When last I checked on the status of Perry Homes’ Woodridge Village project in Montgomery County north of Elm Grove, contractors were still putting the finishing touches on detention ponds. Since then, Perry has:
Erected chain-link fencing with barbed wire around the perimeter
Planted some grass to stabilize the soil
Removed all construction equipment from the site.
More Than a Year After Imelda, Still No Deal
Perry is waiting to see if Harris County and the City will be able to finalize a deal to purchase the site and turn it into a regional detention basin. The three sides have been talking for more than a year. The project twice contributed to flooding Elm Grove last year after Perry cleared the land but before they built all of the required detention capacity.
Now that they’re finished though, they still have only 60% of what they need. That’s because the company rushed to get the project permitted before new, higher Atlas-14 regulations went into effect.
In February this year, the City declined to consider purchasing Woodridge Village. The City said it was the County’s responsibility because voters passed a flood bond, even though the City had approved Perry’s plans even before LJA’s drainage analysis had been submitted.
In the meantime, Perry Homes hinted to Elm Grove leaders that, “It sure would be nice if all those lawsuits went away.” Perry Homes also still has a “For Sale” sign up on the property, although the listing company does not show the property on their website.
Entrance to Woodridge Village from Woodland Hills.
This all reminds me of a line from one of my favorite movies. “Once the plan gets too complex, everything can go wrong.”
Walter Sobchak in Big Lebowski
At this rate, the 60% solution may stay the 60% solution for a long time. Certainly, the lawsuits show no sign of going away any time soon. The Harris County District Clerk’s website (see CAUSE NO. 2019-33415) has seen a flurry of filings in recent months.
Current Pics
Here’s how the site looks today.
Looking east over S1 towards S2, the two detention ponds on the southern border of Woodridge Village.Looking north along the eastern border toward N3, the third pond on the northern section.Where the northeastern portion of the site drains into the head of N3. Note security fence around perimeter.Looking south along N3 toward Taylor Gully in the background.Looking east along the northern border toward Ford Road in Porter.Looking west along the northern borderLooking southwest across the northern portion of Woodridge Village, with N3 on the left.N1, the first detention pond on the northern section of Woodridge VillageThe massive N2 pond along the southwestern border of the northern section.
One of the most beautiful parts of Kingwood also helps protect the area from flooding: East End Park. If you’ve never seen it, you should. The park comprises 158 acres and contains about five miles of nature trails. With the help of boardwalks, the trails wind through wetlands that form the perimeter of the park.
Those wetlands help slow runoff during storms. And the park itself puts distance and elevation between the East Fork of the San Jacinto and the nearest homes.
Park Almost Became Another Subdivision During 1980s
The park was not always destined to become a park. Originally Friendswood Development wanted to build another subdivision where the park is now. As Friendswood cut streets in nearby Kings Point, they dumped the extra dirt in what is now the park’s giant meadow. That’s why it’s so much higher than surrounding wetlands.
These meadows comprise approximately 45 acres of tall grass, an abundant food source for migrating birds.Looking south. The East Fork San Jacinto is on the left. Sand damage from Harvey and Imelda at Eagle Point is in the foreground.Birdhouses once 10-feet up on trees are now at ankle height.Looking west from the north side of the park on the left. The East Fork (out of frame to the right) and Caney Creek converge at East End Park’s Eagle Point.Also to the right is the 5000-acre Lake Houston Nature Park.Looking south again. The East Fork on the left empties into Lake Houston in background. Trails border the river within the trees.
But in 1988, the EPA issued a cease and desist order because they were jeopardizing the wetlands. Blocked from further development, Friendswood tried to turn a problem into an amenity that could add value to homebuyers. The company donated the land to the Kingwood Service Association to own and operate as a park for the benefit of all Kingwood residents.
Development as Nature Park in 2000s
Not much happened with the park for about a decade. Then KSA, with the help of volunteer groups, like the Boy Scouts, started building a small trail network, mostly on the north side of the park.
Around 2000, KSA debated the future of the remainder of the park. Should they turn it into more sports fields? Or keep it a nature park? The nature park faction won out. And for the next fifteen years, KSA slowly built new trails and improved old ones as money became available.
Birder’s Wonderland
The Lake Houston Nature Club has documented approximately 150 species of birds in the park, some threatened or endangered. In season, birders seem everywhere. Migrating birds munch on the abundant tall grass which seems to go to seed just in time for the migration.
In the park, I’ve spotted everything from painted buntings to majestic bald eagles. In fact, part of the park is named Eagle Point because of the frequent eagle sightings there.
Healing Power of Nature
Shortly after KSA put in the Eagle Point Trail, I encountered a man sitting in the same place on the river bank day after day. I asked him what his attraction was to that particular place. He said that it helped him heal. I asked if he wanted to explain that. He said he was undergoing treatment for cancer and the the beauty gave him the will to go on living. I suspect he’s not the only one who has found sustenance in nature there.
One often sees families walking with young children there. I also suspect kids learn to translate the love they feel from parents on such walks into a lifelong love of nature.
Living Lessons
Sadly both Harvey and Imelda completely inundated the park. Eagle Point became covered with 10-15 feet of sand which killed many of the trees there and filled in some of the wetlands. Regardless, the park remains a natural gem and a living lesson about the cycles of nature.
The pictures below show some of the natural beauty. To get to the park, take Kingwood Drive east until you run out of road. You can see the park entrance from the parking lot.
East End Park poster.
Sunrise over Lake Houston from Kingwood’s East End Park at Otter Point. By Dr. Charles Campbell.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/8/2020
1168 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 416 since Imelda
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20201023-DJI_0896-copy.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=19001200adminadmin2020-11-07 19:26:012020-11-08 10:40:39East End Park from the Air: A Wetlands Success Story
Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin issued a newsletter today aboutabout the Army Corps’ Coastal Protection Study. The City, he says, has worked with its civic, business, state and federal partners ever since Hurricane Ike in September 2008 on this project. “Hurricane Laura, renewed the sense of urgency with our federal partners,” said Martin. “We need collectively to identify a single path forward and focus all our energy and resources into ramping that project up and moving it forward.”
Texas Ranks as Third Most Vulnerable State to Hurricanes
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ranks Texas as the third most vulnerable state to hurricanes when ranked by property value.
Destruction on Bolivar Peninsula After Hurricane Ike. Looking south toward Gulf. Ike scoured infrastructure right out of the ground. Storm surge reached almost all the way to I-10 and swept buildings off their foundations more than 10 miles inland.Destruction on Bolivar Peninsula After Hurricane Ike. Looking north toward Bay. Nothing was left standing for miles.
Ike went right up the throat of Galveston Bay. Had the storm come in 30 miles west, the refineries from Texas City to Deer Park, Pasadena and Baytown could have looked like the photos above. That would have been an environmental disaster of the highest order.
Corps Releases Coastal Protection Study, Seeks Public Comment
The Corps will hold six, virtual, public meetings for comments. Each will require registration to participate. They will hold the first of the virtual public meetings on Monday, November 16, 2020 from 11am to 1pm.
Interested participants who cannot make the meetings, can submit comments by emailing coastaltexas@usace.army.mil. All comments must be postmarked by December 14, 2020. Written comments can be mailed to:
USACE, Galveston District
Attention: Mr. Jeff Pinsky
Environmental Compliance Branch Regional
Planning and Environmental Center
Post Office Box 1229
Galveston, Texas 77553-1229
“It is my hope,” said Martin, “that all our local representatives will submit letters of support during this comment period to the Army Corps of Engineers. Once they have expressed support for the Coastal Texas Study, local officials should work with their federal counterparts to ensure the study is approved and subsequent projects authorized once they reach Congress. That should be early in 2021.”
Martin Describes Approval Gauntlet
“At the State level, we have an excellent state sponsor for the plan in the General Land Office (GLO). The GLO serves as the local advocate for coastal communities and the state-level partner with the USACE,” says Martin “In January, the Texas State Legislature will be continuing its work towards getting a workable plan approved for our protection.”
Martin added that at the Federal level, we now have a comprehensive surge protection plan moving through the USACE approval process. This plan provides an estimated $2 of benefits for every $1 spent. That ratio makes the proposed barrier system competitive as a national priority for Congressional approval and funding, claims Martin.
Specifically, the Legislature will be looking at advancing different funding strategies for our barrier system, including using Resilience Bonds to capture value through avoided losses. These large infrastructure projects take many years to design, develop, and construct. But we are closer now than ever to having a workable solution for our region, says Martin. “The prize is at hand, and we mustn’t allow ourselves to get distracted!”
“Our local business and civic leaders must stay focused, vigilant, and engaged in the process to inform themselves of the opportunities we have,” says Martin. “They must also help educate other Houstonians on the ways we can protect our communities to make the Houston an even more desirable place to live and work.”
Where To Find the Study and Some Key Conclusions
Here’s a link to the executive summary of the proposal. Significantly, the plan is no longer a monolithic dike stretching along the entire coastline. It contains both natural and man-made elements. USACE has abandoned the plan of building a wall along SH87 that stretches from Bolivar Flats to High Island. That was dropped from the plan to minimize both social and environmental impacts. Instead, the Bolivar and Galveston beach and dune systems will be increased in size to reduce storm surge impacts.
That area is one of the richest wildlife areas in the state. Millions of birds migrate to the coastal marshes there every year. They depend on the wetlands to fish and nest.
Tens of thousands of geese take to the wing at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge after Hurricane Ike.Proud new parents
The Corps’ Coastal Protection Study lays out a plan to restore degraded ecosystems to create natural buffers that protect communities and industry on the Texas coast from erosion, subsidence, and storm losses. It includes approximately 114 miles of breakwaters, 15 miles of bird rookery islands, 2,000 acres of marsh, 12 miles of oyster reef, and almost 20 miles of beach and dune.
The plan varies by coastal region and takes in everything between Beaumont and Brownsville.
The total cost: $26 billion. But it would reduce flood damaged structures by 77% in a 1% (100-year) event, and save an estimated $2.25 billion per year during the 50-year life of the project.
If authorized and funded by Congress, subsequent phases of the project would include preliminary engineering and design; construction; and operations and maintenance. Completion of preliminary engineering and construction of the Recommended Plan would depend on Congressional approval and funding. USACE believes the recommended plan could be designed and then constructed within 12 to 20 years.
Meeting Dates, Must Register First
The Corps will hold the six meetings on:
Monday, November 16, 2020 from 11:00AM to 1:00PM and from 6:00PM to 8:00PM
Thursday, December 3, 2020 from 11:00AM to 1:00PM and from 6:00PM to 8:00PM
Tuesday, December 8, 2020 from 11:00AM to 1:00PM and from 6:00PM to 8:00PM
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/7/2020
1166 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Hurricane-Ike-358.jpg?fit=1500%2C998&ssl=19981500adminadmin2020-11-06 22:48:562020-11-06 23:09:08Army Corps to Hold Virtual Public Meetings on Coastal Protection Study
A pregnant woman in pain being carried to safety in waist deep water.
Families carrying crying babies on shoulders and hips.
Dazed elderly women and men.
Bewildered pets.
Streets and homes flooded in waist deep water.
People stranded on rooftops.
Rescue boats without motors struggling against currents.
Evacuees carrying belongings in plastic bags and baskets to higher ground.
The rescued, sleeping in pup tents.
Food Supply Jeopardized
Food supply is a real concern according to aid workers. “The country’s road network is badly damaged, airports were closed and much of the Sula valley, the country’s most agriculturally productive, was flooded,” said the story.
Sanitation will be a real issue, too. People are already struggling with Covid.
Landslides Bury Towns
In Guatemala, a landslide in the central part of the country hit the town of San Cristobal Verapaz, burying homes and leaving at least 25 dead. At least another 50 people were missing in two more slides. And government rescue teams had not yet reached the sites.
The impacts of Eta will be as far-reaching and long lasting as Harvey’s. But the people in Central America have far fewer resources to help them recover.
The International Monetary Fund lists the gross domestic product per capita of Honduras at $6,068 dollars. Nicaragua is even less – $5,681.
Please help if you can through your favorite relief organization.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/6/2020 based on an AP story
1165 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-06-at-1.11.01-PM.jpg?fit=1200%2C757&ssl=17571200adminadmin2020-11-06 13:22:552020-11-06 13:33:49Eta Kills At Least 57 in Central America
The 3PM CST update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) on Eta shows the storm emerging into the Bay of Honduras this afternoon as a tropical depression. Then it will intensify into a tropical storm, head to Cuba, and take a left turn into the Gulf. Round and round she goes, where she stops…
Jeff Lindner, Harris County Meteorologist says, “It is possible that Eta may eventually transition toward a sub-tropical system as it becomes increasingly entangled with the upper level trough over the Gulf of Mexico. For now NHC brings the system to a 65mph tropical storm over the Florida straits early next week with some of the intensity guidance showing slightly stronger solutions that would be near hurricane intensity.”
As of this morning, as this WeatherNerds spaghetti model shows, forecasts were all over the place. Later forecasts suggest it may be pushed east of the Houston Region. But again, it’s still a long way off.
So keep your eye on the Gulf. As Yogi Berra used to say, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” What goes for baseball goes for hurricane season – this year especially! Remember, Eta set a record for intensifying from a tropical storm into a major hurricane within hours before slamming into Nicaragua.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/5/2020based on info from the NHC, WeatherNerds and HCFCD.
1164 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/211147_5day_cone_no_line_and_wind.png?fit=897%2C736&ssl=1736897adminadmin2020-11-05 16:48:082020-11-05 16:58:46If You Thought Hurricane Season Was Over, Think Again
Hurricane Harvey deposited a giant sand bar at the mouth of the San Jacinto West Fork that formed a dam behind the dam. More than 3000 feet long and 3000 feet wide, it backed water up into thousands of homes and businesses. Ever since then, removing it has become a major focus of flood mitigation efforts in the Lake Houston Area.
As of this morning, virtually all of the above water portion was gone. So were there two excavators working on it last month. The portions that remain are so narrow that they are starting to crumble into the lake. The remainder of the job will likely have to be performed from pontoons. See the pictures below, all taken on 11/5/2020.
Looking downstream toward FM1960 Bridge. At the start of the current phase of dredging, the little island on the left used to fill the entire foreground and stretch from one edge of the frame to the other.As the mouth bar crumbles into the lake, workers needed railroad ties to stabilize the land long enough to get their excavator onto a pontoon.Looking upstream toward the West Lake Houston Parkway bridge. The Mouth Bar used to fill the whole area in the foreground. Contractors should finish in the next week or so at the rate they have been working. There’s perhaps 50-100 feet in length and 10 feet in width left.
What you see in the photo above is the last of an estimated 400,000 cubic yards that the City of Houston is removing.
With the above water portion of the bar removed, it will be more difficult to visualize the problem from now on. But sand bars are like ice bergs. The majority of them lurks beneath the surface. And an underwater plateau still remains. It stretches from the foreground in the photo above almost all the way to the bridge in the background.
The graph below shows what it looks like. The blue line represents the water level. The gold line represents the deepest part of the channel from where the Corps finished hydraulic dredging in September 2019 down to the FM1960 bridge.
Data compiled by RD Kissling and Tim Garfield use sonar and a 14 foot pole. The plateau stretches 3 miles. Removing the entire thing would be impossible, but a channel could be dredged through it that reconnects the river and lake.
Stephen Costello, the City’s flood czar, is working to formulate plans for the next phase of dredging and hopes to announce them this month. FEMA has said that it will pay for dredging an additional million cubic yards from the mouth bar area.
Current Spoils Going to Good Use – Expanding FM1960
Currently, the spoils are being moved upstream to Berry Madden’s property on the south side of the river, opposite River Grove Park in Kingwood. Madden has plenty of room for more. See below. He says that TxDoT will use spoils currently stored on his property to widen FM1960. That project should start in the next few days. He also says that TxDoT estimates they will use spoils at the rate that dredgers are currently bringing them to his property.
Mouth bar spoils on Berry Madden’s property between West Fork and FM1960
That should create even more room for storage on Madden’s property.
Next Dredging Targets
In addition to dredging a channel through the mouth bar, the City still needs to open up the mouths of several streams and drainage channels around Lake Houston. Rogers Gully, for instance, has formed it’s own mouth bar. See below.
Rogers Gully Mouth Bar. Photo taken July, 2020.
The City also needs somehow to address the dramatic growth of an East Fork San Jacinto Mouth Bar that grew 4,000 feet during Imelda.
Looking north at East Fork Mouth Bar south of East End Park. The blue water tower in the background is on Kingwood Drive.
Kudos to Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin, State Representative Dan Huberty, State Senator Brandon Creighton, and U.S. Congressman Dan Crenshaw who have worked tirelessly to address these issues since Harvey.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/5/2020
1164 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20201105-DJI_0072.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=19001200adminadmin2020-11-05 13:47:582020-11-05 13:55:48Three Years Later, Above-Water Portion of West Fork Mouth Bar Virtually Gone
George P. Bush, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office (GLO), announced a 30-day extension of a deadline for renegotiating its contract with the City of Houston for a variety of Harvey Recovery Programs. The new contract would let the City keep some of the programs it had been working on while returning others to the GLO.
By tag-teaming remaining work, GLO hopes to expend all available funds before HUD pulls back unspent money out of the $1.3 billion it allocated for aid within the City.
GLO worries about the slow rate of City’s progress and whether the City can meet HUD deadlines.
The City, on the other hand, keeps insisting it is about to speed up as it falls farther behind.
When HUD attempted to pull the programs away from the City, the City filed a lawsuit to prevent that. At stake: millions in management fees for the City and hundreds of millions in aid for Harvey victims.
Last month, Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin hinted that changes could be in the wind, but refused to release details until HUD and the GLO approved them.
Homeowners Worry About Cloud Over Programs
Meanwhile the cloud hanging over the programs worries thousands of homeowners who:
Qualified for aid but were not invited to submit an application
Have not been notified of their application’s status
Can’t get phone calls or emails returned from the City.
As of November 3, 2020, the City reports $776 million in available funds not yet committed for projects.
Three years after Harvey, the City reports it has issued only 82 reimbursement checks to homeowners for a total of $1.4 million. Either that number has not changed or the City has not updated it since October 23rd when I last posted on this subject. Neither has City updated the number of applications in its “pipeline” since August 31, 2020.
The GLO/CoH contract extension will let both sides work out a new plan that doesn’t leave disaster victims in limbo.
Statement from GLO Commissioner Bush
Commissioner Bush said: “The GLO has preliminarily agreed on the framework of an agreement with the City of Houston in the effort to help Houstonians recover from the worst natural disaster in our state’s history. The GLO has agreed to extend the current deadline for termination of the existing contract to better facilitate completion of this new agreement.”
Bush added, “The GLO’s focus continues to be making significant progress in putting federal dollars to work for the people of Houston. The GLO remains committed to helping Houston residents who are still in need of assistance with repair or reconstruction as well as moving other programs forward to successful completion within HUD’s mandatory timeline.”
GLO Still Taking Applications for Homeowner Assistance Program
In the meantime, the GLO will continue to operate the Homeowner Assistance Program to rebuild single family homes for Houston homeowners still needing assistance related to damage from Hurricane Harvey. Houston homeowners with a remaining Hurricane Harvey Housing need may find more information and apply at recovery.texas.gov/hap/houston.
Photo by Camille Pagel. Her children helped gut the kitchen instead of going to school after the Harvey flood.
GLO established the site above to help Harvey victims who have not yet submitted applications. Those who previously submitted applications which have become lost in space should call the numbers listed on the GLO site to determine their best course of action.
Note: the extension above affects contract negotiations between the City and GLO. It does not affect program deadlines.
Full Text of Interim Operations Agreement Between City, GLO
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Camille-Pagel-1.jpg?fit=800%2C1067&ssl=11067800adminadmin2020-11-04 17:58:102020-11-04 18:31:00GLO, City of Houston Agree to 30-Day Extension While They Work Out New Contract for Harvey Relief
The case of Emil C. Shebelbon, II v. Upstream Holdings, LLC ET AL (Montgomery County Cause No. 15-10-10710) provides fascinating new insights into how sand mines can affect flooding. This case is NOT about broken dikes, unauthorized discharges of sediment-laden water, or mines inundated by super-storms such as Hurricane Harvey. It involves the opposite of all those things. Yet it still has implications for state regulations – or lack thereof. Specifically, I’m talking about setbacks of mines from rivers, lack of best management practices, reclamation of mines after the completion of mining and monitoring of floodway development.
All of the mines around Shebelbon’s property (bottom center) lie completely within the West Fork floodway (cross-hatched area). Development in floodways should not impede flow.
Defendants in this case appear to have filled in or walled off more than 200 acres of floodway property north of Shebelbon. That should have raised eyebrows from Washington to Conroe City Hall, but didn’t.
Two sand mines north of Shebelbon occupy more than 200 acres of floodway. The one closest to I-45 has been abandoned without remediation. Mining debris still litters the site. Shebelbon’s property lies immediately to the south, across the river.
Plaintiff’s Property Did Not Fill Floodway
The plaintiff in this case, Emil Shebelbon, purchased approximately 200 acres of land on the southwest corner of the San Jacinto West Fork and I-45 North about 20 years ago. He operates a motorsports facility there with dirt tracks and jumps for cyclists. Most of his land is in the floodway at the original level. He did not bring in fill. However, he did push some dirt into mounds to create the jumps. Very little impervious cover exists. It resembles a park. If you were going to build a business in the floodway, this is one of the few you might consider. It does not obstruct floodwater.
Increase in Flood Frequency, Depth and Erosion
When Shebelbon bought his land, everything north of him was farm, ranch or forest land. Then one mine came in and another. They expanded and started building up their property or walling it off from the floodway with dikes.
Shebelbon soon started to notice an increase in the depth and frequency of floods. He also started to lose land to erosion during statistically small floods.
Allegations in Lawsuit
Shebelbon’s lawsuit alleges that:
Mines blocked half of the floodway, forcing their flood water south onto his property, a violation of state law.
Cutting the floodway width in half forced floodwaters up to 3-4 feet higher on his property.
The increased flow in a smaller area increased the velocity of floodwaters.
That increased what hydrologists call “sheer stress,” the force necessary to start erosion.
Modeling showed shear stresses increased upwards of 0.5 pounds per square foot. The hydrologists claim that’s enough to cause substantial land and bank erosion near and within the Shebelbon Property. That, in turn, widened the river, eroding Shebelbon’s property, they say. Shebelbon estimates he lost seven acres due to erosion caused by constriction of the floodway (see photos below).
The mine north of Shebelbon’s property on the San Jacinto West Fork. Shebelbon’s property is out of frame to the right, underneath the nose of the helicopter. To visualize the height of the dikes, compare activity in the red circle with the following photo.A dredging expert estimates that the height of the berm at this point is 50-60 feet based on the size of the dredge. Note: this photo and the one above were taken on April 21, 2020, more than a year after the hydrologist’s study. Dikes here are likely taller than 2018 LIDAR data in the study indicates.
Federal, state, county, and city regulations all prohibit restricting the conveyance of floodways. So how did this get permitted? That will be the subject of another post.
Court documents show that the mines deny any connection to Shebelbon’s damages. They issued simple, general denials and are fighting Shebelbon tooth and nail.
Surprising Expert Witness Testimony
Shebelbon, however, has produced hundreds of pages of expert witness testimony to support his claims. This 197-page document downloaded from the Montgomery County Clerk’s office contains the testimony of several experts. For this post, I’m focusing on Exhibit E-22: Flood Impacts from Surrounding Activities, prepared by Dr. David T. Williams and Dr. Gerald Blackler. Their testimony and credentials run from pages 19 to 101 of the PDF. (Caution: 19 mb download.)
Surprisingly, experts for the plaintiff found that the problem is most visible in smaller floods, i.e., less than 18-year floods. 100-year floods can overtop dikes and spread out. But smaller floods cannot.
Despite hundreds of posts on the relationship between sand mining and flooding, I have not previously focused on the phenomenon described by these experts. But every flood expert I talk to – at local, county and state levels – says their findings make perfect sense.
Looking west.Compare height of dikes on right with river bank on left by Shebelbon’s property.Photo 11/2/2020. Also note how little flood storage capacity is left in ponds.This abandoned sand mine virtually blocks TxDoT’s auxiliary bridge on the north side of the river (upper right).TxDoT commonly uses such auxiliary bridges to convey water in floodplains.Photo 11/2/2020.
Public-Policy Concerns Raised by Shebelbon
Shebelbon’s case has not yet gone to trial. But I see similar situations every time I get in a helicopter. Together, they raise some disturbing public-policy issues. For instance:
Do we need greater setbacks of mines from rivers? Greater setbacks would allow greater expansion of floodwaters and help protect neighboring properties.
Do we need a comprehensive set of best management practices for sand mines that cover reclamation and abandonment? Restoring the natural floodplain instead of leaving an elevated mine next to the freeway might have prevented some of Mr. Shelbelbon’s damages.
What happens when local officials turn a blind eye to those apparently violating regulations? Is there a higher authority to enforce compliance – short of expensive lawsuits?
Hopefully, the TCEQ or State Legislature can address these questions. But it won’t happen without public pressure.
I would simply ask.
Why should miners’ property rights outweigh those of a neighboring business or resident?
Food for thought as we approach the upcoming legislative session!
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/4/2020
1163 Days after Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/20200421-RJR_0628.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2020-11-03 22:42:522020-11-04 10:58:45Expert Witnesses Model Surprising Flood Risks in Sand Mine Lawsuit
At the October 27, 2020 Harris County Commissioners Court meeting, Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia introduced a motion from the floor to explore using flood bond funds for maintenance projects. The motion was not on the agenda, nor did he circulate it before the meeting. It caught some commissioners off guard. Minor changes in wording between what the motion said, and how Garcia and Commissioner Rodney Ellis described it, will keep court watchers guessing about their true intent.
Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia
In the end, the motion passed. It didn’t commit commissioners to anything more than conducting a survey and exploring options. However, last Tuesday’s discussion gives voters a peak over the horizon. It reveals what commissioners think and how desperate some are to find new sources of revenue rather than reign in runaway spending.
Garcia Explains Rationale for Motion
View the discussion yourself online.Click on Departments (Part 4 of 5). Start at approximately 4:21 into that segment. Below is a close transcription.
Adrian Garcia: The flood control district has developed the future operations and maintenance needs for the projects that the district will be constructing using the bond program. The overall need for the next 10 years is ninety seven million, with an average annual budget increase need of approximately 10 million per year. Major infrastructure that the control district owned and maintained are detention ponds, earthen channels, concrete channels, and outfall. It’s extremely important that the county funds the proactive maintenance and deferred maintenance for all Harris County owned infrastructure.
I see the spreadsheet that the district has submitted for their 10-year, cost-increase projections for bond projects and growth only as of 10/16 of this year. I am curious as to why some of the heavy equipment, the vehicles, management software implementation, the customer service, the (garbled) software, large repair projects, why these couldn’t be paid out of the bond funding [Emphasis Added, see below] versus using general-fund dollars?
And so I’d like to propose a motion that would touch on the customer-service satisfaction aspect of the flood control district. (Interruption) …
…so the customer-service satisfaction model, the risk-based model and the deferred-maintenance model.
Garcia Proposes Motion
Adrian Garcia: And so my proposed motions would read that Harris County flood control district should perform a customer satisfaction survey for deferred maintenance and services to develop the maintenance cycle and overall maintenance budget needs.
The flood control district should develop an overall condition assessment for the infrastructure and based on the risk of failure and risk of potential flooding, the flood control district should develop a prioritized criteria and maintenance-needs budget and the Harris county flood control district needs to take a comprehensive look at the condition of all existing infrastructure and identify maintenance needs that have been deferred for years due to budgetary or any other reason. There are many areas where repair work can be significantly large and may also qualify for a capital project. And the Budget Management Department needs to evaluate if we can fund this through a bond program [Emphasis Added, see below].
So that’s the motion I’d like to propose.
Judge, just make sure that we’re not forgetting how to maybe better deal with the O&M (operations and maintenance) side of the Flood Control District’s operations.
Ellis Wants Maintenance Tied to “Equity” Scheme
Rodney Ellis: Second. It also brings to my mind the question of, “How much of the flood bond money was spent before we adopted the equity guidelines?”
Harris County Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Ellis
Matt Zeve (Deputy Exec Director, HCFCD): Yes, sir, Commissioner. My staff and I are working on getting those numbers over to you by the end of the week, plus all the other questions that you asked us to dig into. We plan to have that over to you before the end of the week.
Rodney Ellis: And Commissioner (Garcia), I only ask because it relates to the issue. Let’s say if a half a billion, five hundred million was spent before we adopted equity guidelines, I know the city is trying to get us to do some swap. They don’t have equity guidelines as it relates to that … some other project in another county … and I’m going to propose that they give us a recommendation or I’ll come up with one so that we make up a project that will fund it in the absence of equity guidelines, possibly in an equitable way. And money was taken off the top while we were coming up with guidelines, and I want to compensate for that going forward. And that ties in with what you’re doing today.
Hidalgo: So there’s a motion and a second…
Cagle Objects Because Motion Isn’t in Writing
Cagle: Was it sent around, Judge? (Meaning, “Was the motion circulated so that commissioners could see in writing what they were voting for?”)
Adrian Garcia: It’s coming around now, Commissioner.
Cagle: I’ll hold off until I see it.
Hidalgo: We can circle back (before taking a vote).
One Hour Later, Motion Passes
Approximately an hour later, at time code 5:23:50, Hidalgo finally circles back to Garcia’s motion.
Commissioner Jack Cagle asks Commissioner Garcia if he discussed his motion with the leaders of the flood control district. Answer: “Some of it.”
Cagle then states, “It’s asking for an assessment. I don’t have an issue with that.”
Commissioner Radack asks whether it could be implemented without coming back to court.
Robert Soard, speaking for the County Attorney’s office, says that any action on the survey would have to come back through Commissioner’s Court for a vote.
Garcia restates the motion, but this time the wording differs slightly: To direct the Harris County Flood Control District to perform a customer satisfaction survey for deferred maintenance and services (i.e. mowing, desilting, etc.) to develop the maintenance cycle and overall maintenance budget needs, to develop an overall condition assessment for the Infrastructure and based on the risk of failure and risk of potential flooding, HCFCD should develop a prioritization criteria and maintenance needs budget and to take a comprehensive look at the condition of all existing infrastructure and identify maintenance need that has been deferred for years due to budgetary or any other reason. There are many areas where repair work can be significantly large that may also qualify for a Capital Project and Budget Management Department need to evaluate if we can fund these through a Bond Program.
Under Texas law, bond funds from the 2018 referendum can only be used for purposes approved by the voters.
However, as Commissioner Garcia alludes to in the final sentence of his motion, some maintenance projects are so large that they could legitimately be characterized as capital projects. In fact, the 2018 Flood Bond contained three such projects:
F-53 $40 million for “Rehabilitation of Channels Upstream of Addicks Reservoir to Restore Channel Conveyance Capacity”
F-52 $20 million for “Rehabilitation of Approximately 20 Miles of Channels Upstream of Barker Reservoir to Restore Channel Conveyance Capacity”
CI-012 $60 million for “Major Maintenance of Cypress Creek and Tributaries”
Before the 2018 Bond Election, Harris County Flood Control had only a $120 million budget for maintenance, half of which it spent on capital projects. So you can see that those three maintenance projects would have consumed the entire annual maintenance budget by themselves. Clearly, they fall into a gray area.
The three projects above fall under language in the flood bond that allows “channel improvements.” Also HCFCD publicized them as potential projects before the vote.
Is It Wise to Pay for Maintenance With Bond Money?
Ordinarily, it’s a bad idea to pay for maintenance out of 30-year bond funds.
Mr. Garcia’s introduction of the motion mentioned things not in the motion. For instance:
Vehicles
Software
Customer service
The County should never, in my opinion, pay for those with a 30-year bond. Neither should the bond pay for mowing, which WAS in the motion.
It’s literally like taking out a mortgage to cut your grass. A week later, you’re back where you started and saddled with 30 years of debt.
A New Bond?
Above, I bolded “THE BOND” and “A BOND.” At first, Commissioner Garcia said he wanted to use money from THE BOND (meaning the 2018) bond to pay for some maintenance items. But his actual motion refers to “A BOND.”
That’s certainly a strange way to refer to the historic flood bond passed in 2018. It sounds as though he’s laying the groundwork to float another flood bond.
Rodney Ellis’ rush to second the motion supports the second interpretation. For months, Ellis has consistently carped that there won’t be enough money in the 2018 bond to do all the projects that need doing.
Ellis, Equity Flap and Elm Grove
That’s why Commissioner Ellis redefined “equity” earlier this year. The 2018 Flood Bond specified “equitable distribution of funds.” 88% of people throughout the county voted for that language – thinking they would get their fair share of flood bond money. However, Commissioner Ellis redefined the word to favor the socially vulnerable and penalize others.
Now, Ellis seems to be linking help for Elm Grove to the City of Houston’s adoption of “equity guidelines” comparable to his. He said, “I’m going to propose that they give us a recommendation or I’ll come up with one…” Then he added, “That (meaning equity) ties into what we’re doing here today.” Literally, they are conducting an inventory of maintenance needs and developing a prioritization framework for it.
That framework will no doubt be used to ensure distribution of maintenance dollars according to Mr. Ellis’ definition of equity.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/3/2020
1162 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Garcia.jpg?fit=764%2C586&ssl=1586764adminadmin2020-11-02 23:10:042020-11-03 09:25:39Harris County Commissioners Vote to Explore Using Flood-Bond for Maintenance, Possibly Floating Another Bond
The Monday 10am update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) on Hurricane Eta now predicts the storm will slam Central America then re-emerge into the Caribbean over the Bay of Honduras in the NW Caribbean.
Beyond 96 hours (Saturday), it’s uncertain what the storm will do.
NHC Predicts Cat 4
Eta has become an impressive November hurricane as it continues to undergo rapid strengthening. Low vertical wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures ahead of Eta are expected to allow for continued rapid strengthening during the next 12 to 24 hours. The updated NHC = forecast now calls for Eta to become a category 4 hurricane before it nears the coast of Nicaragua. After landfall, Eta should quickly weaken while it moves over the mountainous terrain of Central America.
Although Eta’s low-level center may not survive after being inland over Central America for so long, most of the global models depict a cyclone over the northwestern Caribbean Sea later this week and into the weekend which appears to develop from at least a part of Eta’s remnants, and the new NHC track forecast shows the system emerging over the northwest Caribbean Sea after 96 h.
However, the uncertainty in the long-range portion of the forecast remains quite high.
Key Messages
Eta is forecast to strengthen to a major hurricane very soon, and additional strengthening is likely before it reaches the northeastern coast of Nicaragua on Tuesday. Catastrophic wind damage is expected where Etas eyewall moves onshore, and preparations should be rushed to completion within the Hurricane Warning area.
Through Friday evening, heavy rainfall from Eta will likely lead to catastrophic, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding across portions of Central America, along with landslides in areas of higher terrain. Flash and river flooding is also possible across Jamaica, southeast Mexico, El Salvador, southern Haiti, and the Cayman Islands.
A potentially catastrophic and life-threatening storm surge, along with battering waves, is expected along portions of the northeastern coast of Nicaragua near and to the north of where the center makes landfall. Water levels could reach as high as 12 to 18 feet above normal tide levels in some parts of the hurricane warning area. Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/2/2020
1161 Days since Hurricane Harvey
00adminadmin2020-11-02 09:16:282020-11-02 09:16:34Hurricane Eta Now Predicted to Re-emerge over NW Caribbean
