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:

  • 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.

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.

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

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.

  •  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

USGS Report on Peak Streamflows During Harvey Significantly Revises Flood Probabilities

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released a report this week that shows inundation maps, peak streamflows, detailed flood information, and new flood probabilities from Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Harvey, it says, was the most significant multi-day rainfall event in U.S. history, both in scope and peak rainfall amounts, since records began in the 1880s.

Flood during Harvey looking east from the south side of the West Fork of the San Jacinto. Photo courtesy of Harris County Flood Control District.

Hurricane Harvey’s widespread 8-day rainfall, which started on August 25, 2017, exceeded 60 inches in some locations. That’s about 15 inches more than average annual amounts of rainfall for eastern Texas and the Texas coast. The area affected was also much larger than previous events.

New High Water Marks and Record Streamflows

USGS field crews collected 2,123 high-water marks in 22 counties in southeast Texas and three parishes across southwest Louisiana.

Record streamflows were measured at 40 USGS streamgages in Texas that have been in operation at least 15 years. At two streamgage locations, scientists determined that the percent chance for flooding of this magnitude to happen in any given year was 0.2 percent. This probability is also referred to as a 500-year flood. Thirty other USGS streamgages experienced flooding at levels with a 1 percent chance of occurring each year, also known as a 100-year flood.

Check out the “event viewer” noted in the report, especially if you are interested in high water marks in your neighborhood.

How Data Will Be Used

The USGS conducts research on the physical and statistical characteristics of flooding, estimating the probability of flooding at locations around the United States.

The purpose of the study was to check the probability of future occurrences and map the extent of flooding in Texas.

These records will assist officials in updating building codes, planning evacuation routes, creating floodplain management ordinances, providing environmental assessments and planning other community efforts to become more flood-resilient. FEMA will also use this information to revise their Flood Insurance Rate Maps. These maps help identify areas most likely to experience flooding in any given year.

Gages Closest to Lake Houston

The section on the San Jacinto Watershed starts on page 33. The maps for the San Jacinto watershed appear on pages 35 and 36. Use the maps to see the new high water marks in the area and to find the USGS gages nearest you. For most people in the upper Lake Houston Area, it will be one of these gages:

  • 08068090 – Grand Parkway and West Fork near Porter
  • 08069500 – West Fork and I-69 near Humble/Kingwood
  • 08070500 – Caney Creek near Splendora
  • 08069000 – Cypress Creek near Westfield
  • 08068500 – Spring Creek near Spring
  • 08071000 – Peach Creek near Splendora
  • 08070200 – East Fork near New Caney
  • 08071280 – Luce Bayou above Lake Houston near Huffman

After you locate the gages nearest you, cross reference the numbers of those gages with data at the front of the report. It helps to use the search function in Adobe Acrobat because much of the information is in tables with very small type.

Examples of What You Will Find

Here’s an example of what you can find. For the gage nearest many of the sand mines on the West Fork (08068090), peak streamflow was estimated at 131,000 cubic feet per second. That was the highest of the 33 peaks previously observed at that location (from Table 3 on Page 9).

Now here’s the big news: From the same table, we can see that the Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) is 2.4.  That’s the likelihood of occurrence of a flood of given size or larger occurring in any one year, expressed as a percentage.

AEP is often expressed as the reciprocal of ARI (Average Recurrence Interval). For instance, A 10-year flood has a 10 percent probability of occurring in any given year, a 50-year event a 2% probabaility, a 100-year event a 1% probability, and a 500-year event a .2% probability.

In this case, a 2.4% AEP would have a likely recurrence interval of 42 years, given the new realities of upstream development, any changes in climate, and pocket calculators with more computing power. This means that the West Fork Gage ((08068090) at the Grand Parkway DID NOT even experience a 100-year flood! Yes, we can expect to see worse in the future.

That’s a far cry from the 1,000-year flood that some talked about earlier and raises real public policy questions about locating sand mines in floodways.

Despite the fact that Harvey was the largest rainfall event in recorded U.S. history, USGS now predicts that it would take even bigger floods to reach the reconfigured 100-year, 200-year and 500-year recurrence intervals: 196,000, 263,000 and 374,000 cfs respectively for West Fork Gage at Grand Parkway (Gage #08068090 from Table 5, Page 14). So the new 500-year flood would have almost triple the volume of Harvey.

Humble Gage Data Missing From Report

Unfortunately, the Humble Gage at I-69 does not show up in the tables even though it is on the map and the cover of the report. This is likely in part due to the fact that the gage stopped reporting during the event due to the excessive streamflow

They may also have not reported the exceedance probability due to the shorter recent record.

For all the other gages, the Annual Exceedance Probabilities translate to new recurrence intervals ranging from 35 to 250 years. The gages at the low end of that range tend to be in the fastest developing neighborhoods.

Implications of New Findings

The report will stimulate public policy debate about development near rivers and the most effective methods of flood mitigation.

After reading this, I believe more than ever that we need more detention, dredging and gates (DDG). We need all three to help us handle the volumes of floodwater that USGS expects at more frequent intervals. Prayer, while advisable, is a less certain option in my mind than including DDG in the flood bond and passing it.

BTW, there was some confusion Tuesday night at the flood bond meeting. A small number of flood control employees incorrectly told residents that dredging would not be possible under the bond. It will be according to Matt Zeve, whom I contacted today.

Posted July 12, 2018 by Bob Rehak

317 Days since Hurricane Harvey

If You Couldn’t Attend the Harris County Flood Bond Meeting…

The Flood Bond Meeting is over. There was quite a crowd. But many people were on vacation and couldn’t attend. For those of you who could not attend, you can still submit ideas for evaluation – from the beach, from the mountains, even your grandmother’s house. All is not sunk. This is very important. It will determine whether our area gets projects in the bond proposal that will address the root causes of flooding in the San Jacinto Watershed.

The street in front of Trimble’s home as she and her son were being rescued by boat. Avoid a scene like this again by requesting that dredging, detention and flood gates be included in the Harris County Flood Bond.

What to Request

Remember, the things that will help the greatest number of people in the Lake Houston Area are:

  • More upstream detention – to decrease input
  • More dredging – to increase throughput
  • More gates for Lake Houston – for faster output

By all means, if you have additional ideas, submit those too. There is no limit.

For more information, review this post.

When you submit ideas, remember to tell the County that you live in the San Jacinto River Watershed.

How to Request

You can submit ideas up until the start of early voting. But don’t wait. Do it right now so you don’t forget. Tell the County you want more detention, dredging and gates included in the flood bond program by:

Mail:

Harris County Flood Control

ATTN: Bond Program Communications

9900 Northwest Freeway

Houston, Texas 77092

Phone:

713-684-4107

Web:

https://www.hcfcd.org/bond-program/watersheds/san-jacinto-river-bond-program/submit-feedback-san-jacinto-river-watershed/

Whew! Glad That’s Done!

You’ll sleep better if you act now, knowing that you’ve done your civic duty … and actually focused our officials on things that will make a difference for the San Jacinto Watershed.

Posted 7/11/2018 by Bob Rehak

316 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Let’s Flood the Flood-Bond Meeting Tuesday Night

The simplest, most effective thing you can do to reduce flood risk in the Humble/Kingwood/Atascocita area is come to a meeting Tuesday night, July 10 at Kingwood Park High School. From 6-8 p.m., County representatives will be there to explain the upcoming flood bond and listen to your ideas for flood mitigation. You don’t need to stay for the full two hours.

Meeting Format: Open House

The meeting format is “open house.” It will start with brief introductions from County Judge Ed Emmett, who used to live in Kingwood, our County Commissioners and Harris County Flood Control Staff. Then the action will shift to tables throughout the room where you can talk one-on-one with flood control district staff.

Drop in at any point. Get a petition from one of the RecoverLakeHouston representatives. Sign it. Hand it in. Then take your kids out for ice cream and talk about doing your duty for democracy. With cherries on top.

What We Need

The petition talks about the three things that will help this area reduce flooding the most: more upstream detention, dredging and flood gates.

  • More detention means less input during floods.
  • More dredging means greater throughput.
  • More flood gates mean faster output.

It’s the flood mitigation trifecta. Less in. More through. Faster out.

If you have other thoughts, by all means submit those, too.

Step One of a Two-Step Process

Think of this as a two-step process.

  • Step One: Make sure we get the right projects on the ballot.
  • Step Two: Vote on the projects.

Don’t worry about anything else for now. The worst thing that could happen is that the bond package passes without projects that reduce the root causes of flooding in the Lake Houston Area. You get the bill without the benefits. No one wants that.

So suspend disbelief for the moment. We can debate merits and value down the road.

After 315 Days: Your Chance to Make a Difference

This is it. The World Cup of Rivers that Runneth Over.  The Super Bowl of Flood Mitigation. The Sand Jac 500. The Tour De Lake. All rolled into one.

The Harris County Flood Bond is at hand. Let’s flood the room with attendees.

Bring your kids. Bring a neighbor. Bring a friend. Projects follow the votes. Remember: this is democracy in action. So be there or beware.

Posted on 7/10/2018 by Bob Rehak

315 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Voter Registration and Flood Bond Referendum

On August 25, Harris County residents will vote on a historic $2.5 billion flood-bond referendum. But are you eligible to vote? Don’t assume the answer is yes.

How Harvey May Have Affected Your Voting Rights

Many flood victims moved temporarily while their homes were being repaired. Voter registration cards cannot be forwarded, so your card may have been returned to the County registrar as “undeliverable.”

Also, records of people who failed to vote in the last two elections may have been purged.

If you fall into one of those categories, confirm your voter registration status at: https://www.hctax.net/Voter/Search.

If your name comes up with your voter registration ID, you should be good to vote. However, if your record says SUSPENSE or VOTER NOT FOUND, you are in danger of losing your right to vote.

If you aren’t listed as a registered voter in Harris County, you will not be able to vote.

Help Available at Flood Bond Meeting on July 10

Regardless of the cause, if your registration has lapsed or if you are new to the area, Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrars (VDVRs) will be available to help you at the Harris County Flood Bond Meeting on Tuesday, 7/10 from 5:30PM to 8:30PM at Kingwood Park High School. VDVRs will be there to help you confirm your status, update your record or re-register if necessary. VDVRs are not partisan and required by law to register anyone eligible to vote.

Options Available to You

If your voter ID card was returned to the tax office and you are “in suspense,” you must fill out a Statement of Residence (SOR) form.  After filing this form, you can still vote at the early voting sites, however, it is easier if you resolve issues before then.

Voting Dates

Election day is August 25, the anniversary of Harvey. The county clerk has not yet confirmed early voting dates. Polling places may change up until Election Day. Check here for your polling place.

Requirements to Vote

You must be registered in Harris County 30 days prior to the election to vote. You can vote anywhere only during early voting; on Election Day you can vote only at your assigned precinct location. You must show approved ID, or have reasonable cause as t0 why you do not have ID, and sign an affidavit to that fact.

Requests to vote by mail must arrive by mail or fax no later than the 11th day before the election. Ballots must be returned to the county clerk’s office no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

Registration assistants will be at Kingwood Park High School one half hour before the meeting at 5:30 p.m. to help people check registrations and explain options if a problem exists.

Main Purpose of Meeting

The main purpose of the meeting on July 10 is for county officials to explain the referendum to voters and solicit voter input on the types of flood remediation efforts they think will help the most people in this area. Learn more at:

Lake Houston Chamber Launches Plea for DDG

Lake Houston Area’s Most Pressing Needs for Flood Bond Referendum

Top Priorities for Lake Houston Area Flood Mitigation

Bring Friends and Their Friends

A large turnout at this meeting will send a message to elected officials about how important we think flood mitigation is.

Sometime before the election, the Harris County Flood Control District will post the actual recommendations for each part of the county that will be included in the bond package that voters will vote on. Note: the current list is not final.

Meeting Details

Kingwood Park High School

July 10, 2018

6-8 pm

Doors open at 5:30 for voter registration assistance.

 

Posted 7/9/2018 by Bob Rehak

314 Days since Hurricane Harvey

A Fast, Easy Way to Research Flood Hazards (And Your Neighbors)

Ever wonder how close you are to the floodway, 100-year flood plain or 500-year flood plain? Ever wonder why so much sand winds up in the river after a flood? To learn how flood hazards affect your home or your friendly,  environmentally responsible, neighborhood sand mine, consult FEMA’s Flood Hazard Viewer. It’s fast and easy, but has a few quirks.

How to use Flood Hazard Viewer

  1. Click on the link above to go to FEMA’s Flood Hazard Viewer entry page.
  2. Type in an address to zoom to a location. Or zoom manually by clicking on your area of interest.
  3. Eventually the background changes from a U.S. map to a satellite view.
  4. Zoom and scroll until you find the location you are interested in.
  5. Wait for a few seconds while the website merges information from its map and flood databases. Then suddenly, voilà, there it is.
  6. Lines and colors pop up over the satellite image, as you see below.
  7. Display the legend by clicking on the parallel bars in the upper right of the screen.
  8. Use the measuring tool to calculate area and distance.

In the example below, I was looking for the sand mine north of Kingwood on the East Fork to see if it was in the floodway. I also wanted to see how big it was. This mine measures more than two miles from north to south and occupies approximately 750 acres – five times the size of East End Park. The mine’s stockpile alone (circled in red) occupies about 34 acres. That’s a pretty big sand box.

It took me all of a minute to figure all of this out. I wish the sand miners had taken that much time when deciding to locate their mine here.

FEMA Flood Hazard Map showing risks to a sand mine on Caney and White Oak Creeks, north and east of Kingwood.

What You Can Tell from Flood Maps

What can you tell from looking at a map like this? For one thing, the owner of that mine likes living dangerously. I hope he was wearing his Huggies when Harvey hit.

The mine sits at the confluence of not one, but two different floodways – the cross-hatched areas over Caney and White Oak Creeks. In fact, more than half the mine sits INSIDE the floodways. But, hey, that’s where the sand is easy to get.

Easy come, easy go!

The sand mine’s stock pile bridges the 500-year (peach colored) and 100-year (aqua colored) flood plains. It is much taller than the surrounding trees as you can see in the photo below. But it was no match for the Harv.

Note the ripples in the sand on the left. Image taken 9/14/2017. 

The Force of Harvey

According to Harris County Flood Control’s final report on Hurricane Harvey, the peak discharge on Caney Creek was 21,100 cubic feet per second (cfs). That wasn’t nearly as much as the 150,000 cfs on the West Fork, but it was still enough force to rip massive trees out of the ground by their roots. So I’m pretty sure it could have picked up grains of sand, contrary to TACA’s assertions. As My Cousin Vinny said, “Do you think the laws of physics cease to exist within your sand mine?”

Crews removing trees ripped out of the ground by Hurricane Harvey near East End Park, below sand mine on Caney Creek, July, 2018. 

From a business point of view, stockpiling your product at the confluence of two floodways is like a bank stockpiling money on a sidewalk next to the county jail. Probably not a smart move from a loss-prevention point of view.

Below is one of several massive sand dunes that appeared downstream from the mine during Harvey. This one is opposite East End Park and fills half the river. Note how the sand reaches into the tree tops.

Dune deposited by Harvey downstream from sand mine in Porter. This dune reaches 20 feet in height in places and blocks  almost half the river. Photo taken 9/14/2017.

Dunes like the one above can exacerbate flooding by reducing the carrying capacity of a river or stream. According to Harris County Flood Control, 1162 Kingwood homes and another 128 in Huffman flooded in the East Fork watershed during Harvey.

Laws of Texas vs. Laws of Economics

But alas, apparently there are:

Perhaps if they had to pay $70 million for dredging, they might move their mines to less risky locations.

You Pay; They Play

Instead, public tax dollars will pay for the cleanup. Somehow this just doesn’t seem right. It’s like gambling, but you never have to pay the State House if you lose. Wish I could get those odds in Vegas.

TACA has one of the largest lobbying efforts in the State. They just pleaded with their members at their annual convention in San Antonio to double their lobbying budget – specifically citing PR problems on the San Jacinto in Kingwood.

But we must not have them all that worried. Featured activities at the convention were golf, mountain biking and handgun classes…while you were fighting contractors, still trying to put your home back together.

They have bucks. We have votes. Let’s use them. Make sure the candidate you vote for pledges to move sand mines back from the rivers.

Posted 7/7/2018 by Bob Rehak

312 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Army Corps of Engineers Awards Dredging Bid on West Fork Emergency Project

The Lake Houston area is one step closer to removing some of those giant sandbars deposited on the West Fork during Harvey. Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) awarded the bid for its Emergency Dredging Project on the San Jacinto to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, an international company headquartered in the Chicago area with more than 125 years of experience.

Bid Phase Comes to a Close

The Corps opened three bids for the project on June, 12, 2018. The wide variation in the bid amounts triggered a mandatory review to ensure each bidder met the bid specs. Based on submittals, the apparent low bidder at that time was RLB Contracting from Port Lavaca, TX. However, during the review RLB was judged “non-responsive.”

By law, the Army Corps must then examine the next highest bidder to ensure that they meet specs and can deliver the project for the price in their proposal. In this case, the next lowest bidder was Great Lakes at $69,814,060.

The corps will meet with Great Lakes next week to discuss details of the project. According to bid specifications, work on the project should begin within 5 days of the award. Specs also state that the winning bidder should staff the project to complete it within 270 days.

Example of equipment used by Great Lakes when dredging rivers.

Volume to be Removed Expanded during Bidding

Originally, the Corps specified 180 days. However, the amount of sand and sediment to be removed more than doubled from 780,000 cubic yards to 1.8 million. The change happened before bids were submitted as all three potential vendors went over specs with a fine tooth comb and submitted questions.

According to one vendor, during this back-and-forth phase of the project, bidders discovered that the river had changed so dramatically from the benchmark study, that some of the dredging “profiles” had to be adjusted.

The profiles are representative cross sections of the river at regular intervals between the western and eastern limits of dredging. They show the current and desired depth and width.

Despite the increase in volume to be removed, the Corps still expects at this time that the two disposal sites will accommodate the volume. The disposal sites are sand pits that will be regraded when filled to match contours of the surrounding area. One disposal area is just north of Townsen Blvd. and North Houston Road in Humble. The other is on the Kingwood side of the river off Sorters/McClellan Road just south of Kingwood College.

Prep Work Finishing

While the Corps has been sorting through dredging bids, the City of Houston has been hard at work removing debris from the shores of the lake and tributaries. Crews have finished removing dead trees from the dam and West Fork. This week they worked their way up the East Fork to East End Park. Today, fishermen spotted them working north of the FM1960 bridge.

Dead tree removal before dredging on Lake Houston is nearly complete.

Even though the current dredging project will not include the East Fork or Lake Houston, the removal of dead trees will help improve safety in the event of another flood. The deadfall could get caught up in the FM1960 bridge and create an artificial dam that would back water up into residential areas.

For more detail about Great Lakes, see their brochure on their river and lake expertise.

For more about the U.S. Army Corps, visit www.swg.usace.army.mil, www.facebook.com/GalvestonDistrict or www.twitter.com/USACEgalveston.

The USACE Galveston District was established in 1880 as the first engineer district in Texas to oversee river and harbor improvements. The district is directly responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 250 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/6/2018

311 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Mother Nature Does Not Respect Political Boundaries

Harris County Flood Warning System rainfall totals while this post was being written.

Someone asked me yesterday, with considerable frustration, why flood mitigation took so long.

On their way to the Lake Houston Area, floodwaters cross more political and departmental boundaries than I have fingers and toes to count on. (That’s especially true if you consider funding to address flooding, rule-making bodies that affect flooding, groups that predict flooding, and departments that respond to flooding). The short list includes:

  1. Houston
  2. Houston Public Works
  3. Houston Planning and Development
  4. Houston City Council
  5. Houston Emergency Management
  6. Houston Police Department
  7. Houston Fire Department
  8. 911
  9. TransStar
  10. Humble
  11. Porter
  12. Spring
  13. Woodlock
  14. New Caney
  15. Splendora
  16. Conroe
  17. The Woodlands Township
  18. Harris County
  19. Harris County Flood Control
  20. Harris County Emergency Management
  21. Harris County Sheriffs’ Department
  22. Montgomery County
  23. Waller County
  24. San Jacinto County
  25. Walker County
  26. San Jacinto River Authority
  27. State of Texas
  28. Governor of the State of Texas
  29. Texas House
  30. Texas Senate
  31. Texas Department of Public Safety
  32. Texas Division of Emergency Management
  33. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
  34. Texas Parks and Wildlife
  35. United States of America
  36. Department of Defense
  37. U.S. Army
  38. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  39. Homeland Security
  40. FEMA
  41. Housing and Urban Development
  42. Environmental Protection Agency
  43. NOAA
  44. National Weather Service
  45. National Hurricane Center
  46. U.S. Geological Service
  47. U.S. House of Representatives
  48. U.S. Senate
  49. U.S. President
  50. Cajun Navy

My apologies if I left anyone out. I could have drilled down into each one of these – the way I did for the City of Houston. But the Cajun Navy didn’t have an org chart. I also ran out of places on my calculator.

Seriously, flood mitigation has waaaay more moving parts than an aircraft carrier. But that’s a somewhat unfair analogy, because an aircraft carrier has a captain who knows where he wants to go and how to get there.

No wonder this stuff takes so long.

Can you imagine? Someone is breaking into your house. You call the police, but the 911 operator tells you to hang tight while the governor and president declare an emergency; Congress appropriates funds; Emergency Management devises a response plan; FEMA reviews your claim; three other agencies hire consultants who conduct an area-wide threat survey; TDEM prioritizes your needs; the Army Corps of Engineers studies bids; and the City works out an inter-local agreement with the County to raise matching funds, so that HUD can provide the money to buy out your house … when you’re dead and buried.

Who would tolerate an emergency response system that responds that way? 325 million Americans. That’s who.

If only Mother Nature respected political boundaries the way we do!

Happy Independence Day!

Posted July 4, 2018 by Bob Rehak

309 Days since Hurricane Harvey