“My first thought after I saw this passed was that it was a victory for Kingwood,” said Representative Charles Cunningham who pushed the idea of a dredging district relentlessly for years.
Today is the last day of the legislative session that the Senate considers bills. So it was do-or-die time. And Senator Brandon Creighton teed the bill up perfectly with the help of Senator Paul Bettencourt who shepherded the bill through his Local Government Committee.
Now, it’s on to the Governor’s desk. The good news: shortly after Harvey, Governor Abbott visited Kingwood. He flew up and down the West Fork. He personally saw the mouth bar and other sediment buildups in our rivers and streams.
Thank you to all those who wrote letters, testified in Austin, and never gave up hope for a dredging district. It was a true team effort between residents who never forgot the pain of flooding and leaders who never forgot those they represented. Together, we will make a difference for future generations and the future of the area.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank former State Rep. Dan Huberty; former Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin; City Council Members Fred Flickinger and Twila Carter; and the Army Corps of Engineers. They started this ball rolling years ago. \
And thank you, too, Houston Mayor John Whitmire. Former City Flood Czar Stephen Costello. The architects of the 2018 Flood Bond. Congressman Dan Crenshaw. Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey. And Bill McCabe and Dianne Lansden, who kept the Lake Houston Area Flood Prevention Initiation going for years.
My apologies to anyone I overlooked. So many contributed! They all had one thing in common. They put the safety of each other above partisan politics. And it showed in tonight’s unanimous vote.
Beating the Odds
Between “dream” and “done” in the Texas legislature, there’s a lot of hard work.
I came across this table today on the Texas Legislature Online website. It shows the success rate of various types of legislation to date.
Of all the bills introduced in both the House and Senate to date, only about 1 in 12 made it this far.
These numbers will change tomorrow because of additional bills passed today in both the House and Senate.
Here’s what each of those acronyms above stands for:
HB – House Bill
A proposed law originating in the House of Representatives.
If passed by both chambers and signed by the Governor (or allowed to become law), it becomes part of Texas statute.
Used for substantive changes to law (e.g., criminal statutes, environmental rules, etc.).
SB – Senate Bill
A proposed law originating in the Senate.
Same process and purpose as an HB, just introduced in the Senate instead of the House.
HJR – House Joint Resolution
Proposes an amendment to the Texas Constitution or requests Congress to call a constitutional convention.
Does not require the Governor’s signature.
If it’s a proposed constitutional amendment, it must be approved by voters in a statewide election.
Originates in the House.
SJR – Senate Joint Resolution
Same as HJR, but introduced in the Senate.
HCR – House Concurrent Resolution
Expresses the will of the House and Senate together but does not have the force of law.
Often used to make requests of federal government, authorize ceremonial recognitions, or approve internal legislative matters (e.g., adjournment).
Requires approval by both chambers, but not the Governor’s signature.
SCR – Senate Concurrent Resolution
Same as HCR, but introduced in the Senate.
HR – House Resolution
Used for internal House matters or to express one chamber’s opinion or recognition.
Examples: honoring a constituent, changing House rules.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Mouth-Bar-Cropped.jpg?fit=2000%2C859&ssl=18592000adminadmin2025-05-28 22:34:562025-05-30 08:46:01Dredging District Bill Passes Unanimously in Senate
5/28/2025 – The City of Houston Public Works Department just finished clearing 100 tons of accumulated sediment from under the Deer Springs Bridge over the Kingwood Diversion Ditch. According to District E City Council Member Fred Flickinger, the space under the bridge was so tight that crews had to do the work by hand. There wasn’t enough room to bring in bulldozers.
How Deer Springs Bridge Looked in Late 2024
Here’s a before shot taken late last year. As you can plainly see, much of the ditches conveyance was lost to sedimentation and vegetation.
Kingwood Diversion Ditch Bridge at Deer Springsin September 2024
Such blockages can increase flood risk.
Pictures of Clean Out
As you can see below, crews dug out the area directly underneath the bridge by hand because they had no equipment with a profile low enough to fit under the bridge.
They also re-established rip rap.
However, the job is not quite yet done. They still must hydro-mulch to stabilize the sides of the channel.
Both upstream and downstream banks were graded to meet the elevation of the bank section underneath the bridge. Crews still have yet to remove the island in the center of the ditch. That will require equipment with a longer reach.
According to Dustin Hodges, Council Member Flickinger’s Chief of Staff, Public Works is currently developing a scope of work for this project.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/28/2025 at 7:30 PM
2829 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250522_110145.jpg?fit=2000%2C1500&ssl=115002000adminadmin2025-05-28 19:53:112025-05-28 19:57:12City Removes 100 Tons of Sediment From Under Deer Springs Bridge
Correction: The Dredging District Bill was not voted on in the full Senate on Tuesday. It is now one of the bills placed on the Senate’s Notice of Intent for Wednesday. This is a procedural step indicating readiness for Senate floor consideration, though it is not a guarantee.
5/27/2025 – The Texas Senate may get a chance to consider HB1532 after all. If approved and signed by the governor, Rep. Charles Cunningham’s bill would create a Lake Houston Dredging District. On Monday, the Senate Local Government Committee approved the bill 7-0 after Senator Brandon Creighton testified in favor of the bill. The Committee reported the bill favorably without any amendments.
The House previously approved the bill overwhelmingly on April 30th by a vote of 114 to 19 with two abstaining.
This is the third time around for the dredging district bill. Former State Rep. Dan Huberty first introduced a variation on it in 2021. Then after Huberty retired, Rep. Charles Cunningham brought it back in 2023.
This year, however, Cunningham carefully crafted the language to eliminate objections raised in previous sessions over potential taxes and fees.
For an analysis of the bills contents, see this House report.
The District would establish a Lake Houston Dredging and Maintenance District that could sell bonds and receive state funding. However, it could not impose taxes or fees. It would operate only in Harris County and make money by selling the spoils from its operations for beneficial uses, such as raising home foundations, building roads, or constructing the Ike Dike.
One of the first orders of business would be conducting a funding study.
Supported by Community
The District, if approved, will lower flood risk in the Humble, Kingwood, Atascocita, Huffman, Crosby and the entire Lake Houston Areas. It will also increase the water supply in Lake Houston.
Dozens of Lake Houston Area residents wrote Senators on the local government committee as soon as the hearing schedule was announced over the holiday weekend.
Passage of the bill would help improve conveyance of the streams and channels flowing into the lake.
The Army Corps recommended maintenance dredging after it finished its Emergency West Fork Dredging Project. The reason: to help manage sediment that keeps moving downstream and settling out of suspension in the lake and its headwaters.
Dredging (along with upstream detention and more floodgates for the Lake Houston dam) was one of three main recommendations of the Lake Houston Area Task Force started by the late Humble ISD Superintendent Guy Sconzo.
Both Cunningham and District E City Council Member Fred Flickinger expressed cautious optimism for the bill’s prospects this year.
I’ll update you as soon as we know something. The Senate has more than 300 bills pending. And HB1532 is one of the last.
Posted by Bob Rehak on May 27, 2025
2828 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Senate-Local-Govt-Committee-Hearing.jpg?fit=1100%2C598&ssl=15981100adminadmin2025-05-26 22:46:322025-05-28 20:50:17Dredging District Bill Goes to Full Senate for Vote on Tuesday
Dredging District Bill Passes Unanimously in Senate
5/28/25 – HB1532, the Lake Houston Area Dredging District Bill, passed unanimously in the Texas Senate tonight, 31-0.
“My first thought after I saw this passed was that it was a victory for Kingwood,” said Representative Charles Cunningham who pushed the idea of a dredging district relentlessly for years.
Today is the last day of the legislative session that the Senate considers bills. So it was do-or-die time. And Senator Brandon Creighton teed the bill up perfectly with the help of Senator Paul Bettencourt who shepherded the bill through his Local Government Committee.
Now, it’s on to the Governor’s desk. The good news: shortly after Harvey, Governor Abbott visited Kingwood. He flew up and down the West Fork. He personally saw the mouth bar and other sediment buildups in our rivers and streams.
After his helicopter landed, he issued seven directives designed to reduce flood risk in the Lake Houston Area. And this is a huge step in that direction. So, he should be onboard.
Congratulations
Thank you to all those who wrote letters, testified in Austin, and never gave up hope for a dredging district. It was a true team effort between residents who never forgot the pain of flooding and leaders who never forgot those they represented. Together, we will make a difference for future generations and the future of the area.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank former State Rep. Dan Huberty; former Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin; City Council Members Fred Flickinger and Twila Carter; and the Army Corps of Engineers. They started this ball rolling years ago. \
And thank you, too, Houston Mayor John Whitmire. Former City Flood Czar Stephen Costello. The architects of the 2018 Flood Bond. Congressman Dan Crenshaw. Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey. And Bill McCabe and Dianne Lansden, who kept the Lake Houston Area Flood Prevention Initiation going for years.
My apologies to anyone I overlooked. So many contributed! They all had one thing in common. They put the safety of each other above partisan politics. And it showed in tonight’s unanimous vote.
Beating the Odds
Between “dream” and “done” in the Texas legislature, there’s a lot of hard work.
I came across this table today on the Texas Legislature Online website. It shows the success rate of various types of legislation to date.
Here’s what each of those acronyms above stands for:
HB – House Bill
SB – Senate Bill
HJR – House Joint Resolution
SJR – Senate Joint Resolution
HCR – House Concurrent Resolution
SCR – Senate Concurrent Resolution
HR – House Resolution
SR – Senate Resolution
The table below summarizes key differences.
Summary Table
To compare this year’s statistics with previous years’, see Texas Legislature Online.
Posted by Bob Rehak on May 28, 2025
2829 Days since Hurricane Harvey
City Removes 100 Tons of Sediment From Under Deer Springs Bridge
5/28/2025 – The City of Houston Public Works Department just finished clearing 100 tons of accumulated sediment from under the Deer Springs Bridge over the Kingwood Diversion Ditch. According to District E City Council Member Fred Flickinger, the space under the bridge was so tight that crews had to do the work by hand. There wasn’t enough room to bring in bulldozers.
How Deer Springs Bridge Looked in Late 2024
Here’s a before shot taken late last year. As you can plainly see, much of the ditches conveyance was lost to sedimentation and vegetation.
Such blockages can increase flood risk.
Pictures of Clean Out
As you can see below, crews dug out the area directly underneath the bridge by hand because they had no equipment with a profile low enough to fit under the bridge.
They also re-established rip rap.
However, the job is not quite yet done. They still must hydro-mulch to stabilize the sides of the channel.
Both upstream and downstream banks were graded to meet the elevation of the bank section underneath the bridge. Crews still have yet to remove the island in the center of the ditch. That will require equipment with a longer reach.
Next Up
Houston Public Works is also evaluating the sediment build up in the middle of Kingwood Drive in the ditch immediately west of Kingwood High School.
The build up is even worse than you saw above.
According to Dustin Hodges, Council Member Flickinger’s Chief of Staff, Public Works is currently developing a scope of work for this project.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/28/2025 at 7:30 PM
2829 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Dredging District Bill Goes to Full Senate for Vote on Tuesday
Correction: The Dredging District Bill was not voted on in the full Senate on Tuesday. It is now one of the bills placed on the Senate’s Notice of Intent for Wednesday. This is a procedural step indicating readiness for Senate floor consideration, though it is not a guarantee.
5/27/2025 – The Texas Senate may get a chance to consider HB1532 after all. If approved and signed by the governor, Rep. Charles Cunningham’s bill would create a Lake Houston Dredging District. On Monday, the Senate Local Government Committee approved the bill 7-0 after Senator Brandon Creighton testified in favor of the bill. The Committee reported the bill favorably without any amendments.
The House previously approved the bill overwhelmingly on April 30th by a vote of 114 to 19 with two abstaining.
Third Time Around for Bill
This is the third time around for the dredging district bill. Former State Rep. Dan Huberty first introduced a variation on it in 2021. Then after Huberty retired, Rep. Charles Cunningham brought it back in 2023.
This year, however, Cunningham carefully crafted the language to eliminate objections raised in previous sessions over potential taxes and fees.
For an analysis of the bills contents, see this House report.
The District would establish a Lake Houston Dredging and Maintenance District that could sell bonds and receive state funding. However, it could not impose taxes or fees. It would operate only in Harris County and make money by selling the spoils from its operations for beneficial uses, such as raising home foundations, building roads, or constructing the Ike Dike.
One of the first orders of business would be conducting a funding study.
Supported by Community
The District, if approved, will lower flood risk in the Humble, Kingwood, Atascocita, Huffman, Crosby and the entire Lake Houston Areas. It will also increase the water supply in Lake Houston.
Dozens of Lake Houston Area residents wrote Senators on the local government committee as soon as the hearing schedule was announced over the holiday weekend.
Passage of the bill would help improve conveyance of the streams and channels flowing into the lake.
The Army Corps recommended maintenance dredging after it finished its Emergency West Fork Dredging Project. The reason: to help manage sediment that keeps moving downstream and settling out of suspension in the lake and its headwaters.
Dredging (along with upstream detention and more floodgates for the Lake Houston dam) was one of three main recommendations of the Lake Houston Area Task Force started by the late Humble ISD Superintendent Guy Sconzo.
Both Cunningham and District E City Council Member Fred Flickinger expressed cautious optimism for the bill’s prospects this year.
I’ll update you as soon as we know something. The Senate has more than 300 bills pending. And HB1532 is one of the last.
Posted by Bob Rehak on May 27, 2025
2828 Days since Hurricane Harvey