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Most Projects To Address Lake Houston Flooding Still Not Started

After the floods of early May 2024 and as we got yet another flood warning (East Fork at FM1485), people are asking once again, “What can we do to reduce our flood risk?” Ironically, with a few exceptions, the answers are the same as those identified after Harvey. We just need to implement them.

Few of the action items identified years ago have been implemented. Meanwhile, many underlying conditions that contribute to flood risk, i.e., insufficiently mitigated upstream development and sand mining, are accelerating. Sometimes it feels that as fast as we fix things up, others muck them up.

Could have Been Much, Much Worse

The Lake Houston Area narrowly escaped a disaster during the early May floods. A small number of homes flooded. However, a far larger number were almost seriously damaged. Had storms dumped a little more water in the wrong places, that flood could have easily destroyed thousands of homes. Water was lapping at their foundations.

Ironically, the amount of water that caused the flooding this May was about a third of what we received during Harvey.

That should underscore how vulnerable people in the Lake Houston Area remain to flooding. So, let’s look back at what happened to recommendations that came out of Hurricane Harvey studies.

Recommendations from 2020 San Jacinto River Watershed Master Drainage Plan

After Harvey, Harris County Flood Control, Montgomery County, the San Jacinto River Authority and the City of Houston joined forces to identify ways to reduce flood risk in the San Jacinto River Basin.

In December 2020, they published a 3,600 page study called the San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan.

Pages 36-38 of the executive summary contain recommendations. Page 38 identifies and quantifies the value of 16 recommended flood-mitigation projects.

Short-Term Strategies (Page 36)

Vision Group – to promote collaboration and momentum
Policy – standardizing minimum requirements for future development
Floodplain Preservation – to prevent increases in future flood risk
Flood Monitoring and Warning Enhancements – adding gages along major streams
Flood Response – enhancing communication, identifying and prioritizing flood prone areas, and developing public education strategies
Buyouts – to remove homes and businesses that flood frequently from the floodplain
Floodplain Re-Mapping – to inform people of changes to their risk. Water surface elevations in a 100-year flood have increased between .5 and 4.5 feet with the adoption of Atlas 14.
Watershed Protection Studies – for each sub watershed to identify where we need local drainage improvements.

Long-Term Strategies (Page 37)

Adoption of “No adverse impact” Policy – to ensure upstream mitigation efforts don’t increase downstream flooding
Right of Way Acquisition – purchasing land for future flood mitigation projects
Utilities and Roadways – protecting evacuation routes and critical infrastructure during planning
Project Phasing to Overcome Funding Constraints – due to the high cost of mitigation projects.

16 Specific Channel and Stormwater-Detention Projects (Page 38)

See project rankings in table below along with projected costs.

*Top 16 Projects Identified in SJR Master Watershed Plan*

Subsequent portions of the report describe each recommendation in each category in more detail. You can find all sections on the HCFCD website. They total hundreds of megabytes.

Not Much Has Happened in Last Four Years

Sadly, while elected officials have been busy chasing funding, not much has been accomplished on the ground in any of these three categories that would actually reduce flood risk. Said another way, we’ve seen little construction. We’ve seen most progress in the first category.

Short-Term Solutions:

Vision Group: The San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group was recommended to pull together recommendations for the State’s first flood plan. A draft was released last week.

Policy: Montgomery County is revising its drainage criteria manual. But county commissioners have not yet adopted it. Neither MoCo, nor Liberty County have adopted the minimum drainage standards for areas draining into Harris County.

Floodplain Preservation is spotty. Non-profits, such as the Bayou Land Conservancy have stepped up. And some governmental agencies have discouraged floodplain development. But loopholes exist in regulations and enforcement is lacking in many places even if regulations exist.

Flood Monitoring and Warning Enhancements – SJRA installed several gages upstream from Lake Conroe, but more are still needed. In the last flood, they still couldn’t tell exactly how much water was coming in so that they could match releases to stabilize the lake level.

Flood Response: Harris County Flood Control stepped up its warnings and provided updated river forecasts two to three times a day. The SJRA did too. The Mayor had multiple press conferences in the Kingwood area before and during the flood. He worked with first responders to make sure people were kept out of harms way. That was a far cry from Harvey where a quarter of all the deaths in the county happened in Kingwood. And elderly people found themselves trapped by rising floodwaters in the middle of the night.

Buyouts – HCFCD bought out the townhomes along Marina Drive in Forest Cove that flooded repeatedly. And Montgomery County has also bought up many properties that flooded repetitively. But many more remain.

Floodplain Re-Mapping – FEMA has yet to approve Harris County’s updated flood maps. They’re still approximately three years from completion.

Watershed Protection Studies – Some have been done. Other’s haven’t even started. It’s been spotty. Little has been done with the studies already completed. And no grants will be approved without studiers.

Long-Term Solutions:

“No adverse impact” is violated more than the Ten Commandments.

Right of Way Acquisition – has moved forward on several properties in the Cypress Creek watershed and Harris County bought the 270-acre Woodridge Village Property in Montgomery County from Perry Homes.

Roadways – Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/TIRZ 10 is expanding Northpark Drive and building an all-weather evacuation route out of Kingwood. It includes a bridge over the UP Railroad Tracks. FM2100 and FM1960 are expanding in Harris County. But the Huffman-Cleveland Road is still cut off in Liberty County. The Grand Parkway has been completed. But FM1485 right next to it has been cut off by floodwaters twice already this year.

Project Phasing – is a standard practice in the industry. But projects associated with the flood bond are moving so slowly that inflation has cost us about 20% of the bond’s purchasing power. Where will the money come from to complete all the projects?

Specific Projects

Not one of these projects listed in the table above has started construction. None is even close. No land has been acquired for any. And yet, unlike studies, these things actually protect property when floodwaters rise.

Engineers looked into Project #2 (Walnut Creek Detention), but by the time they investigated, someone had already purchased the land and announced plans to build a solar farm on it.

Where to Go From Here

Net: We’ve picked some of the low-hanging fruit. But we have a long way to go. Especially with construction projects that actually protect property.

As I interviewed people for this post, it became clear that different entities with different interests has hampered many mitigation efforts. We walk between competing, balkanized fiefdoms.

No one anywhere speaks for all the people of this watershed.

Just as bad, the business processes surrounding flood mitigation sometimes become bewilderingly complex. Many smaller counties, cities and MUDs don’t have the expertise to even apply for grants.

Even worse, some groups undermine improvements. For instance, we’ve dredged the mouth of the Kingwood Diversion Ditch at River Grove Park twice since Hurricane Harvey. And now it needs it again – as the West Fork flows through a sand pit. Even before floodwaters have receded, you can already see sediment poking up through the water. For decades the dredging interval was about once every eight years.

The people of a river basin are inextricably bound together by water. Yet our personal interests (What’s in it for me?) and political boundaries still divide us.

We need to recognize that fact and develop better ways to design solutions. More on that in a future post. I’ll also discuss some things that the San Jacinto River Basin Plan did not address.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/14/24

2450 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Video of Mile-Long Sand Pit Leaking Into West Fork

Correction: This sand pit in this post was sold by Hallett to Riverwalk Porter LLC on January 23, 2024.

Last week, the West Fork San Jacinto rerouted itself through a mile-long sand pit at the five-square mile Hallett Mine in Porter. Some people reported problems understanding how all the images in that post related to each other and where the mine was. To help eliminate confusion, I returned to the site this morning show continuous video from one breach to the other. I’ve also included a wider map below.

Location of Mine and Path of Video

The map below shows the relationship of the pit “captured” by the river to the rest of the mine, Porter and Kingwood.

*Arrow indicates location and direction of drone video.*

Video and Still Shots of Captured Pit

Clouds were low and I was flying near the base of them. So, the video looks a bit hazy.

One-minute video shot morning of 5/3/24 while flying from south to north. First breach is exit from pit, second is entrance. Water flows toward the camera through the pit to the left of the channel.

Note several things as you watch the video.

Size of the entry and exit breaches. They’re impossible to measure precisely, but likely greater than 100 feet wide.
Depth of the pond that used to be filled with wastewater before the dikes broke. See exposed sides where vegetation did not grow.
Sand being washed downstream before the water receded.
Dune blocking the West Fork in the upper right near the end of the video.

Here are some still shots with more contrast that show those highlights and other aspects. I’ll arrange these in the reverse order, i.e., flying downriver in the opposite direction starting from the entrance breach..

*Giant dune has totally blocked off West Fork and diverted it into pit (upper left).* *Local residents say dune is 5-8 ft. high. People on either side of it cannot see each other.*

Water now takes the path of least resistance, flowing through the giant pond.

*Note freshly deposited sand in pit. The island (right center) is reportedly a burial ground for Native Americans.*

*Note color difference in water and how pond water now flows downstream. Also note height of pond walls.*

Have a cool, refreshing glass of Hallett.

This flows straight into Lake Houston.

Downstream Photos Taken on 5/13/23 at US59 Bridge

*Looking S across West Fork toward Humble. Note ripples in fresh layers of sand under US59 Bridge.*

The City of Houston is launching a new $34 million dredging program to remove another 800,000 cubic yards of sediment accumulating in the West Fork downstream from the bridge.

Hallett contends that sand cannot escape its pits and that this sand comes from river bank erosion on other tributaries such as Spring and Cypress Creeks.

Robin Sedewitz, Kingwood resident contributed the three photos and video below.

Note height of debris in bridge supports.

*Trees swept downstream in the May flood are forming a dam on the south side of the old bridge.*

*Trees caught under the southbound lanes of US59.*

30-second video by Robin Sedewitz panning from upstream to down showing accumulations of debris in bridge supports.

During Harvey, debris such as this got caught in supports for the old railroad bridge and dammed the river, backing water up into Humble and Kingwood businesses. The railroad ultimately built a new bridge that would let trees pass through. No trees got hung up on the new bridge supports during this flood.

Where to Report Problems

Harris County Flood Control now surveys the river after floods and removes debris. They just haven’t gotten to this debris yet.

If you see problems that need HCFCD’s attention, you can report them here.

The TCEQ regulates sand mines in the State of Texas. To report sand mine issues, visit: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/compliance/complaints/.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5.13.24

2449 Days since 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.

Does Wet Spring Portend Intense Hurricane Season?

Does a wetter-than-normal spring say anything about Houston’s chances for a busier-than-normal hurricane season? According to Jeff Linder, Harris County’s meteorologist, the two correlate poorly. In the process of exploring that, I discovered some surprising facts about the intensity and seasonality of rainfall in the region.

So Far, Not So Much Wetter than Normal

“Harris County is running slightly above normal for 2024,” says Lindner. “But much of this can be traced back to the rains in late January.”

“I would likely attribute the winter and early Spring rains more to the El Niño pattern in the eastern and central Pacific,” he added. “They tend to bring above-normal rainfall to the southern plains in the fall, winter, and spring months.”

“As for the upcoming hurricane season, there is little correlation between slightly above average rainfall and any sort of potential activity on the Texas coast. With that said, conditions look highly favorable for an active hurricane season in 2024 including very warm sea surface temperatures throughout the Atlantic basin, the collapse of El Nino and development of La Niña.”

Lindner concluded, “That tends to create increasingly favorable conditions for tropical development, especially in the Caribbean Sea, and a wetter than normal pattern from the coast of Africa into the Caribbean.”

The graphs below explain Lindner’s characterization of the temperature and rainfall as “slightly” above normal as we head into hurricane season.

I pulled them from the climate page for Houston on Weather.gov. The National Weather Service (NWS) shows 35 different reporting stations in the Houston region and gives you nine ways to visualize daily, monthly and yearly data.

As I browsed the site, I discovered two interesting things. When you look at monthly averages:

Rainfall totals differ greatly depending on your part of Houston.
Seasonality of rainfall also differs depending on your area.

Let’s look at the two variables using data and graphs from the climate page above.

Rainfall YTD vs. Highs, Lows, Averages

Bush Intercontinental Airport received about 21 inches of rain (YTD through May 12). In late January and February, Bush was having the rainiest year on record. But since then, despite very heavy rains to the north, we’ve only beaten the average YTD figures by a slight amount, as Lindner observed.

Meanwhile, Galveston started out with record rainfall. Only in the last two or three weeks did it fall behind the record year (1949). Galveston is still about 50% above its average total YTD.

In Conroe, rainfall totals have flirted all year with the record high year of 1935. They only dipped below average for a week or so in January.

Rainiest Months Vary with Distance from Coast

At Bush Intercontinental Airport, June (#1) and October (#2) are the rainiest months with May ranking #3.

But at Galveston’s Scholes Field, May is the ninth rainiest month and September the wettest. September is the peak of hurricane season.

In Conroe, May is the wettest month.

Spring rains play a larger role in the yearly total the farther north you go. But in Galveston, the totals jump up during hurricane season.

Not too much of a surprise there. Many fronts lose their punch before reaching the coast in the winter and spring months. Likewise, many tropical disturbances lose their punch 90 miles inland during the summer and fall – hurricane season.

What Data Illustrates

This data illustrates that it’s hard to generalize about the weather. You can’t take one storm (or even a series of storms) in one location and posit it as proof of a larger trend. Too many factors govern the weather to do that.

Moreover, my rain gage is reading 142% of the YTD figures from the nearest official gage at IAH just seven miles away.

That’s not uncommon. Sometimes a rain bomb lands on your home. Thunderstorms train over you for hours. Or a front stalls when it reaches your address. Those things can skew your perception of the weather.

That said, all the experts are still warning of a much higher-than-normal hurricane season this year. But for reasons unrelated to local flooding.

Happy Mother’s Day

Let me close this Mother’s Day with some beauty from Mother Nature. The son of a friend captured this image while flying around the storm that slammed north Houston on May 9th. He was at 30,000 feet and the clouds topped out at 70,000 feet as the sun was setting.

*Photo courtesy of reader.* *Used with permission.*

The power of the photo above should remind you. If you somehow missed it, we just finished Hurricane Preparedness Week. Have you made your preparations for hurricane season yet?

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/12/24

2448 Days since Hurricane Harvey

San Jacinto West Fork Reroutes Itself Through Giant Hallett Mine

Correction: This sand pit in this post was sold by Hallett to Riverwalk Porter LLC on January 23, 2024.

The San Jacinto West Fork has become totally blocked by sediment at the Hallett Mine in Porter and rerouted itself through the giant sand mine.

The old river channel has been sealed off by sediment. And the river now enters and exits one of the mine’s largest pits through large breaches in what used to be dikes. See below.

*White oval shows location of blockage. Blue line shows old route of river. Red lines show detours through sand pit.*

More than Normal Erosion

Rivers always move during floods through erosion. But this represents a far larger than normal amount of movement through a process called pit capture.

The river now runs through the Hallett pit instead of following its normal curving channel.
See photos below.

The loss of the dikes is likely the result of the SJRA releasing 71,000 cubic feet per second from Lake Conroe during the peak of the recent flood. That was the second largest release in the history of the SJRA.

Pictures taken just before the peak of the flood show the river already overtopping the pit’s dike. Dikes like walls that separate the river from the mine’s pits. They keep industrial wastewater out of your drinking water.

Weak Sand Mining Regulations Brought This On

Two other contributing factors are the depth of the pit compared to the river and the width of the dike.

The deeper the pit (compared to the river), the less stable the dike.
The narrower the dike, the weaker it is.

Until recently, Texas was one of the few states (if not the only one) that had no minimum setbacks of mines from rivers. Bill McCabe of the Lake Houston Area Flood Prevention Initiative was instrumental in lobbying for greater setbacks. The TCEQ adopted them in 2021, but this pit predated the new regulation. And the TCEQ did not enforce the regulation in this case.

In fact, this pit was open on its southern end since January. That breach was already expanding before the recent flood.

Pictures Taken Before and After Flood Show Pit Capture

Pictures taken during and after the flood show the impact.

Pre-peak on West Fork at Hallett Mine — *Hallett Mine San Jacinto West Fork on May 3, near peak of recent flood.*

*Same area photographed on May 11, 2024. Break in dike is circled in red.*

Following the river around to the right, you can see how much sand the river laid down. This likely happened when the volume of water moving through the channel decreased as the velocity decreased, allowing suspended sediment to drop out of suspension.

*The river which flows right to left, used to flow toward the bottom left. But now it flows into the pit (upper left).*

*Closer shot showing the river being diverted into pit* *on the left.*

This video shows the height of the sand deposited in the river bed when the river started flowing to the pit instead of following its normal channel.

Video courtesy of a fisherman, Jody Binnion. Listen to his narration.

*This shot also gives you some idea of the height of the sand now blocking the river.*

*Farther upriver but looking downriver, you can see how the river has been diverted. Note how narrow the dike is/was as it approaches the point of failure.*

*Note the ripples on the water flowing into the pit.*

*At the far southern end of the pond, the water exits back into the river through this breach that opened up in the January flood.*

*Between the new entrance and exit from the pond, the Northpark ditch enters the river from Oakhurst and Northpark Woods.*

Impacts Associated with Pit Capture

Without a river to remove sand from the confluence with the ditch, more and more sediment will likely build up here.

Academic literature discusses the impact of “pit capture” on:

River bed degradation
Bank erosion
Channel widening
Infrastructure damage or destruction
Loss of riparian vegetation
Habitat damage
Degradation of water quality.

In regard to the last point, sand mining also frequently stirs up heavy metals such as lead and cadmium, which have been documented in academic literature. However, I have no evidence that such chemicals are coming from the Hallett Mine.

This river, which now flows through the Hallett pit, flows into Lake Houston. And Lake Houston is the source of drinking water for more than 2 million people.

Posted by Bob Rehak on May 11, 2024

2448 Days since 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.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Debris Piles are Ba-aack

May 10, 2024 – The floodwaters have finally receded. The sun has come out. And the debris piles are ba-aack. People who flooded during the storms last week are taking advantage of the break in weather to muck out their homes, toss wallboard, and cart waterlogged furniture to the curb.

Nowhere in Kingwood was the flooding worse than on Dunnam Road where Taylor Gully, Caney Creek, White Oak Creek, Peach Creek and the East Fork San Jacinto all come together. At least six homes and a business flooded. And badly.

Today, I visited the area again to survey the damage and talk to the survivors. For the people who live there, it was like the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

Photos Taken 5/10/24 on Dunnam Road

This isn’t the first time that Dunnam Road flooded. And it won’t be the last. Part of it is low and close to the river.

The flooding seemed especially poignant this time, however, because the heaviest rains fell more than 60 miles away and worked their way downstream over a period of several days.

The floodwater even peaked briefly and started to recede. This may have given many people false hope that they wouldn’t flood, despite the Harris County meteorologist’s warnings to evacuate.

*West side of Dunnam is filled with debris piles.*

*East side is also filled with debris piles. Note how force of water pushed fence in.*

*I think they’ll be needing more buckets and scrub brushes.*

*This lady and her husband just moved here from El Paso by way of Tucson and LA. They wanted a place that wasn’t so dry and found Houston. She’s 5’6″ tall*. *So you can see how deeply their home flooded.*

*Carrying all your belongings to the curb.*

*Flooded closets and driers left people with only one option. The backyard fence.*

*This is a very patriotic community and many homes will need new flags.*

*Oblivious to the tragedy and just happy to be in Grandma’s arms as she surveys neighbors’ damage.*

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/10/24

2446 Days since Hurricane Harvey

They Clearcut 533 Acres, Then Got 17 Inches of Rain

Construction is always the riskiest period during a development project. Especially when you clearcut 533 acres and get 17 inches of rain … in a week. However, thanks to best practices and luck, most people surrounding the Sila development in Huffman narrowly escaped what could have become a major disaster.

As the people in Woodridge Village learned repeatedly on far less rain, best practices can make all the difference. They lived near a development where stormwater detention basins were not built before the rain; the people near Sila did.

The new 553-acre Sila Project in Huffman on the East Fork of the San Jacinto seems to have had considerably less impact on neighbors. This is a story of people caught between a rising river and sheet flow coming down a slope.

Sila’s Similarities, Differences with Woodridge

Several similarities with the Woodridge project exist. Sila is big. Built on an identical slope. And clearcut. But after 17 inches of rain last week, the outcome was dramatically different.

Instead of flooding hundreds of homes below the development as Woodridge did, most residents near Sila only got water in their yards. One fish pond was ruined. At least two vehicles flooded. And at least one garage flooded.

The big differences between Sila and Woodridge?

Sila had already built stormwater detention basins. When the rain hit, a series of berms and ditches helped funnel runoff to the basins and away from neighbors. Silt fences intercepted much of the runoff. And crews replaced the fences when silt started to spill over the top.

Before looking at pictures, first let’s look at some stats that put the rainfall in perspective.

5- To 25-Year Rainfall

After Sila weathered this year’s January rains, it got slammed again in the week between April 29 and May 5 with almost 17 inches of rainfall.

*Nearest official Harris County gage at FM1485 on East Fork San Jacinto showed* *16.68 inches of rain fell in the seven days from April 29 to May 5.*

That included 7 inches in one day. And half of that fell in one hour.

*Of the 17 inches, 7.12 inches fell on 5/2/24 alone, with 3.48 inches in one hour.*

NOAA defines a 7-day/17.1 inch rain in this area as a 25-year rainfall. Ditto for a one-hour 3.88 inch rain. Seven inches in one day, however, is only a 5-year event.

However, the East Fork peaked at FM1485 at a level equal to a 500-year flood according to Harris County Flood Control’s Flood Warning System. That’s because even heavier rain fell upstream in less time. It then reached FM1485 when heavy rains were falling there.

*East Fork peaked over 77 feet at FM1485 on May 5.*

*According to HCFCD, 77 feet is more than a 500-year rain.*

Also, according to HCFCD, to date, the area near FM1485 has received more than two thirds of a year’s average annual rainfall in about one third of the year – 34.72 inches!

Pictures Taken During Week of Heavy Rains

Northwood Country Estates resident Max Kidd provided many of the following photos taken at ground level during the flood.

They show mainly severe street flooding. Thankfully, Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s crews had just finished cleaning roadside ditches. Otherwise these photos might have told a much worse story.

*Water poured out of Sila across Northwood Country Road on 5/2, the day before the big rain.*

On 5/3 and 5/4/24, Kidd took these photos.

Kidd believes the home above likely flooded from the East Fork. However, Sila runoff may have added to the flood depth.

Photos Taken After the Storm

Sila is so big that it’s hard to get it all in one shot. The aerial shots below were all taken on 5/6/24 after the rain ended.

*Looking E across the southern portion of Sila. St. Tropez, a separate development is at very top of frame* *across FM2100*. *But Sila drains to the East Fork, and St. Tropez drains to Luce Bayou.* *Luce later re-enters the East Fork near its mouth at the headwaters of Lake Houston.*

Sila had a swale behind the erosion to slow water running down a hill out of frame to the left. However, that swale filled in with sediment, according to Kidd. And water then flowed into a ditch behind the fence filling it with sediment, too.

*Still, some sediment flooded into the backyards of neighbors.*

*A series of detention basins caught and channeled runoff through the development*.

*Shortly after the rain ended, it appears that bulldozers graded perpendicular to slopes to help retain or slow down any additional rain that might fall.*

In the photo below, also note the forested corridors that break up Sila runoff. While large portions have been clear cut, those that haven’t help retain sediment.

*Detention basin was holding water and emptying it slowly, presumably at the pre-development runoff rate.*

*Still, some sediment escaped the development. Note roadside ditch filling in at peak of triangle.*

As I left after this photo session, I noticed workers replacing and reinforcing the silt fence above. But the photo below shows the volume of the sediment that escaped despite their efforts. A lot!

*Kidd’s fish pond is no longer habitable* *by fish* *due to Sila runoff that polluted it.*

*Lowest of the detention basins at southwestern edge of development was sending stormwater into a wetland mitigation bank before it reached the East Fork.*

*Contractors had put silt fence at the outfall of the detention basin to help retain sediment.*

*But then they pumped water toward the river, through a mass of muck, creating more erosion.* *(Can’t win ’em all.)*

*Along the way to the river, some of the dirt will get a chance to settle out in the wetland mitigation bank.*

*Regardless, the East Fork was running orange on 5/6/24*.

No doubt, several sources contributed to the discoloration. They include Sila, other upstream developments, sand mines and natural, river-bank erosion.

Few developments that I have observed go to as much trouble to control runoff as Sila. And few bother to leave trees these days. I wish more did. We might have less sediment clogging our rivers and contributing to downstream flooding.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/9/24

2445 Days since 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.

Flood Photos Raise Disturbing Sand-Mining Issues Again

Photos taken during last week’s flood raise disturbing questions all over again about sand mining so close to the San Jacinto.

Are:

Dikes strong enough? No.
Dikes high enough? No.
Setbacks from the river far enough? No.

Can:

Current flow through the mines? Yes.
The river stir up sediment? Yes.
The sediment escape the mines? Yes.

Will:

Miners convince legislators that the answers above are false? Yes.
More sediment in the river reduce conveyance downstream? Yes.
Anything change? No.

The sand mining photos below show dramatically that the river breached dikes, flowed through pits, stirred up sediment and carried it downriver. I have hundreds more, but these make the point.

Photos Taken May 3/4, 2024

In the picture below, the drainage channel bisects two abandoned sand mines that sit just downstream of the massive Hallett mine (out of frame to the left). Note current flowing from left to right and mixing with the clearer water in the drainage channel.

*Northpark Channel approximately 3,000 feet back from where it normally enters West Fork beyond bottom of frame.*

This photo and those below say at a glance how much sediment is being washed through and out of the sand mines.

Reverse angle in same area shows how large the mine complex is. At this point it is more than a mile wide (E to W) and 2.5 miles from N to S. River flows from upper right to upper left. Can you even tell where the river is?

*Leak in dike of Hallett Mine into San Jacinto West Fork. Note water flowing over another dike into another pond in the background.* *River flows between the foreground and background.*

*Higher, wider shot from same area as above. Notice how river has penetrated Hallett pit on right in multiple places.*

*River flowed through that pit at the Hallett Mine on the San Jacinto West Fork*.

*Breach at far end of Hallett pit above has been open since January. Note river current cutting through pit and back into river at lower left. River flows from right to left.*

Sediment Contribution to West Fork

The West Fork will remain above flood stage through tonight. It will be interesting to see how much new sediment works its way downstream. We will need a new river survey to document that.

The SJRA may also have to revise the conclusions of its recent sedimentation survey.

Luckily, the City of Houston has just started another dredging program to remove another 800,000 cubic yards of sediment above FM1960 where the East and West Forks come together.

*Callan Marine getting ready to dredge northern part of Lake Houston*

Good timing on that one.

Last question. Will the City be able to keep up with all the sediment coming downstream? No, in my humble opinion. At least not if we permit the sand mines to continue operating the way they do.

Gage readings at SH99 and US59 on the West Fork suggest that this was a 25 to 50 year flood. But the dikes should have been built to withstand a 100-year flood.

And while the mines above are built right next to the river, most other states require setbacks ranging from 100 to 1000 feet.

The Never-Ending Story

During Harvey, these same sand mines were implicated in contributing to the formation of sandbars downstream which reduced the conveyance of the West Fork. According to the Army Corps, the West Fork was 90 percent blocked in the area below. And that contributed to the flooding of thousands of homes and businesses.

*South of the Kingwood Country Club’s Island Course, Hurricane Harvey deposited several feet of sand. It took the Army Corps months to dredge this area.*

We seem to have developed a system whereby taxpayers subsidize miners. That only seems to encourage them to adopt more dangerous behaviors.

As one long-time resident who lives near the mines told me, “If Hallett thinks they can get away with something, they will try.”

In the miners’ defense, they claim they support the area’s growth. But that also entails clear-cutting thousands of acres. And you guessed it! That creates more erosion that clogs our rivers with even more sediment. More on that tomorrow.

The question is not whether we can live without sand mining. It’s whether we can have more responsible sand mining and development practices.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/7/2024

2443 Days since 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.

Flood Damage Revealed as Waters Recede, Please Report It

5/6/2024 Part II – Flood damage to an unknown number of homes and businesses is being revealed around Lake Houston as waters recede. Most of the serious flood damage seems confined to low-lying homes around rivers and streams.

As I drove around the headwaters of Lake Houston this afternoon from Kingwood to Huffman to Porter and back, I saw plenty of those.

In this post, I will first show some of those photos.

Then I will make a special request that could help this area receive federal assistance. Filling out a simple survey for the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) could help neighbors without flood insurance. But first the photos.

Photos From Harris and Montgomery County Taken on 5/6/24

Dunnam Road, Kingwood

Submitted by Sharai Poteet.

Northwood Country Estates in Huffman

Submitted by Max Kidd.

*Northwood Country Estates, Huffman*. *By Max Kidd.*

River Club Estates, Porter

Lakeside, Kingwood

Sadly, many of the homes I photographed today had been flooded before. And they hadn’t unflooded yet. As I write this on Monday May 6 at 9 PM, the gage at US59 still records a flood level of 53 feet – 10.5 feet above the normal river level for this area. So, some homes remain underwater and inaccessible.

The worst of the flooding may be over. But the West Fork is still at the major flood stage! It should go down to the moderate flood stage on Tuesday and the minor flood stage on Wednesday.

Request from Officials to Report Flood Damage

Elected officials called me today to request assistance. They’re not certain whether there will be enough damage from this storm to qualify for a disaster declaration and Federal assistance.

So please follow these instructions to report damage if you have it.

Go online to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
You should be at a page that says, “Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool (iSTAT) Damage Surveys.”
Click on the “Spring Storms” link.

Why It’s Important

The objective of this survey is to help state and local emergency management officials across Texas identify and gain an understanding of flood damage that has occurred. If there are enough qualifying damaged structures in your county, residents of your county could qualify for Federal assistance.

Only one survey per family. And the surveys can only be filled out online. They are very simple and you should be able to do them from a phone if your laptop or desktop was destroyed. It should take no longer than five minutes if you have damage photos ready.

They give this guidance for photos.

\✅	Take multiple photos from different angles including close-up photos of specific points of damage and photos of the entire structure.
✅	Make sure your photos aren’t blurry or obscured.
✅	Double-check your address as well as the location pin on the in-survey map.
❌	Don’t submit reports of non-residential structures or outbuildings (barns, carports, fences, or cars).
❌	Don’t submit multiple iSTAT entries for the same residence.
❌	Don’t put yourself in a dangerous situation in order to take photos or submit an iSTAT entry.

Reporting damages to TDEM is a voluntary activity. It is not a substitute for reporting damage to your insurance agency, and does not guarantee disaster relief assistance.

Why You Should Take Survey Even if You Have Flood Insurance

Since Harvey, people who are uninsured and not required to have insurance may qualify for FEMA benefits. However, 500 people per county must qualify before anyone in the county gets anything.

Individuals may qualify for SBA loans, housing assistance, etc. It just depends on whether the thresholds are met. This survey is the first step in assessing needs.

As I drove around the headwaters of Lake Houston today, I saw several pockets of damage, usually close to the rivers. And I am sure more exist.

So please share this post with everyone you know to make sure all residents with qualifying damages report them to TDEM. Even if you have insurance, your neighbor may not. Beating that 500 minimum per county could help them and help your neighborhood recover faster.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/6/2024

2442 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Where The Water Came From: May Flood Dissected

May 6, 2024, Monday 2 AM – Flooding in the Houston area during the first week of May 2024 caused quite a stir. It made national headlines most days last week. Twenty percent of the region’s annual rainfall fell in two or three days in several places upstream from Lake Houston.

Water rose quickly along the West and East Forks of the San Jacinto. Several homes flooded in Kingwood. But thousands more were on the verge of flooding when water finally started to recede yesterday.

Thankfully, rainfall Sunday in most places was on the low side of predictions. And at this hour, all gages continue to head downward with the exception of one or two far upstream to the northwest.

As last week wore on, people rode an emotional roller coaster from uncertainty to anxiety, fear, relief and, for some, anger. If lives weren’t destroyed, they were certainly upended. Many are searching for someone to blame for sleepless nights.

So let’s try to dissect what happened during this event. Then, let’s try to draw some conclusions and identify questions that remain to be answered.

How Much Rain Fell Where

Fortunately, the Harris County Flood Warning System, USGS National Water Dashboard, and SJRA have put a lot of tools at our disposal.

The first thing to check is how much rain fell where. HarrisCountyFWS.org makes that easy.

Go to the home page.
Under Site Selection/Sites by Agency, select All.
Under Rainfall Data, select Last 7 days.
Click the Watersheds option in the View tab (top left)

You should get a map that looks like this.

*From Harris County Flood Warning System, 5/5/24 at 10PM*

Note the extreme figures:

18.16″ and 17.8 inches that fell above Lake Conroe’s Dam
16.52 inches south of the Lake Conroe Dam
17″ in the Peach and Caney Creek Watersheds,
16″ in the East Fork Watershed
15.4″ in the Luce Bayou Watershed.

How Runoff Converged

To get a better feeling for how these watersheds connect, consult the map below without all the visual interruptions. I’ve circled the area that drains into Lake Houston in red.

From this you can see that the upper San Jacinto watershed draining into Lake Houston is immense.

The Texas Water Development Board provides some statistics. The size of the:

Entire river basin is 3976 square miles.
Area circled in red is 2828 square miles.
Area draining into Lake Conroe is 445 square miles.

So…

71% of the entire river basin drains through Lake Houston. Only 15.7% of the area draining into Lake Houston comes from above the Lake Conroe Dam.
Calculations based on TWDB data.

There are no other dams in the watershed. So, 84.3% of the area is beyond the control of the SJRA including everything on the East Fork.

But still, did SJRA save the water up too long and then release it in a giant pulse that swamped Humble, Kingwood and Atascocita? That’s a little harder to tell. We’ll come back to that later.

But USGS gives you a fast, simple way to learn where and when water peaked.

Peak Flows Compared from Different Tributaries

Go to the USGS National Water Dashboard. It’s a central repository for all gages that measure discharge rates.

Note: the term “discharge” applies not only to water released from a dam. Hydrologists also use the term to describe water flowing under a bridge. Discharge is measured in Cubic Feet Per Second (CFS).

Let’s look at how major streams in the watershed compared.

East Fork and Tributaries Above Lake Houston

*East Fork at FM1485 in New Caney peaked at 68,000 CFS on Friday, May 3, 2024 *6:45 PM* .*

*Luce Bayou peaked on Friday May 3 at 4PM at 12,100 CFS.*

*Caney Creek peaked at 18,900 CFS Friday May 3 at 12:15AM.*

*Peach Creek in Splendora peaked at 10,300 CFS on May 3 at 9:30 AM.*

Peak discharges are not directly additive because the peaks occurred at different times.

West Fork

I won’t post graphs for every tributary on the West Fork. But let’s look at two key points: below the Lake Conroe Dam and at US59.

That’s the only portion of the river system that SJRA controls. All other West Fork watersheds, such as Spring, Cypress, Little Cypress, Willow and Lake Creeks, enter the river below there. They all peaked at different times.

But by the time water got to US59, the combined peak was slightly higher – 82,700 CFS.

*West Fork at 59. Peak discharge of 82,700 CFS occurred on May 4 at 10AM.*

Main Stem of San Jacinto Below Lake Houston

And by the time all the water from the East and West Forks went over the Lake Houston dam, the San Jacinto downstream in Sheldon peaked at 157,000 CFS.

*San Jacinto River at Sheldon downstream from Lake Houston peaked at 157,000 CFS on Saturday, May 4 at 11:30 AM.*

Conclusions

Several things should be clear at this point.

The SJRA release from Lake Conroe wasn’t responsible for all the water flowing into Lake Houston.
SJRA doesn’t control any water on the East Fork where the worst home flooding apparently occurred. Official damage reports may take weeks.
The broken gate on the Lake Houston Dam (one of four with a combined release rate of 10,000 CFS) made no difference at the peak of the flood. By then, the 3160-foot-wide spillway was discharging a 5+ foot wall of water every second – more than 150,000 CFS, compared to 2,500.

Unanswered Questions

Having said that, I believe we definitely need to do an “after-action report” on this flood. Engineers need to answer questions, such as:

How much sooner should we have started pre-releasing water from Lake Houston to have made a difference?
Did SJRA wait too long to start releasing? Would an earlier release at a lower rate have made a difference?
Did the new SJRA strategy of throttling back releases every 2 hours help downstream? Or harm anyone upstream?
Why is it taking so long (almost 7 years) to figure out how to add more floodgates on Lake Houston?
Why don’t we have more upstream detention yet, one of the basic mitigation strategies identified after Harvey?
What was the role of Colony Ridge in the East Fork flooding? It covers an area 50% bigger than Manhattan and has virtually no detention basins holding water back from the East Fork. How did they pull that off?
When this flood recedes, will we see that sediment has once again reduced conveyance?
Why is the Lake Houston Area, which drains an area bigger than Harris County (and which has the most severe flooding in the county) getting so little help from Harris County? We’ve received only $39 million out of more than $1.9 billion spent since Harvey on flood mitigation. That’s 2%.

We need to start these conversations now.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/6/2024

2442 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Worst of Kingwood Flooding May Be Over, But More Heavy Rain On Way

May 4, 2024 Part II – The worst of this week’s Kingwood flooding may be over, but more heavy rain is on the way.

At 2 PM today, flooding on the East Fork and West Fork San Jacinto Rivers was finally receding. Early even. And lower than expected.

But another storm could drop heavy rainfall on the area tonight. As a result: the National Weather Service (NWS) is keeping a flood watch in effect through Sunday night. NWS predicts that we could get another 1-3 inches with locally higher amounts of 4-8 inches possible.

Earlier and Lower Peaks than Previously Expected

The National Weather Service revised its previous estimate for the West Fork downward shortly after the gage indicated water at US59 was receding. The West Fork was not supposed to peak until early tomorrow morning. And then it would have peaked almost 4 feet higher.

*NWS Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, Sat. 5.4.24 at 5PM.*

The East Fork started receding last night at FM1485. Water in the Lake Houston Area started trending down late this morning as predicted. That limited Kingwood flooding somewhat.

Even the water level at the dam is going down (though it’s still six feet above normal).

This is welcome news for all Kingwood residents and their manicurists.

But whether Kingwood flooding continues to go down will depend on the amount of new rain we get. Mother Nature can be a tease sometimes.

Little Housing Damage, Rampant Street Flooding

This morning, I journeyed out with a drone and a Nikon. The most housing damage I saw was on Dunnam Road. I heard of other housing damage, i.e., in Woodstream, Atascocita Point, Kingwood Lakes and Kingwood Greens. But it tended to be isolated.

That’s little consolation for the people who got wet. But it’s a great relief for the vast majority of people who didn’t.

The Dunnam Boat Launch’s Self-Serve Bait Shop was under 17 feet of water according to the owner, who intends to rebuild. Much of her equipment was swept downstream.

Street flooding, however, was rampant and widespread from Woodstream down to Royal Shores on the East Fork and all along the West Fork, past US59.

I also saw lots of floodwater creeping toward homes. But most stopped short of entering homes.

As a consequence, this storm may become the future benchmark for Kingwood flooding. It will set the standard for how much floodwater the area can handle without major housing damage. The saving grace was homes elevated above street level.

Kingwood Flooding In Pictures

Here are more than three dozen shots that summarize what Kingwood flooding looked like on the ground today. Some impacted areas were the direct result of the river overflowing. Others were caused by “backflow flooding.” That’s when high water in the river keeps won’t let channels, streams and storm drains empty.

Please note: I couldn’t get everywhere because of blocked streets and the range of my drone.