Today, I received feedback from Harris County on adding “more detention, dredging and gates” (Plea for DDG) to the upcoming flood bond referendum. The good news: Additional dredging, detention and gates will be achievable within the bond. The bad news: based on the feedback, there is still one hurdle to clear: finding partners to share dredging costs.
The mouth bar where the West Fork meets Lake Houston. Fosters Mill and King’s Point are in the background.
Background on Plea for DDG: Detention, Dredging and Gates
You may recall that RecoverLakeHouston, the Lake Houston Area Chamber, and the Lake Houston Area Grass Roots Flood Prevention Initiative (as well as I) all lined up to support the Plea for DDG. The idea: during floods, more detention, dredging and gates would reduce input, increase throughput and speed up output.
Giant Turnout
The community turned out in force to support the initiative. The response literally overwhelmed county officials at the meeting. Seven to eight hundred people attended, making it the most attended of all the watershed meetings to date. Typically, meetings have been drawing one to two hundred people according to those who have attended multiple meetings.
Because of the large number of attendees in Kingwood and the open house format, many people felt the meeting was somewhat chaotic. Worse, some attendees received feedback from a small number of the county employees who mistakenly told them that dredging was NOT possible under the bond.
Clearing up the Confusion
I received this email from the county today. It clarifies their position on all three requests:
Thank you for your input in support of #PleaForDDG for the San Jacinto River watershed. Your submission has been recorded and considered by the Harris County Flood Control District staff.
With regard to drainage improvements for the the San Jacinto River watershed, the Flood Control District is partnering with Montgomery County, the City of Houston and the San Jacinto River Authority to determine short-term and long-term improvements, such as:
Expanding the Flood Warning System (http://www.harriscountyfws.org) into Montgomery County to include new rainfall and stream level gages
Improved coordination between the two county Offices of Emergency Management during disasters
A vegetation and sediment management plan with the goal to reduce the amount of silt and sand eroding into the river
Regional mitigation projects such as river dredging, buyouts and detention basins
Dredging to restore the San Jacinto River and Lake Houston
On July 6, 2018, the US Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, in the amount of $69,814,060 to remove sediment and debris resulting from Hurricane Harvey from the West Fork of the San Jacinto River. The Bond Program does include funding that could provide a portion of the cost share for any future dredging work on the East Fork/West Fork/Lake Houston area. Any future dredging project would have to be a collaborative effort between the City of Houston, the Coastal Water Authority, and possibly the State of Texas. At this time, no details have been worked out on future dredging. The Flood Control District will update the Bond Program maps to indicate another Partnership Project (green cross symbol) within the San Jacinto River watershed exhibit noting East Fork/West Fork/Lake Houston Dredging. The description will be “Potential Partnership Project with the City of Houston, Coastal Water Authority, and the State of Texas to permit, design, and complete dredging of the East Fork/West Fork/Lake Houston area waterways to reduce flooding risks.” The dollar amount will be shown as $50M from Harris County Flood Control District and TBD (to be determined) for the City of Houston, the Coastal Water Authority, and the State of Texas. The Flood Control District cannot commit nor obligate other agencies to allocate funding due to the fact that there is no agreement in place for the dredging project.
Detention/Sediment Basins West and North of Highway 59
These improvements are included in the list of potential projects within the bond program (see local projects F-88, F-14, and F-15 which will be used for Planning, Right-Of-Way Acquisition, Design and Construction of General Drainage Improvement along the San Jacinto River and Cypress Creek west of Highway 59). For drainage improvements north of Highway 59, the Flood Control District is coordinating with Montgomery County on a watershed study to investigate flooding problems and identify where detention basins could best serve to reduce flooding risks along the San Jacinto River.
Tainter Gates on Lake Houston Dam
On July 10, 2018, as a result of the community input process, the Flood Control District has added a Partnership Project (green cross symbol) to the list of potential projects within the bond program for the design and construction of additional gates. The partners would be the City of Houston and the Coastal Water Authority since they are the entities that have jurisdiction over the lake and the dam structure; our agency does not. The Bond Program could, however, provide partial funding of up to $20M for this effort.
When considering project ideas suggested by the community, the Flood Control District will prioritize projects that meet its mission to provide flood damage reduction projects that work, with appropriate regard for community and natural values. You can learn more about the project ranking criteria on our website: https://www.hcfcd.org/bond-program/community-input/
Thank you again for sharing your input. The bond election will be held on August 25 with early voting on August 8.
After reading this, I emailed Harris County Flood Control for one more clarification. Was spending $50 million on dredging contingent upon finding partners to share the cost? The answer: Yes. Fifty million, they say, is not sufficient by itself to do the dredging necessary.
So Where Does that Leave Us?
Additional gates for Lake Houston seem to be within scope and well supported.
More upstream detention seems to be within scope and also well supported. However, before any action can take place, the San Jacinto Watershed study must be completed. It is rumored to cost around $2 million and has been awaiting funding since late March. Presumably, the County’s share of the funding would come from this bond if it passes. The study would take a year or more to complete.
No one can say at this time what the study’s recommendations would be. So there is some uncertainty surrounding the request for more upstream detention. Please note, however, that other groups further upstream, for instance on Cypress Creek, are also requesting more upstream detention. My feeling? If the bond passes, more upstream detention is very likely. However, of all the projects, detention would take the longest to complete because it involves identifying and acquiring land.
Finally, additional dredging is also within scope and well supported. However, dredging has the highest degree of uncertainty associated with it because it will require partners who have not been approached and who have not committed any dollars.
To reduce uncertainty surrounding dredging before the bond, we would likely have to obtain commitments from one or more other stakeholders who are mentioned in the email above.
Recommended Next Steps
Before the bond referendum, area leaders need to actively seek support from those other stakeholders and communicate the outcome so that voters can make informed decisions about their votes. Of all three measures, dredging could be implemented the quickest.
Looking back to the period immediately after Harvey, check out this NASA photo of a sediment plume coming out of Galveston Bay on 8/31/2017. An astronaut took the photo using a Nikon D4 with a wide angle lens from 216 miles above the Earth.
As Harvey moved away from Houston, note the sediment plumes spilling out of bays in this photo of the Texas Coastline.
Talk about a dredging problem! The entire northern Gulf of Mexico looks like a Mint Oreo Shake. The brightest part of the plume coming out of Galveston Bay in this shot of the Texas Coastline measures 20 – 30 miles offshore. But the faintest part of the sediment plume extends approximately another 80 miles. Houston is northwest of the bright, light brown area under the clouds that form an arrowhead in the middle of the photo.
Zooming in and boosting contrast. We can see Lake Houston above Galveston Bay on the right of the clouds in the middle.
The mind boggling thing is that enough pressure existed to push the plumes out that far that fast.
Technical Data
NASA PHOTO ID iss052e078795.NEF
GMT 2017:08:31 19:23:43
MODEL NIKON D4
Shutter 1/500
Aperture 18.0
ISO Speed 400
Focal Length 24.0 mm
Lens ID AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED
Compensation -1/3
Mission: ISS052 Roll: E Frame: 78795
Country or Geographic Name: USA-TEXAS
Features: HURRICANE HARVEY, HOUSTON, GALVESTON B., MATAGORDA B., FLOODING, DRAINAGE
Center Point: Latitude: 29.0 Longitude: -95.5 (Negative numbers indicate west for longitude)
Spacecraft Altitude: 216 nautical miles
Sun Elevation Angle: 65 (Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point)
Posted on 7/14/2018 by Bob Rehak
319 Days Since Hurricane Harvey
Photo: Courtesy of NASA
00adminadmin2018-07-14 04:42:072018-07-14 04:49:26Sediment Plume from Above the Storm
Sand and sediment clog our rivers and lake. “Dredge!” you say.
“Not that simple,” say the experts. “Who will pay for it? How much should we dredge? Where will the sediment go?”
That’s why we need planning for sediment management. We need to dredge the worst parts of the river now; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has already started that as an emergency project. But we also need to dredge other parts of the river that are not quite critical yet. And we need to figure out how to do all this on a regular basis so that it never gets this bad again.
A giant sand dune has formed at the mouth of the west fork of the San Jacinto. It is not being addressed by the Army Corps dredging project but should be. Thousands of homes upstream from this massive blockage flooded during Harvey.
Sediment Management Challenges That Lie Ahead
I have talked about these issues with experts from Harris County Flood Control and USACE. Both say planning is crucial to a successful maintenance dredging/sediment management program. One provided this document: Galveston-Bay-Programmatic-RSM-Plan-Rev-1, as an example of what we need for the San Jacinto. It’s a long document – 112 pages. But it is worth reading the executive summary, introduction and table of contents at the very least. Parts of it discuss the upper reaches of the San Jacinto. But the main value it provides is that it outlines the challenges ahead.
Who will lead the effort? Who will support it?
How much money is needed per year? How can we budget for it? Who will share in the costs?
Where will the dredged materials go? How can we identify opportunities to reuse and sell them? Who will market them and how? To what extent can sales defray dredging costs?
What are the true life-cycle costs of the sand and sediment that miners send downstream to us?
How can we reduce their contribution to the problem? Is there a way to make them part of the solution?
How can we coordinate upstream and downstream efforts so that the entire river system flows freely?
How can we remove channel blockages more quickly after floods to help prevent additional flooding?
All of these are difficult questions. Starting such an extensive program is like starting a new business.
Budgeting Comes First
A business plan and budgeting are the first issues we need to address. Where will the money for all this come from? Without answering that first, everything else is moot.
So who are the stakeholders?
City of Houston – Ensuring the future of Lake Houston is essential to ensuring the future of the City. It’s the City’s main source of water.
Harris County Flood Control – Half of the people that live in the county, live in the City.
San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) – The State created the Authority back in the 1930s to impound water and protect people from flooding. Those missions were recently reconfirmed by the Governor.
Coastal Water Authority – CWA is the contract operator for Lake Houston Dam and Reservoir. They sell water just like SJRA and can raise money thru water rates to fund flood mitigation. Their enabling legislation mentions drainage and flood responsibilities – same as SJRA.
State of Texas – This region has a quarter of all the people who live in the state. Nuff said.
Expecting all costs to be covered by the Harris County Flood Bond in perpetuity is just wishful and foolish thinking. The bond is for capital projects, not ongoing maintenance. You might be able to justify the first dredging as “channel improvements.” But after that, for the sake of the community, we need to find a way to make this program sustainable. Paying interest for ongoing operations is unwise.
Cost Sharing and 5-Year Intervals Can Make It More Doable than Avoidable
In 2000 Brown & Root, recommended dredging every 5 years – a perfect match for a venture with five partners. If each budgeted one fifth of the cost annually, and you did only one fifth of the job each year, this just might be more doable than avoidable. (Avoidance seems to have been the preferred approach in the past.)
We can’t budget sediment management forever on an emergency basis. That’s like using an emergency room for basic medical care. It’s probably not the best idea, nor the most cost effective. So let’s begin the dialog with stakeholders. As Grandma used to say, “An ounce of prevention…”
Posted on July 13, 2018 by Bob Rehak
318 Days since Hurricane Harvey
00adminadmin2018-07-13 09:33:352018-07-13 11:40:46Need for Sediment Management Planning
County Position on More Detention, Dredging and Gates for Flood Bond
Today, I received feedback from Harris County on adding “more detention, dredging and gates” (Plea for DDG) to the upcoming flood bond referendum. The good news: Additional dredging, detention and gates will be achievable within the bond. The bad news: based on the feedback, there is still one hurdle to clear: finding partners to share dredging costs.
The mouth bar where the West Fork meets Lake Houston. Fosters Mill and King’s Point are in the background.
Background on Plea for DDG: Detention, Dredging and Gates
You may recall that RecoverLakeHouston, the Lake Houston Area Chamber, and the Lake Houston Area Grass Roots Flood Prevention Initiative (as well as I) all lined up to support the Plea for DDG. The idea: during floods, more detention, dredging and gates would reduce input, increase throughput and speed up output.
Giant Turnout
The community turned out in force to support the initiative. The response literally overwhelmed county officials at the meeting. Seven to eight hundred people attended, making it the most attended of all the watershed meetings to date. Typically, meetings have been drawing one to two hundred people according to those who have attended multiple meetings.
Because of the large number of attendees in Kingwood and the open house format, many people felt the meeting was somewhat chaotic. Worse, some attendees received feedback from a small number of the county employees who mistakenly told them that dredging was NOT possible under the bond.
Clearing up the Confusion
I received this email from the county today. It clarifies their position on all three requests:
Thank you for your input in support of #PleaForDDG for the San Jacinto River watershed. Your submission has been recorded and considered by the Harris County Flood Control District staff.
With regard to drainage improvements for the the San Jacinto River watershed, the Flood Control District is partnering with Montgomery County, the City of Houston and the San Jacinto River Authority to determine short-term and long-term improvements, such as:
Dredging to restore the San Jacinto River and Lake Houston
On July 6, 2018, the US Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, in the amount of $69,814,060 to remove sediment and debris resulting from Hurricane Harvey from the West Fork of the San Jacinto River. The Bond Program does include funding that could provide a portion of the cost share for any future dredging work on the East Fork/West Fork/Lake Houston area. Any future dredging project would have to be a collaborative effort between the City of Houston, the Coastal Water Authority, and possibly the State of Texas. At this time, no details have been worked out on future dredging. The Flood Control District will update the Bond Program maps to indicate another Partnership Project (green cross symbol) within the San Jacinto River watershed exhibit noting East Fork/West Fork/Lake Houston Dredging. The description will be “Potential Partnership Project with the City of Houston, Coastal Water Authority, and the State of Texas to permit, design, and complete dredging of the East Fork/West Fork/Lake Houston area waterways to reduce flooding risks.” The dollar amount will be shown as $50M from Harris County Flood Control District and TBD (to be determined) for the City of Houston, the Coastal Water Authority, and the State of Texas. The Flood Control District cannot commit nor obligate other agencies to allocate funding due to the fact that there is no agreement in place for the dredging project.
Detention/Sediment Basins West and North of Highway 59
These improvements are included in the list of potential projects within the bond program (see local projects F-88, F-14, and F-15 which will be used for Planning, Right-Of-Way Acquisition, Design and Construction of General Drainage Improvement along the San Jacinto River and Cypress Creek west of Highway 59). For drainage improvements north of Highway 59, the Flood Control District is coordinating with Montgomery County on a watershed study to investigate flooding problems and identify where detention basins could best serve to reduce flooding risks along the San Jacinto River.
Tainter Gates on Lake Houston Dam
On July 10, 2018, as a result of the community input process, the Flood Control District has added a Partnership Project (green cross symbol) to the list of potential projects within the bond program for the design and construction of additional gates. The partners would be the City of Houston and the Coastal Water Authority since they are the entities that have jurisdiction over the lake and the dam structure; our agency does not. The Bond Program could, however, provide partial funding of up to $20M for this effort.
When considering project ideas suggested by the community, the Flood Control District will prioritize projects that meet its mission to provide flood damage reduction projects that work, with appropriate regard for community and natural values. You can learn more about the project ranking criteria on our website: https://www.hcfcd.org/bond-program/community-input/
Thank you again for sharing your input. The bond election will be held on August 25 with early voting on August 8.
After reading this, I emailed Harris County Flood Control for one more clarification. Was spending $50 million on dredging contingent upon finding partners to share the cost? The answer: Yes. Fifty million, they say, is not sufficient by itself to do the dredging necessary.
So Where Does that Leave Us?
Additional gates for Lake Houston seem to be within scope and well supported.
More upstream detention seems to be within scope and also well supported. However, before any action can take place, the San Jacinto Watershed study must be completed. It is rumored to cost around $2 million and has been awaiting funding since late March. Presumably, the County’s share of the funding would come from this bond if it passes. The study would take a year or more to complete.
No one can say at this time what the study’s recommendations would be. So there is some uncertainty surrounding the request for more upstream detention. Please note, however, that other groups further upstream, for instance on Cypress Creek, are also requesting more upstream detention. My feeling? If the bond passes, more upstream detention is very likely. However, of all the projects, detention would take the longest to complete because it involves identifying and acquiring land.
Finally, additional dredging is also within scope and well supported. However, dredging has the highest degree of uncertainty associated with it because it will require partners who have not been approached and who have not committed any dollars.
To reduce uncertainty surrounding dredging before the bond, we would likely have to obtain commitments from one or more other stakeholders who are mentioned in the email above.
Recommended Next Steps
Before the bond referendum, area leaders need to actively seek support from those other stakeholders and communicate the outcome so that voters can make informed decisions about their votes. Of all three measures, dredging could be implemented the quickest.
In the meantime, residents should continue to submit their requests for more detention, dredging and gates. A groundswell of support will help send a message to the county’s potential partners.
Posted July 17, 2018 by Bob Rehak
322 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Sediment Plume from Above the Storm
Looking back to the period immediately after Harvey, check out this NASA photo of a sediment plume coming out of Galveston Bay on 8/31/2017. An astronaut took the photo using a Nikon D4 with a wide angle lens from 216 miles above the Earth.
As Harvey moved away from Houston, note the sediment plumes spilling out of bays in this photo of the Texas Coastline.
Zooming in and boosting contrast. We can see Lake Houston above Galveston Bay on the right of the clouds in the middle.
Technical Data
NASA PHOTO ID iss052e078795.NEF
GMT 2017:08:31 19:23:43
MODEL NIKON D4
Shutter 1/500
Aperture 18.0
ISO Speed 400
Focal Length 24.0 mm
Lens ID AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED
Compensation -1/3
Mission: ISS052 Roll: E Frame: 78795
Country or Geographic Name: USA-TEXAS
Features: HURRICANE HARVEY, HOUSTON, GALVESTON B., MATAGORDA B., FLOODING, DRAINAGE
Center Point: Latitude: 29.0 Longitude: -95.5 (Negative numbers indicate west for longitude)
Spacecraft Altitude: 216 nautical miles
Sun Elevation Angle: 65 (Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point)
Posted on 7/14/2018 by Bob Rehak
319 Days Since Hurricane Harvey
Photo: Courtesy of NASA
Need for Sediment Management Planning
Sand and sediment clog our rivers and lake. “Dredge!” you say.
“Not that simple,” say the experts. “Who will pay for it? How much should we dredge? Where will the sediment go?”
That’s why we need planning for sediment management. We need to dredge the worst parts of the river now; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has already started that as an emergency project. But we also need to dredge other parts of the river that are not quite critical yet. And we need to figure out how to do all this on a regular basis so that it never gets this bad again.
A giant sand dune has formed at the mouth of the west fork of the San Jacinto. It is not being addressed by the Army Corps dredging project but should be. Thousands of homes upstream from this massive blockage flooded during Harvey.
Sediment Management Challenges That Lie Ahead
I have talked about these issues with experts from Harris County Flood Control and USACE. Both say planning is crucial to a successful maintenance dredging/sediment management program. One provided this document: Galveston-Bay-Programmatic-RSM-Plan-Rev-1, as an example of what we need for the San Jacinto. It’s a long document – 112 pages. But it is worth reading the executive summary, introduction and table of contents at the very least. Parts of it discuss the upper reaches of the San Jacinto. But the main value it provides is that it outlines the challenges ahead.
All of these are difficult questions. Starting such an extensive program is like starting a new business.
Budgeting Comes First
A business plan and budgeting are the first issues we need to address. Where will the money for all this come from? Without answering that first, everything else is moot.
So who are the stakeholders?
Expecting all costs to be covered by the Harris County Flood Bond in perpetuity is just wishful and foolish thinking. The bond is for capital projects, not ongoing maintenance. You might be able to justify the first dredging as “channel improvements.” But after that, for the sake of the community, we need to find a way to make this program sustainable. Paying interest for ongoing operations is unwise.
Cost Sharing and 5-Year Intervals Can Make It More Doable than Avoidable
In 2000 Brown & Root, recommended dredging every 5 years – a perfect match for a venture with five partners. If each budgeted one fifth of the cost annually, and you did only one fifth of the job each year, this just might be more doable than avoidable. (Avoidance seems to have been the preferred approach in the past.)
We can’t budget sediment management forever on an emergency basis. That’s like using an emergency room for basic medical care. It’s probably not the best idea, nor the most cost effective. So let’s begin the dialog with stakeholders. As Grandma used to say, “An ounce of prevention…”
Posted on July 13, 2018 by Bob Rehak
318 Days since Hurricane Harvey