At Houston City Council Member Dave Martin’s Kingwood Town Hall Meeting on October 9th, residents received encouraging news on the removal of a giant sand bar at the mouth of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River. The aptly named “mouth bar” forms a dam behind the dam. The encouraging news is a meeting in Austin on Thursday, October 11, that will be attended by all the key decision makers who have a say in removing the giant bar.
High Stakes Meeting
Residents and experts fear that – if not removed – the mouth bar could back water up and contribute to flooding again in the heavily populated Humble/Kingwood/Atascocita corridor.
Also, as Martin pointed out, if the mouth bar can be included in the current U.S. Army Corps project, taxpayers will save approximately $17 million in mobilization and demobilization costs on a separate project.
Attendees at the meeting in Austin should include:
Nim Kidd. Chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which screens funding requests for FEMA.
FEMA, which will most likely be the source of matching funds for the City’s contribution to the project
Regional Head of the Army Corps of Engineers and his staff
Governor Abbott and his staff including Reed Clay, Tommy Williams, Luis Saenz, and Steven Schar
Stephen Costello, Chief Resiliency Officer for the City of Houston
Marvin Odum, Chief Recovery Officer for the City
Russ Poppe, Executive Director of Harris County Flood Control
Carter Smith, Executive Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
Director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Turner’s letter then continues, “The City willutilize $15-$20 million dollarsof the existing Grant funds for this project,specifically to remove silt debrisfrom Lake Houston. Useof the Grant fundswould allow the City to address the silt deposits and other debriswhich remain in the watersof the San JacintoRiver and Lake Houston post-Hurricane Harvey. This debris must be collected and disposedof as soon as possible in the interestof the health, safety and welfare of Cityof Houston residents.”
The Ask
According to Martin, the City will use the funds mentioned by the Mayor as the City’s 10% match for a $100 million ask from FEMA.. The request is to remove all the sand and silt in all sections (A, B, C, D) from the initial value engineering report of the U.S. Army Corps of engineers. See below.
Stages initially identified by the US Army Corps of Engineers for dredging in its Value Engineering Report.
How Dredging Dovetails with Other Area Flood Mitigation Efforts
Other Flood Mitigation Projects for the Lake Houston Area
Next phases of dredging (proposed). Center portion is current project. Mouth bar would come next. Rest of West Fork would come third.
Costello also discussed turning over maintenance of Ben’s Branch to Harris County. This is part of an agreement between the City and County whereby the County will assume maintenance for all above ground drainage and the City will assume maintenance for all underground drainage.
The delay on this project has to do with tracking down deeds and easements that were never properly transferred and recorded when the City annexed Kingwood. The portion outlined in purple is still under investigation. The yellow, green and blue portions have been resolved.
Three different portions of Ben’s Branch currently under review by City Attorney’s office. Purple is still a problem.
Where the Money Will Come From
Marvin Odum, Chief Recovery Officer for the City, then led a discussion of where the money will come from for all these projects. More on that to follow. For now, I’ll just tease you with this chart.
Where the money will come from.
Let’s wish Council Member Martin and the others from Houston “Good Luck” tomorrow. It’s unclear at this point whether they will be able to seal the deal on the mouth bar, but it appears tonight as though they will have everyone in the room who needs to say “yes.” And that’s encouraging. It has taken months of work to get to this point.
Posted October 10, 2018 by Bob Rehak
407 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Costello-Flood-Resilience-in-Kingwood_Page_6.jpg?fit=1120%2C728&ssl=17281120adminadmin2018-10-10 22:53:172018-10-11 09:21:16Crucial Meeting Thursday in Austin on Mouth Bar
As tonight’s town hall meeting with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Council Member Dave Martin, Chief Resiliency Officer Steve Costello and Chief Recovery Officer Marvin Odum approaches, it’s important to understand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is NOT currently scheduled to dredge the mouth bar at the confluence of the West Fork and Lake Houston.
The scope of the current West Fork Emergency Dredging Project includes 2.1 miles between River Grove Park and Chimichurri’s. The Corp will remove 1.8 million cubic yards of sand clogging the river in that area. However, they will leave two to three times that much sediment at the mouth of the West Fork – between King’s Point and Atascocita Point…unless something changes soon.
The “Mouth Bar,” a giant sand bar that blocks the West Fork of the San Jacinto, backing the river up into Kingwood and Humble. Water depth is generally 1-3 feet around this bar. Max channel depth in places is just 5-8 feet.
Tim Garfield and RD Kissling, two local retired geologists, first sounded the alarm about this blockage. Since then, many people have been working to bring the mouth bar within the scope of the current project. Garfield and Kissling have also continued to review Corps survey data and developed additional insights.
Tonight Garfield and Kissling shared these thoughts.
You could walk along the red line from Scenic Shores to Kings River Estates, and except for crossing the paleo channel at five to eight feet, you would not even get your shirt wet. It should be approximately 25 feet deep in this area.
Shallowest path follows red line.
The Corps survey data is in the background. The red line represents the shallowest points of the lake/river.
Without removing the mouth bar, water will have to flow uphill approximately 40 feet between the West Lake Houston Parkway Bridge and Lake Houston.
Water will have to rise approximately 40 feet between West Lake Houston Parkway and the Mouth Bar to reach Lake Houston. Subtract five or six feet for the deepest parts of the channel on either side of the bar.
If the city dropped the lake level 12 feet overnight – but the mouth bar remained – you would see an earthen dam 6 feet higher than the lake, behind which West Fork floodwater would still back up and flood our neighborhoods.
Adding flood gates without removing the mouth bar will not protect us from flooding.
With those happy thoughts, let’s hope that the City has some good news to share tonight re: removal of the mouth bar. Council Member Martin and others have been working diligently with the County, State, and Federal Governments to include the mouth bar in the current dredging project or fund it as a second project that follows the first closely.
Doing so could save taxpayers $17 million in mobilization costs.
The meeting will be held Tuesday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m., at the Kingwood Community Center, 4102 Rustic Woods, Kingwood, TX 77345.
Posted by Bob Rehak on October 9, 2018
406 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Slide1-cropped.jpeg?fit=1286%2C760&ssl=17601286adminadmin2018-10-09 00:30:522018-10-09 15:47:25The Mouth Bar: A Dam Behind the Dam
It’s been more than a year since Hurricane Harvey. Much of Houston has improved remarkably since then. But one neighborhood near the San Jacinto West Fork seems frozen in time: Marina Drive in Forest Cove. It’s the land that Solid Waste forgot.
Forest Cove Townhomes destroyed by Harvey and swallowed by sand. Photograph from 9/14/17, two weeks after Harvey. Not much has changed since then.
Featured in FEMA Video Filmed Last Month
When FEMA came to Houston last month to shoot a video about Harvey, they asked ReduceFlooding.com for location recommendations. They wanted a place that told the story of the storm. It took me about a nanosecond to recommend the apartments/townhomes on Marina Drive.
Forest Cove Townhomes destroyed by Harvey. This and following photos taken a year later on September 28, 2018.
The Forest Cove Property Owners Association has fixed up the community swimming pool. But everything around it still triggers memories of the terror that night in August, 2017, when Harvey dealt the final death blow to these ill-fated townhomes.
Forest Cove Townhomes now targets for vandals, looters and squatters.
Ravaged by Numerous Floods, but Killed by Harvey
The townhomes had been ravaged by previous floods, but Harvey was different. Three residents I talked to told me the water reached 17-23 feet high – well up into the second story. To put that in perspective, joists in the garage level are set at 11 feet.
You can see holes chopped in roofs where thieves stole roof-mounted AC condensers. One building appears to have been swept off its foundation. Bedsheets spray-painted with “FEMA HELP” still flutter from second story balconies. Sand clogs the streets and storm drains. Five foot high dunes cover fences and shoreline. Trash litters the parking lots. Graffiti and mold cover what’s left of the homes. An old oil pumper supports vines. Oil storage tanks sit twisted and lonely, off kilter. Not one person still lives there. The homes are uninhabitable.
Forest Cove Townhome destroyed by Harvey. Area is now a target for graffiti artists.
More Marina Drive Townhomes destroyed by Harvey. In addition to the trash in the parking lot, note the hole chopped in the roof to rescue people in the middle of the photo.
Reportedly, these properties are being bought out by FEMA and Harris County Flood Control to reduce future flood risk. Some offers have already been made according to Glen Allison, a member of the Homeowners Association. Allison also said that “Three units were swept away. Two more completely collapsed. There was tremendous structural damage throughout.”
Excerpt from HCFCD map showing historical buyout programs in Forest Cove.
FEMA and HCFCD completed voluntary buyout programs in 1994 (pink), 1998 (blue), 2005 (yellow) and 2008 (lavender). However, as of this spring, they were still trying to complete buyouts from 2014 and 2016 (see table below, also from 2018 Federal Briefing referenced above).
Forest Cove properties were part of the 2014 and 2016 buyout programs that were still not completed at the time of Harvey and HCFCD’s Federal Briefing last spring.
Maybe this time! Meanwhile, someone please call for a trash pickup.
Posted by Bob Rehak on October 7, 2018
404 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SJR_305_019.jpg?fit=1800%2C1200&ssl=112001800adminadmin2018-10-07 19:59:282018-10-07 22:53:56Harvey Time Capsule: Marina Drive in Forest Cove
Crucial Meeting Thursday in Austin on Mouth Bar
At Houston City Council Member Dave Martin’s Kingwood Town Hall Meeting on October 9th, residents received encouraging news on the removal of a giant sand bar at the mouth of the West Fork of the San Jacinto River. The aptly named “mouth bar” forms a dam behind the dam. The encouraging news is a meeting in Austin on Thursday, October 11, that will be attended by all the key decision makers who have a say in removing the giant bar.
High Stakes Meeting
Residents and experts fear that – if not removed – the mouth bar could back water up and contribute to flooding again in the heavily populated Humble/Kingwood/Atascocita corridor.
Also, as Martin pointed out, if the mouth bar can be included in the current U.S. Army Corps project, taxpayers will save approximately $17 million in mobilization and demobilization costs on a separate project.
Attendees at the meeting in Austin should include:
As Martin said, “Everybody but President Trump.”
Letter From Turner to Abbott about Mouth Bar
Martin began the Town Hall Meeting by reading a letter from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to Governor Gregg Abbott, requesting Abbott to support the removal of the mouth bar. The letter states in part, “To address additional Harvey related debris strategies, the City proposes to remove Section A silt deposits located at the confluence of the San Jacinto River and Lake Houston as part of the existing FEMA eligible debris removal projects for the City.”
Turner’s letter then continues, “The City will utilize $15-$20 million dollars of the existing Grant funds for this project, specifically to remove silt debris from Lake Houston. Use of the Grant funds would allow the City to address the silt deposits and other debris which remain in the waters of the San Jacinto River and Lake Houston post-Hurricane Harvey. This debris must be collected and disposed of as soon as possible in the interest of the health, safety and welfare of City of Houston residents.”
The Ask
According to Martin, the City will use the funds mentioned by the Mayor as the City’s 10% match for a $100 million ask from FEMA.. The request is to remove all the sand and silt in all sections (A, B, C, D) from the initial value engineering report of the U.S. Army Corps of engineers. See below.
Stages initially identified by the US Army Corps of Engineers for dredging in its Value Engineering Report.
How Dredging Dovetails with Other Area Flood Mitigation Efforts
City of Houston Chief Resiliency Officer Stephen Costello later gave a brief presentation about how the mouth bar project dovetails with other flood mitigation projects and additional dredging.
Other Flood Mitigation Projects for the Lake Houston Area
Next phases of dredging (proposed). Center portion is current project. Mouth bar would come next. Rest of West Fork would come third.
Costello also discussed turning over maintenance of Ben’s Branch to Harris County. This is part of an agreement between the City and County whereby the County will assume maintenance for all above ground drainage and the City will assume maintenance for all underground drainage.
The delay on this project has to do with tracking down deeds and easements that were never properly transferred and recorded when the City annexed Kingwood. The portion outlined in purple is still under investigation. The yellow, green and blue portions have been resolved.
Three different portions of Ben’s Branch currently under review by City Attorney’s office. Purple is still a problem.
Where the Money Will Come From
Marvin Odum, Chief Recovery Officer for the City, then led a discussion of where the money will come from for all these projects. More on that to follow. For now, I’ll just tease you with this chart.
Where the money will come from.
Let’s wish Council Member Martin and the others from Houston “Good Luck” tomorrow. It’s unclear at this point whether they will be able to seal the deal on the mouth bar, but it appears tonight as though they will have everyone in the room who needs to say “yes.” And that’s encouraging. It has taken months of work to get to this point.
Posted October 10, 2018 by Bob Rehak
407 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The Mouth Bar: A Dam Behind the Dam
As tonight’s town hall meeting with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Council Member Dave Martin, Chief Resiliency Officer Steve Costello and Chief Recovery Officer Marvin Odum approaches, it’s important to understand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is NOT currently scheduled to dredge the mouth bar at the confluence of the West Fork and Lake Houston.
The scope of the current West Fork Emergency Dredging Project includes 2.1 miles between River Grove Park and Chimichurri’s. The Corp will remove 1.8 million cubic yards of sand clogging the river in that area. However, they will leave two to three times that much sediment at the mouth of the West Fork – between King’s Point and Atascocita Point…unless something changes soon.
The “Mouth Bar,” a giant sand bar that blocks the West Fork of the San Jacinto, backing the river up into Kingwood and Humble. Water depth is generally 1-3 feet around this bar. Max channel depth in places is just 5-8 feet.
The “mouth bar” which we have talked about extensively in previous posts forms a dam of sorts behind the Lake Houston dam. It backs water up into the heavily populated Humble/Kingwood/Atascocita corridor.
Tim Garfield and RD Kissling, two local retired geologists, first sounded the alarm about this blockage. Since then, many people have been working to bring the mouth bar within the scope of the current project. Garfield and Kissling have also continued to review Corps survey data and developed additional insights.
Tonight Garfield and Kissling shared these thoughts.
Shallowest path follows red line.
The Corps survey data is in the background. The red line represents the shallowest points of the lake/river.
Water will have to rise approximately 40 feet between West Lake Houston Parkway and the Mouth Bar to reach Lake Houston. Subtract five or six feet for the deepest parts of the channel on either side of the bar.
With those happy thoughts, let’s hope that the City has some good news to share tonight re: removal of the mouth bar. Council Member Martin and others have been working diligently with the County, State, and Federal Governments to include the mouth bar in the current dredging project or fund it as a second project that follows the first closely.
Doing so could save taxpayers $17 million in mobilization costs.
The meeting will be held Tuesday, October 9 at 6:30 p.m., at the Kingwood Community Center, 4102 Rustic Woods, Kingwood, TX 77345.
Posted by Bob Rehak on October 9, 2018
406 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Harvey Time Capsule: Marina Drive in Forest Cove
It’s been more than a year since Hurricane Harvey. Much of Houston has improved remarkably since then. But one neighborhood near the San Jacinto West Fork seems frozen in time: Marina Drive in Forest Cove. It’s the land that Solid Waste forgot.
Forest Cove Townhomes destroyed by Harvey and swallowed by sand. Photograph from 9/14/17, two weeks after Harvey. Not much has changed since then.
Featured in FEMA Video Filmed Last Month
When FEMA came to Houston last month to shoot a video about Harvey, they asked ReduceFlooding.com for location recommendations. They wanted a place that told the story of the storm. It took me about a nanosecond to recommend the apartments/townhomes on Marina Drive.
Forest Cove Townhomes destroyed by Harvey. This and following photos taken a year later on September 28, 2018.
The Forest Cove Property Owners Association has fixed up the community swimming pool. But everything around it still triggers memories of the terror that night in August, 2017, when Harvey dealt the final death blow to these ill-fated townhomes.
Forest Cove Townhomes now targets for vandals, looters and squatters.
Ravaged by Numerous Floods, but Killed by Harvey
The townhomes had been ravaged by previous floods, but Harvey was different. Three residents I talked to told me the water reached 17-23 feet high – well up into the second story. To put that in perspective, joists in the garage level are set at 11 feet.
You can see holes chopped in roofs where thieves stole roof-mounted AC condensers. One building appears to have been swept off its foundation. Bedsheets spray-painted with “FEMA HELP” still flutter from second story balconies. Sand clogs the streets and storm drains. Five foot high dunes cover fences and shoreline. Trash litters the parking lots. Graffiti and mold cover what’s left of the homes. An old oil pumper supports vines. Oil storage tanks sit twisted and lonely, off kilter. Not one person still lives there. The homes are uninhabitable.
Forest Cove Townhome destroyed by Harvey. Area is now a target for graffiti artists.
More Marina Drive Townhomes destroyed by Harvey. In addition to the trash in the parking lot, note the hole chopped in the roof to rescue people in the middle of the photo.
Reportedly, these properties are being bought out by FEMA and Harris County Flood Control to reduce future flood risk. Some offers have already been made according to Glen Allison, a member of the Homeowners Association. Allison also said that “Three units were swept away. Two more completely collapsed. There was tremendous structural damage throughout.”
Someday the area may be turned into parkland. The county has been trying to buy this land and convert it into a linear park since 1994 – almost 25 years ago. Not much has happened since then. The last section in a document from Harris County Flood Control titled 2018 Federal Briefing: Unprecedented Opportunity discusses progress of various buyout programs going back 29 years.
Excerpt from HCFCD map showing historical buyout programs in Forest Cove.
FEMA and HCFCD completed voluntary buyout programs in 1994 (pink), 1998 (blue), 2005 (yellow) and 2008 (lavender). However, as of this spring, they were still trying to complete buyouts from 2014 and 2016 (see table below, also from 2018 Federal Briefing referenced above).
Forest Cove properties were part of the 2014 and 2016 buyout programs that were still not completed at the time of Harvey and HCFCD’s Federal Briefing last spring.
Maybe this time! Meanwhile, someone please call for a trash pickup.
Posted by Bob Rehak on October 7, 2018
404 Days since Hurricane Harvey