Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) will soon start building the new Mercer Stormwater Detention Basin, a large flood-risk reduction project along Cypress Creek adjacent to Mercer Botanical Gardens. HCFCD issued a notice to proceed to the contractor in December 2023 and the contractor is now mobilizing.
The basin is north of FM-1960, east of the Hardy Toll Road, south of Cypress Creek and west of the Memorial Hills.
Combined 512 Acre Feet in Two Basins
The Mercer Stormwater Detention Basin project will include the excavation of 512 acre-feet of soil and other materials from the site. Once complete, the $14.8 million dry-bottom stormwater detention basin will provide approximately 166.8 million gallons of stormwater storage during heavy rainfall events.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program provided a $15.4 million grant for the project. Another $9.7 million comes from the 2018 Bond Program.
Arrowstone Contracting, LLC received a $14,846,391 contract for construction. Land acquisition, engineering and administration will consume the rest of the budget.
The stormwater detention basin will include two separate compartments, north and south, with an equalizer pipe connecting them. An 54″ outfall pipe will also be constructed along the north compartment so stormwater can slowly flow back into Cypress Creek after storms pass.
Construction Caution
Contractors will access the work area via FM-1960 or Lazy Ravine Lane in the Memorial Hills Subdivision. The contractor may use heavy construction equipment such as dump trucks, excavators and bulldozers. Motorists should be aware of truck traffic when passing near construction access points and along truck routes.
The HUD Grant stipulates that construction needs to finish by Fall 2024. And construction is scheduled to take 348 days.
Reducing Backwater in Tributaries
This is among multiple stormwater detention basin projects the Flood Control District is developing in the Cypress Creek watershed.
A regional drainage study for the watershed found that flooding along tributaries of Cypress Creek is predominately caused by rising stormwater in Cypress Creek backing up into tributaries. Flooding is not caused by a lack of sufficient stormwater conveyance or drainage capacity on the tributaries themselves. Therefore, stormwater detention basins could be a beneficial project to reduce that backwater issue.
Project Benefits
The Mercer Basins will remove the 100-year area of inundation from 30 structures and the 500-year area of inundation from an additional 17 structures.
The project also includes a 30’ wide berm to accommodate maintenance and future recreational amenities.
The project avoids wetlands and will lower the water surface elevation by .35 feet during a 100-year storm event, according to HCFCD.
Upstream detention was one of three major prongs of the strategy to reduce flooding in the Lake Houston Area. This and every other little bit will help downstream.
The regional drainage study found here recommends nearly 25,000 acre-feet of additional stormwater detention in the Cypress Creek watershed. That would be enough to hold back the peak flow during Harvey for almost 5 hours. In lesser storms, the benefit would last even longer.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/2/24based on information from HCFCD
2317 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Mercer_Map-e1704245017906.png?fit=1100%2C1100&ssl=111001100adminadmin2024-01-02 19:34:562024-01-02 19:47:54Construction Beginning Soon on Mercer Stormwater Detention Basin
On 12/13/23, Texas General Land Office (GLO) Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D. announced the approval of Coastal Erosion Planning & Response Act (CEPRA) funding for a Bolivar Peninsula Beach and Dune Restoration project.
The beach-restoration project seeks to:
Restore additional essential beach and dune systems
Provide crucial protection for Highway 87, Bolivar Peninsula’s only hurricane evacuation route
According to the GLO, the CEPRA funds – initially aimed at an engineering study – will provide both economic and coastal resilience benefits.
Part of SH 87 Already Washed Away
Highway 87 once had a stretch between Sea Rim State Park and High Island that washed out repeatedly over the decades. TXDoT closed it permanently in 1990. Today, eastbound SH 87 stops at High Island. Evacuees must then turn north on SH 124 toward I-10.
The stretch being protected provides the only remaining land-based evacuation route for the 2,800 residents of the Bolivar Peninsula. Seventeen people died there on September 13, 2008, during Hurricane Ike.
The scope of this project: to develop focused beach nourishment engineering design specifications for a U.S. Army Corps permit. Beach nourishment will alleviate tidal impacts threatening SH 87’s eastern terminus on Bolivar Peninsula near High Island.
Satellite Image Sequence Shows Severity of Shoreline Erosion
This series of Google Earth images shows how shoreline erosion now has waves lapping at the shoulder of the highway in this area.
State Highway 87 near High Island in 1974. Note dunes between highway and broad beach.Same area immediately after Ike. Note erosion of beach and deposition inland from SH87.Same area in 2023. Note continued erosion of beach toward highway.Enlargement of nearby stretch shows high tide lapping at riprap which maintenance crews are replenishing (2023).
The beach nourishment engineering design specifications under this project are focused on an approximately four miles of the Bolivar Gulf-facing shoreline beginning at the Galveston-Chambers County line and extending west toward Gilchrist. This is where tides come closest to Hwy. 87 on a recurring basis.
Improving Resilience
“Ultimate benefits from this beach nourishment design work would include protection of the peninsula’s only hurricane evacuation route,” said a GLO spokesperson.
The CEPRA Program helps communities across the Texas coast implement erosion response projects and related studies to understand and reduce coastal erosion as it threatens public beaches, natural resources, coastal development, public infrastructure, and public and private property.
The Bolivar Peninsula Special Utility District, Bolivar Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, Galveston County Road Administrator Lee Crowder, Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, and Galveston County Precinct 2 Commissioner Joe Giusti played pivotal roles in securing this funding.
Nature-Based Solutions Help Protect People and Wildlife
Commissioner Buckingham said, “As a Texan who grew up near the coast and lived on Galveston Island for more than a decade, preserving our state’s precious shorelines and their communities is a top priority.”
FEMA has found that such nature-based solutions increase quality of life for both humans and wildlife. And make no mistake. This is an important wintering and nesting area for many species of wildfowl that depend on the wetlands in this area.
Snow geese flocking near High Island in December 2008, shortly after Ike.
Looking back at 2023, we got lucky. A lack of extreme rainfall masked a slowdown of flood-mitigation spending and massive clearcutting of wetlands and floodplains. Had we been hit by a hurricane instead of a drought, who knows what would have happened.
Have we lost our sense of urgency about flood mitigation? Did the drought lull us into complacency? If so, will that contribute to future flooding? Let’s look more closely at what did and didn’t happen in 2023.
No Widespread Flooding or Flood Damage
To my knowledge, no floods caused widespread damage in the Houston area this year. That’s a tribute to three things: past flood-mitigation efforts, drought, and the absence of tropical activity.
At the end of the third quarter, HCFCD and its partners had spent almost $3.8 billion on flood mitigation since 2000 and $1.8 billion since Harvey. That has helped reduce the risk of flooding – especially in lower-income watersheds that frequently flooded. That’s where most of flood-mitigation money has been concentrated.
But flood-mitigation spending alone didn’t account for the absence of wide scale flooding in the Houston area in 2023. Mother Nature “helped,” if you can call a drought helpful.
Much of the Houston region suffered through moderate to severe drought for most of 2023. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of Harris County is still rated “abnormally dry.” And most surrounding counties are still in moderate drought.
How much rain did we get? Through December 29, we received 41.75 inches – 10 inches below our normal 51.73 inches. So, despite recent rains, we received 20% less than normal for the year.
Drier-than-normal weather for most of the year created ideal conditions for construction of flood-mitigation projects. However, flood-mitigation spending fell to about half its peak during 2020.
Source: HCFCD Data from FOIA Requestthrough 3Q2023 with fourth quarter estimated.
Harris County Flood Control District provided no official explanation for the slowdown. However, various people familiar with HCFCD operations have cited:
In the meantime, 15-20% inflation in construction costs could force HCFCD to eliminate $1 billion worth of projects from the original bond list. And projects at the end of the equity priority list in affluent areas are the most likely to get the axe. HCFCD is re-evaluating them all.
Every day no work is being done is a day wasted. And a day that people have to live with higher flood risk.
Relentless Development in Floodplains and Wetlands
Meanwhile, the clearing of land in the upper San Jacinto River Basin has not slowed. Developers cleared thousands of acres in 2023.
We saw how dangerous that could be after Perry Homes cleared 268 acres in Woodridge Village without building sufficient stormwater detention capabilities. Areas downstream in Kingwood’s Elm Grove Village that didn’t flood after 50 inches of rain from Harvey in 2017 flooded after a 5-inch rain on May 7, 2019.
The giant Colony Ridge development in Liberty County virtually doubled in size during the last two years. By the end of 2023, it was at least 50% bigger than Manhattan. The developers:
I took the following six shots over Colony Ridge in 2023. They show small portions of the developer’s clearing activity, but represent hundreds of other shots too numerous to include here.
Some call this progress. But Colony Ridge is now the subject of a Federal lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Other Developments Leave Land Exposed to Erosion
Colony Ridge isn’t the only development in the Lake Houston Area that leaves land exposed to erosion. Here are several others.
Los Pinos photographed in March 2023.First part of a planned 4,000 acre development.Royal Pines in Porter on White Oak Creek flooded neighbors four times in two months.Northpark South at McClellan Sorters Road (bottom L to R) at Northpark Drive (Center) was under 8 feet of water during Harvey. It contained wetlandsand will drain through sand mines to the San Jacinto West Fork in the background.
Mavera at FM1314 and SH242 will eliminate wetlands but claims it will have no adverse impact. Photographed Jan. 2022.Evergreen near SH242 and FM1314.
I could cite dozens of additional examples like these. When rains wash through these sites, they pick up sediment and carry it downstream.
Sediment Deposition
Eroded sediment from these clearing operations washes downstream. It drops out of suspension where the water slows as it reaches Lake Houston.
Where Spring Creek (left) joins San Jacinto West Fork (right) at the Harris Montgomery County line. Photographed from over I-69 looking west.
The result: sand bars that reduce the conveyance of the river, forcing water out of the banks and into people’s homes.
Sand bar on West Fork of the San Jacinto at Lake Houston after Harvey reduced river’s conveyance. Army Corps dredged the blockage after thousands of homes and businesses flooded upstreamduring Harvey.
Good News, Bad News
The good news: many blockages like the one above have been removed through dredging by the Army Corps and City.
The bad news: Many boaters have written in the last few months, complaining about how shallow the rivers are once again becoming due to unchecked sedimentation.
While I am ecstatic about another year without a flood, I hope we do not become complacent about preventing activities that contribute to flooding.
We need to establish and enforce best management practices that reduce sedimentation that clogs our rivers.
Flood Gate Project Goes Into 2024 with Momentum
So as not to finish the year on a down note, I would like to mention the project to add more flood gates to the Lake Houston dam.
In 2023, Houston Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin and Chief Recover Officer Stephen Costello accomplished an extraordinary “lift.” They convinced FEMA to include social benefits in their Benefit/Cost Ratio calculation. This helped them achieve a benefit/cost ratio greater than one, meaning benefits exceeded costs for the gates.
Then, they rallied local, state, and federal officials to fund the project so it could move forward. While $20 million of the $170+ million for the project comes from the 2018 flood bond, it will be hard for certain Harris County Commissioners to block it now that everyone else has done their parts.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/20231111-DJI_0872-copy.jpg?fit=1100%2C733&ssl=17331100adminadmin2023-12-31 12:25:132025-08-19 22:07:53Year in Review: Looking Back at 2023
Construction Beginning Soon on Mercer Stormwater Detention Basin
Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) will soon start building the new Mercer Stormwater Detention Basin, a large flood-risk reduction project along Cypress Creek adjacent to Mercer Botanical Gardens. HCFCD issued a notice to proceed to the contractor in December 2023 and the contractor is now mobilizing.
Combined 512 Acre Feet in Two Basins
The Mercer Stormwater Detention Basin project will include the excavation of 512 acre-feet of soil and other materials from the site. Once complete, the $14.8 million dry-bottom stormwater detention basin will provide approximately 166.8 million gallons of stormwater storage during heavy rainfall events.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program provided a $15.4 million grant for the project. Another $9.7 million comes from the 2018 Bond Program.
Arrowstone Contracting, LLC received a $14,846,391 contract for construction. Land acquisition, engineering and administration will consume the rest of the budget.
The stormwater detention basin will include two separate compartments, north and south, with an equalizer pipe connecting them. An 54″ outfall pipe will also be constructed along the north compartment so stormwater can slowly flow back into Cypress Creek after storms pass.
Construction Caution
Contractors will access the work area via FM-1960 or Lazy Ravine Lane in the Memorial Hills Subdivision. The contractor may use heavy construction equipment such as dump trucks, excavators and bulldozers. Motorists should be aware of truck traffic when passing near construction access points and along truck routes.
The HUD Grant stipulates that construction needs to finish by Fall 2024. And construction is scheduled to take 348 days.
Reducing Backwater in Tributaries
This is among multiple stormwater detention basin projects the Flood Control District is developing in the Cypress Creek watershed.
A regional drainage study for the watershed found that flooding along tributaries of Cypress Creek is predominately caused by rising stormwater in Cypress Creek backing up into tributaries. Flooding is not caused by a lack of sufficient stormwater conveyance or drainage capacity on the tributaries themselves. Therefore, stormwater detention basins could be a beneficial project to reduce that backwater issue.
Project Benefits
The Mercer Basins will remove the 100-year area of inundation from 30 structures and the 500-year area of inundation from an additional 17 structures.
The project also includes a 30’ wide berm to accommodate maintenance and future recreational amenities.
The project avoids wetlands and will lower the water surface elevation by .35 feet during a 100-year storm event, according to HCFCD.
Upstream detention was one of three major prongs of the strategy to reduce flooding in the Lake Houston Area. This and every other little bit will help downstream.
The regional drainage study found here recommends nearly 25,000 acre-feet of additional stormwater detention in the Cypress Creek watershed. That would be enough to hold back the peak flow during Harvey for almost 5 hours. In lesser storms, the benefit would last even longer.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/2/24 based on information from HCFCD
2317 Days since Hurricane Harvey
GLO Announces Bolivar Beach Restoration Project to Protect Highway
On 12/13/23, Texas General Land Office (GLO) Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D. announced the approval of Coastal Erosion Planning & Response Act (CEPRA) funding for a Bolivar Peninsula Beach and Dune Restoration project.
The beach-restoration project seeks to:
According to the GLO, the CEPRA funds – initially aimed at an engineering study – will provide both economic and coastal resilience benefits.
Part of SH 87 Already Washed Away
Highway 87 once had a stretch between Sea Rim State Park and High Island that washed out repeatedly over the decades. TXDoT closed it permanently in 1990. Today, eastbound SH 87 stops at High Island. Evacuees must then turn north on SH 124 toward I-10.
The stretch being protected provides the only remaining land-based evacuation route for the 2,800 residents of the Bolivar Peninsula. Seventeen people died there on September 13, 2008, during Hurricane Ike.
The scope of this project: to develop focused beach nourishment engineering design specifications for a U.S. Army Corps permit. Beach nourishment will alleviate tidal impacts threatening SH 87’s eastern terminus on Bolivar Peninsula near High Island.
Satellite Image Sequence Shows Severity of Shoreline Erosion
This series of Google Earth images shows how shoreline erosion now has waves lapping at the shoulder of the highway in this area.
The beach nourishment engineering design specifications under this project are focused on an approximately four miles of the Bolivar Gulf-facing shoreline beginning at the Galveston-Chambers County line and extending west toward Gilchrist. This is where tides come closest to Hwy. 87 on a recurring basis.
Improving Resilience
“Ultimate benefits from this beach nourishment design work would include protection of the peninsula’s only hurricane evacuation route,” said a GLO spokesperson.
The CEPRA Program helps communities across the Texas coast implement erosion response projects and related studies to understand and reduce coastal erosion as it threatens public beaches, natural resources, coastal development, public infrastructure, and public and private property.
The Bolivar Peninsula Special Utility District, Bolivar Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, Galveston County Road Administrator Lee Crowder, Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, and Galveston County Precinct 2 Commissioner Joe Giusti played pivotal roles in securing this funding.
Nature-Based Solutions Help Protect People and Wildlife
Commissioner Buckingham said, “As a Texan who grew up near the coast and lived on Galveston Island for more than a decade, preserving our state’s precious shorelines and their communities is a top priority.”
FEMA has found that such nature-based solutions increase quality of life for both humans and wildlife. And make no mistake. This is an important wintering and nesting area for many species of wildfowl that depend on the wetlands in this area.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/1/24
2316 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Year in Review: Looking Back at 2023
Looking back at 2023, we got lucky. A lack of extreme rainfall masked a slowdown of flood-mitigation spending and massive clearcutting of wetlands and floodplains. Had we been hit by a hurricane instead of a drought, who knows what would have happened.
Have we lost our sense of urgency about flood mitigation? Did the drought lull us into complacency? If so, will that contribute to future flooding? Let’s look more closely at what did and didn’t happen in 2023.
No Widespread Flooding or Flood Damage
To my knowledge, no floods caused widespread damage in the Houston area this year. That’s a tribute to three things: past flood-mitigation efforts, drought, and the absence of tropical activity.
At the end of the third quarter, HCFCD and its partners had spent almost $3.8 billion on flood mitigation since 2000 and $1.8 billion since Harvey. That has helped reduce the risk of flooding – especially in lower-income watersheds that frequently flooded. That’s where most of flood-mitigation money has been concentrated.
But flood-mitigation spending alone didn’t account for the absence of wide scale flooding in the Houston area in 2023. Mother Nature “helped,” if you can call a drought helpful.
Much of the Houston region suffered through moderate to severe drought for most of 2023. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of Harris County is still rated “abnormally dry.” And most surrounding counties are still in moderate drought.
How much rain did we get? Through December 29, we received 41.75 inches – 10 inches below our normal 51.73 inches. So, despite recent rains, we received 20% less than normal for the year.
Finally, no tropical storms or hurricanes made landfall in the Houston Area this year. Despite an above-normal tropical season, the return of El Niño, and warmer-than-normal sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf, Mother Nature steered tropical activity away from Houston.
Slowdown in Flood-Mitigation Spending
Drier-than-normal weather for most of the year created ideal conditions for construction of flood-mitigation projects. However, flood-mitigation spending fell to about half its peak during 2020.
Harris County Flood Control District provided no official explanation for the slowdown. However, various people familiar with HCFCD operations have cited:
Availability of cash is not the problem. HCFCD received:
That brought the total contributions by partners up to another $2.5 billion. Yet HCFCD has spent only about a third of that money – $1.8 billion out of $5 billion total.
Projects at Risk
In the meantime, 15-20% inflation in construction costs could force HCFCD to eliminate $1 billion worth of projects from the original bond list. And projects at the end of the equity priority list in affluent areas are the most likely to get the axe. HCFCD is re-evaluating them all.
Every day no work is being done is a day wasted. And a day that people have to live with higher flood risk.
Relentless Development in Floodplains and Wetlands
Meanwhile, the clearing of land in the upper San Jacinto River Basin has not slowed. Developers cleared thousands of acres in 2023.
We saw how dangerous that could be after Perry Homes cleared 268 acres in Woodridge Village without building sufficient stormwater detention capabilities. Areas downstream in Kingwood’s Elm Grove Village that didn’t flood after 50 inches of rain from Harvey in 2017 flooded after a 5-inch rain on May 7, 2019.
The giant Colony Ridge development in Liberty County virtually doubled in size during the last two years. By the end of 2023, it was at least 50% bigger than Manhattan. The developers:
I took the following six shots over Colony Ridge in 2023. They show small portions of the developer’s clearing activity, but represent hundreds of other shots too numerous to include here.
Some call this progress. But Colony Ridge is now the subject of a Federal lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Other Developments Leave Land Exposed to Erosion
Colony Ridge isn’t the only development in the Lake Houston Area that leaves land exposed to erosion. Here are several others.
Saint Tropez in Huffman at FM2100 and Meyer Road.
I could cite dozens of additional examples like these. When rains wash through these sites, they pick up sediment and carry it downstream.
Sediment Deposition
Eroded sediment from these clearing operations washes downstream. It drops out of suspension where the water slows as it reaches Lake Houston.
The result: sand bars that reduce the conveyance of the river, forcing water out of the banks and into people’s homes.
Good News, Bad News
The good news: many blockages like the one above have been removed through dredging by the Army Corps and City.
The bad news: Many boaters have written in the last few months, complaining about how shallow the rivers are once again becoming due to unchecked sedimentation.
While I am ecstatic about another year without a flood, I hope we do not become complacent about preventing activities that contribute to flooding.
Flood Gate Project Goes Into 2024 with Momentum
So as not to finish the year on a down note, I would like to mention the project to add more flood gates to the Lake Houston dam.
In 2023, Houston Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin and Chief Recover Officer Stephen Costello accomplished an extraordinary “lift.” They convinced FEMA to include social benefits in their Benefit/Cost Ratio calculation. This helped them achieve a benefit/cost ratio greater than one, meaning benefits exceeded costs for the gates.
Then, they rallied local, state, and federal officials to fund the project so it could move forward. While $20 million of the $170+ million for the project comes from the 2018 flood bond, it will be hard for certain Harris County Commissioners to block it now that everyone else has done their parts.
As a result, the project goes into 2024 with some momentum and a new mayor who is sensitive to flooding concerns in the Lake Houston Area.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/31/23
2315 Days since Hurricane Harvey