA board member at 9pm before they increased their release rate to 19,500 cfs.
The timing of the calls to news media got the news of the release on the 10 o’clock news before people went to bed. During Harvey, that didn’t happen. Many people were caught sleeping in bed by rising flood waters and had to evacuate by boat. Lesson learned.
We need to do a damage assessment both upstream and downstream from the Lake Conroe dam to see where damage was concentrated. Did the SJRA do a good job of balancing upstream and downstream interests? Could gate operations have been improved?
The SJRA says it waited to release water until it got within 6 inches of the top of its tainter gates. Had the water gone over the top of the tainter gates, they could have lost control. The gates would have become inoperable and the dam could have been placed in jeopardy.
One leading hydrologist told me, “Understanding watershed hydrology is difficult. It rained quite a bit over a very large area. Watersheds all respond differently. The timing of the runoff reaching channels is crucial. How it combines with all of the other runoff from different places is key.”
We need more floodgates on Lake Houston.

The worst of this event is behind us. Now comes the hard part. Cleaning up.

I wasn’t able to cover every area that flooded during this event. So, if you have photos of the flood or its impact that you would like to share, please submit them through the contact page of this website. Understand that all photos used here are in the public domain and may be shared by others. Finally, please indicate whether you would like a picture credit, and if so, how it should read.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/28/2024

2343 Days since Hurricane Harvey