Upstream Section of Taylor Gully Nearly Restored

Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has nearly completed restoration of Taylor Gully between Bassingham and the Montgomery County line. At least one drain pipe still needs to be installed and some dirt needs to be removed. But the drainage ditch itself is looking much better.

Taylor Gully Excavated, New Pipe Installed

Said Jeff Miller, an Elm Grove resident tracking the work, said, “Most all grading and sediment removal is complete. It looks like they are finishing rebuilding and installing one last backslope interceptor pipe. In all, I counted 8 new pipes and 2 cleared pipes, the majority on the west side of the gully.”

Looking south into Taylor Gully from the culvert that separates Woodridge Village and Elm Grove.
This ditch had become clogged from upstream erosion. But now, HCFCD has almost totally restored conveyance. All images courtesy of Jeff Miller.

New Drain Pipe Work Nearly Complete

HCFCD reset this inlet behind Abel and Nancy Vera’s backyard.
 New backslpoe interceptor pipe with concrete structure not yet poured; end of metal pipe will be trimmed flush with concrete.
Drain pipe exits have been cleared. Some were totally submerged in sediment.
Soil near Rustic Elms still needs to be removed and replacement pipe installed.

Thank You, HCFCD!

A big shout out to the men, women and contractors of the Harris County Flood Control District for excellent work. It will help protect hundreds of homes that flooded on May 7.

Posted by Bob Rehak and Jeff Miller

734 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Lessons from A&M Community Health and Resource Management Workshop for East Montgomery County

On July 23rd, the Texas A&M Agrilife Extenstion, FEMA and Texas Community Watershed Partners held a Community Health and Resource Management workshop. Attendees included 29 officials, municipal staff, and stakeholders from Conroe, Patton Village, Montgomery County, Harris County Flood Control District, SJRA, Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District, the Bayou Land Conservance, Red Cross, United Way and more.

Community Health and Resources Management Workshop in action.

Protecting Growth from Flooding

Organizers dedicated the majority of the workshop to using a GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping platform, developed by AgriLife Extension’s Texas Community Watershed Partners. The platform allows communities to digitally draw different growth and development scenarios on a map of their community. Then they can see the implications, in real time. Which scenarios will increase or decrease disaster risk? 

The organizers challenged participants to double growth without increasing flood risk. The outcomes of the workshop have real-life implications for urban planning, building codes, flood mitigation and disaster recovery.

Here is the entire presentation of outcomes from the workshop.

Strategies Explored by Participants

The teams in the workshop explored strategies, such as:

  • Creation of more detention areas 
  • Public Education 
  • Flood Planning with community leaders 
  • Filling 
  • Public Involvement 
  • Education on flood insurance 
  • Messaging on flood risk
  • Buyouts 
  • Apply for HUD Community Development Block Grants 
  • Implementing higher standards 
  • Changes in Building Codes 
  • Collaboration with agencies, organizations 
  • Buyouts 
  • Future studies 
  • And more

This presentation provides an excellent demonstration of the linkage between planning, land use and long-term-risk.

External Links in Presentation Lead to Valuable Tools

One of the most valuable parts of the presentation: links to related resources from participants and planners.

For instance, this base-flood elevation viewer contained information that FEMA’s national flood hazard layer viewer did not. Using the former tool, I was able to look up Woodridge Village in Montgomery County. I found that much of it was in the high risk 1-percent flood plain. That explains why the developer is raising it so much.

All in all, if you have five minutes to explore this presentation, it could help you connect some dots.

Posted by Bob Rehak with thanks to Paul Crowson and Bob Bagley

733 Days since Hurricane Harvey

west fork mouth bar

Lake Houston Area Geologists Propose Dredging Objectives to Restore Conveyance, Safety

Secrecy surrounds current dredging plans for the mouth bar of the San Jacinto West Fork. We know that the Corps will finish removing 500,000 cubic yards next week. However…

Unkowns at This Time

… we don’t know exactly where they are removing sediment, how wide the area is, how deep it is, and whether they will cut a channel through the sediment dam or just shave some off the top.

Mouth Bar of the San Jacinto West Fork immediately after Harvey

The Corps’ refusal to divulge plans puts residents in a bind. How can we know whether they have restored conveyance and safety? We must take their word. We don’t even have a post-dredge survey showing us how they intend to leave the river.

Two Prominent Geologist Suggest Objectives

With those caveats in mind, I asked Tim Garfield and RD Kissling what objectives they would set to restore conveyance and safety. Garfield and Kissling are two prominent area geologists who first brought the mouth-bar problems to the public’s attention. Between them, they have more than 80 years of oil field experience at the highest levels, studying river basins around the world.

Here’s how they responded: “Our overriding objectives are simple:

  • Restore flow conveyance of the west fork into Lake Houston
  • Survey the entire area being dredged for depth upon completion.
  • Extend the upstream dredging which ended near Kings Harbor through the mouth bar area. Said another way, don’t make water flow uphill. Eliminate the ramp.
  • Continue the 400’ wide, approximately 20′ deep channel past the SMB until it connects into the relict channel where it is 20’ deep or deeper near the FM1960 bridge.
  • Develop and implement a plan for regular maintenance dredging.
  • Define responsibilities, budget and source of funding for future dredging.
  • Define a schedule of regular depth surveys in order to determine where sediments are re-accumulating and to have a better baseline for future storm events.
  • Build and utilize 2D- or 3D-models to help guide future dredging decisions.
  • Resolve disposal issues. Identify long-term placement areas and potential partnerships with industry.”

Who Will Achieve Desired Results?

These objectives make sense to me. They describe what the river used to look like before the mouth bar set up and contributed to flooding 7,000 homes and businesses. They also describe what we need to do to keep the problem from recurring. If the Corps doesn’t achieve the desired result, I hope the City, Harris County and State can. You can help by urging elected representatives to get FEMA to designate the mouth bar sediment as Category A.

Corps May Share Results When Dredging Complete

According to Congressman Dan Crenshaw’s office, the Corps has finally agreed to share with outside sources the 1D HEC-RAS model it built. Reportedly, the Corps sent a copy of the model and data to Stephen Costello, the City of Houston’s Chief Recovery Officer. Crenshaw’s office is also trying to obtain the Corps’ dredging plans and make them public.

It will be interesting to see how the Corps’ dredging results line up with Garfield’s and Kissling’s objectives.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/31/2019

732 Days since Hurricane Harvey