Two Images Explain Why We Need a Watershed-Wide Flood Agency
6/9/25 – While re-reading the final version of the state flood plan recently I came across two images that explain why we need a watershed-wide flood agency. Unfortunately, a bill to create one, HB2068, died in the House Natural Resources committee this session.
Floodplain-Management Practices and Enforcement in Texas
The first image shows the level of (self-reported) floodplain management practices for every county in the state. I’ve circled the general area of the San Jacinto River Basin. Note how most of the counties draining into Harris County (dark blue in center of oval) report lower levels of floodplain management practices than those in Harris County itself.

Now look at the levels of floodplain regulation enforcement. Again, most of the counties draining into Harris County (dark red in oval) report lower levels of enforcement.
Critically, the levels in Montgomery County are “unknown” in both maps.

That doesn’t make them non-existent. It likely means one of two things: 1) they weren’t enough of a priority for the county to respond to the survey. Or 2) the county did not know whether/when Commissioners Court would approve its new drainage regulations.
MoCo still has not adopted comprehensive new drainage recommendations since the 1980s despite some of the fastest growth in the region. The drainage criteria manual currently posted is dated 2019, but contains only minor updates to 1989 regulations.
Valid Reasons for Drainage Regs to Differ
Valid reasons exist for drainage regulations to vary. Take for instance rainfall rates and land use. Rainfall rates generally decline as you go north and west from Harris County. And land use varies from an ultra-dense urban environment to forests, prairie and agricultural.
Regardless, within a river basin, people are inextricably bound together by water that does not respect jurisdictional boundaries. And we need to find ways of living together that respect growth, change and property rights, while also respecting neighbor’s rights to safety.
What our neighbors upstream do affects us, just as what we do affects our neighbors downstream.
Society establishes rules that help people live together without destroying each other. Consider rules of the road, property rights and criminal law for instance.
Would you say it’s OK for a neighbor to throw their trash on your property because they don’t want to pay to haul it away?
Most homeowners would say no. But illegal dumping happens all the time. Just like a few bad-apples want to dump their excess stormwater on your property.
Individual Rights vs. Common Good
People don’t want other people telling them what to do. Especially Texans. And that’s why Texas more people live in floodplains than the entire populations of 30 states.
We need to find solutions that respect individual rights and the common good. Philosophers have debated those extremes for more than 2000 years, dating back to Plato and Aristotle. But from a psychological point of view, it’s probably safe to say that it’s usually someone else’s problem … until it happens to you.
And eventually, the way Texas is growing, someday it will. As Houston grows outward, so do our flooding problems. And those problems are almost impossible to fix after the fact. That’s why we need a watershed-wide flood agency.
To educate. And to promulgate sensible solutions in concert with County Engineering Departments or Flood Control Districts. Local authorities would then be free to accept or reject those solutions based on the will of their constituents.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/9/2025
2841 Days since Hurricane Harvey