2 Zip Archives of Existing Conditions Models in HEC-RAS, an engineering program (Appendix L)
That’s more than 3,600 pages, EXCLUDING the zipped materials.
Executive Summary Summarized
The executive summary includes a heat map of historically flooded areas, estimated structural damage costs in the next 50 years, and projected population growth during the same period. Not surprisingly, the three fasted growing areas (West Fork, Spring Creek and Cypress Creek) also show the most projected damage.
The summary then proceeds to flood-damage-reduction strategies. They include:
Detention Basins
Channel Improvements
Floodplain Preservation
Buyouts
Flood Warning Improvements
Floodplain Re-mapping
Policy updates
Formation of a vision group
Flood Response Improvements (Evacuation planning, protection of critical facilities such as hospitals, etc.)
The exec summary also lists the top sixteen project priorities, estimates their costs, outlines possible sources of funding, and lays out next steps.
Project Location Map
Project rankings.Note: Rankings do not necessarily coincide with numbers on map above.
The proposed projects will provide tangible benefits, including reduction in the number of at-risk structures for a range of storms as shown in Figure 1.10 below.
With these projects in place, the level of a 100-year flood at I-69 and the West Fork could be reduced by 5.94 feet, Likewise, where Caney Creek meets the East Fork, the 100-year flood would be reduced by 2.82 feet.
Next Steps
That’s good news indeed for everyone who lives in the San Jacinto Watershed. With this information now in hand, we now can quantify the benefits of projects, priorities them, and get on with the hard work of actual mitigation.
More news to follow.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/30/2020
1219 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Screen-Shot-2020-12-30-at-2.06.17-PM.png?fit=1024%2C356&ssl=13561024adminadmin2020-12-30 14:51:422021-01-01 07:17:03Final San Jacinto River Basin Master Drainage Study Released Today, Recommendations Revealed
The two parties will co-own, co-develop and co-maintain the rest of the property to be used for stormwater detention and parks.
The parties will split the cost of the remaining property 50:50 which will be jointly owned, developed, operated and maintained.
For its portion of the remaining cost, the City will donate property worth approximately $5,150,000 to HCFCD that the County can then use for flood control projects in areas of the City that flood.
The City will also, at a minimum, match Harris County’s detention and fill mitigation requirements.
The City will adopt and enforce NOAA’s new higher Atlas-14 Precipitation Frequency standards within the City and in the City’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.
The City agreed to require a minimum detention rate of 0.55 acre-feet per acre.
All this must happen within 120 days.
If the sale falls through, nothing in the terms of the agreement obligates the seller to perform additional flood mitigation.
County Must Now Approve on December 15
Harris County Commissioners Court must still approve the Interlocal Agreement in its December 15 meeting before it becomes effective.
Nothing in the terms of the sale or interlocal agreement mentions the hundreds of lawsuits that arose out of that flooding. They should not be affected.
Pace of Development To Depend on Speed of Funding
The Parties (City and County) agreed to jointly fund the cost of designing and constructing flood mitigation facilities on the Land and to work cooperatively to secure funding. They targeted completion of the project within five years.
Both Parties agree the Land can stay in its current condition until funds are jointly secured to build the project, which may be built in phases based upon available funding.
Any Project on the Land will involve gravity detention. In other words, no pumps will be involved. Perry Homes has already constructed approximately 60% of the required detention.
Stormwater Detention To Be Based on Current Needs
The amount of the Stormwater Detention allotted to each Party will be based on its pro rata share of costs contributed to the Project. The Parties agree that the Stormwater Detention shall only be used for mitigation of existing flood risks, and not to mitigate the flooding risks of any new developments that arise after the execution of this Agreement.
Martin Thanks Turner for Being Mayor for “All the People”
Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin sponsored the ordinance that council approved this morning and worked to align support. Mayor Turner supported the agreement despite the fact that the majority of Kingwood voted for his opponent in the last mayoral election. In his presentation, Martin specifically commented on that and thanked the Mayor. He said that Turner promised after the election that he wanted to be mayor for all the people. Martin said this was proof that he was good to his word.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/9/2020
1198 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 447 since Imelda
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/2020/12/20201207-Aerial-Dec-2020_424.jpg?fit=1200%2C556&ssl=15561200adminadmin2020-12-09 12:16:172020-12-09 23:01:43Houston City Council Unanimously Approves Motion to Purchase Woodridge Village from Perry Homes
Chris Bloch, an engineer and Kingwood resident, has become a flood-control activist in his retirement. I often run into Chris inspecting ditches, streams and culverts for blockages and collapsed outfalls. Chris also works with the Bear Branch Trail Association which owns property along many of the channels and streams cutting through Kings Forest, Bear Branch, and Hunters Ridge.
Activist Extraordinaire
For the last several months, Chris has focused intensely on blocked channels that contributed to the flooding of 110 homes in Kings Forest during Harvey. Where the channels cross under Kingwood Drive, three had become almost totally blocked by vegetation and silt. That contributed to backing water up into homes. See below.
Ditch at Shady Run and Kingwood Drive before clean-out.Photo courtesy of Chris Bloch.
Chris meticulously photographed the problems, began researching which entities were responsible for which portions of the channels, and in the case above, contacted the City of Houston. The City has responsibility for the medians and sides of Kingwood Drive and other streets. His persistence paid off.
In October, the City began cleaning out the ditch near Shady Run and Kingwood Drive.
Vacuum truck photographed at same location on 10/3/2020
Here’s what that part of the channel looks like today.
Same ditch after clean-out. Photo courtesy of Chris Bloch.
End-to-End Inspections
Chris is tenacious, tireless, and wide ranging. He looks at ditches from end to end. In this case, he’s also trying to get the Flood Control District to escalate clean-out of the ditch south of Kingwood Drive. Reduced conveyance through that reach could also have contributed to flooding in Kingwood Lakes.
Bloch says he has also identified twenty storm-drain outfalls that need repair. “It doesn’t make any difference if the storm sewers are clear if the water in them can’t get to ditches and streams,” he says.
You Be an Activist, Too
Activists like Chris make Kingwood the great place it is. They help identify local problems for government and make the case for addressing them.
As you hike through our greenbelts and along channels, keep your eyes open for developing problems:
Collapsed outfalls into ditches
Eroded banks
Vegetation and silt blocking culverts
Developing sinkholes
Fallen trees damming streams
Be an activist like Chris. Take pictures and report them to the appropriate authorities. That will usually be the City or Flood Control.
You, too, can make a difference.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/15/2020
1174 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Shady-Run-Ditch-After.jpg?fit=1200%2C838&ssl=18381200adminadmin2020-11-15 14:56:562020-11-15 14:57:00City Quietly Cleaning Out Culverts Under Kingwood Drive Thanks to Local Activist
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
After Harvey, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made $1.3 billion in disaster recovery funds available for housing assistance to the City of Houston through the Texas General Land Office (GLO). The City kicked off several disaster recovery programs with great fanfare in January of 2019. However, in almost two years, the City has only helped 1.4% of eligible applicants for assistance and an estimated 0.5% of those who flooded without insurance. The second figure includes flooded homeowners who could have applied, but didn’t.
City of Houston Housing and Community Development on January 14, 2019. Mayor Turner said, “Thousands of Houstonians who were affected by Hurricane Harvey have been waiting for this day.” Most are still waiting.
Programs Announced in January 2019 Quickly Fall Behind Schedule
The programs were primarily designed to repair and reconstruct single- and multi-family homes, and to reimburse owners for repairs they made. However, almost from the outset, the program failed to reach its own goals and has fallen progressively farther behind.
A HUD audit in November of 2019 panned the City for failure to staff the program adequately. It also expressed concerns about the City’s lack of transparency, not posting plan documents online, not bidding contracts competitively, failure to follow HUD rules, and failure to meet objectives.
GLO Attempts to Help Rebuffed by City
The GLO, which is responsible for overseeing the program and ultimately for the money itself, sent a “strike force” to assist the City, train employees and get the programs back on track. However, the Director of the City’s Housing and Community Development Department, which conducts these programs, told the GLO’s strike team they were not welcome and told them to leave the Department’s office, according to Brittany Eck, a GLO spokesperson.
As the City fell further behind schedule in 2020, the GLO tried to take over some of the programs. Eck says GLO wanted to help the City focus on those where it had more success. However, the City also rebuffed those efforts. The City filed a lawsuit to prevent the GLO from taking back the programs. Ultimately, HUD stepped in and approved an “Action Plan Amendment” that resulted in cancelation of the City’s contract.
Other programs for reconstruction, repair and rehab expire in 2024. But it takes time to design, permit, bid and construct homes. And it takes even more time to get approvals through the City, GLO and HUD. So…
According to the GLO, even the 2024 deadline is in jeopardy at this time.
Reimbursement Program May Come Back to City
The GLO reportedly may give the reimbursement program back to the City. With only two months left before the deadline, GLO doesn’t have time to get program changes approved through HUD, transfer files, and still reimburse flood victims who paid out of pocket for reconstruction.
But it’s unclear whether the City will commit to meeting all of the GLO’s performance benchmarks and deadlines. No one at the City will comment publicly. Eck said no commitments had yet been made, but might come as early as the end of today.
Reasons for Clawback of Some Programs
We’ve all heard the news reports about the City’s performance or lack thereof. But aside from the small number of homes completed, reports don’t go into much detail. Eck, the GLO’s spokesperson, spent hours explaining the complexities behind published numbers.
First, let me say, it’s difficult to compare the State’s numbers with the City’s. The two entities refer to programs differently. And they sometimes reflect different time periods or different stages of completion.
Plus, the City generally reports numbers for itself that are higher than the GLO’s numbers for the City. However, the differences are so small in the grand scheme of things that they get lost in rounding. So to eliminate charges of political bias, I have simply accepted the City’s numbers in almost all cases for the analysis below, except where the City does not supply numbers.
High-Level Findings
The deeper you dig, the more several things become clear:
1151 days after Hurricane Harvey, less than 1.5% of eligible recipients in Houston have received help so far. And that may be a generous overstatement.
Houston has repeatedly failed to meet its own projections.
Let’s address the first point and cover the others in later posts.
Application Process Started with Pre-qualification Survey
First, you need to understand the two-step application process. First, the City conducted a survey to screen applicants. Second, those who appeared to qualify were invited to apply for aid.
21,156 households took the survey. Of those, the City estimated 16,651 qualified for some kind of aid. See the screen capture below taken from the City’s website.
Many Still Waiting for Invite to Submit Application
Many families who qualified are still waiting to be invited to submit an application. The last “situation and pipeline” report posted on the City’s website shows 6,541 households “Pending invitation” as of 8/31/2020 (see page 6).
On the right side of the diagram above, the City also says that it sent out “Notices to Proceed with Construction” for another 149 homeowners. Those notices covered almost another $32 million. Those average $214,765 per household. But construction has not yet finished on all of those.
So that’s roughly 100,000 homes without flood insurance (a major qualification for HUD grants).
The City has half the population of the county. So, let’s assume that approximately 50,000 householdsflooded in the City that could have theoretically applied for assistance. But according to the City graphic above, only 21,000 households took the survey. And the City says 16,651 of those were eligible (about a third of flooded homes without insurance).
But regardless, if you accept the City numbers, they have helped 231 families so far (82 + 149) out of 16,651 eligible survey respondents. And that doesn’t even include another 30,000 families that didn’t take the survey!
So, in almost two years, the City has only helped 1.4% of eligible survey respondents. And roughly 0.5% of those who flooded without insurance.
Calculated from data supplied by City of Houston and Harris County Flood Control District
$800 Million in Disaster Relief Remains Uncommitted At This Point
When you add in the number of projects in the pipeline (identified and under contract), the percentages look somewhat better. However, that cannot obscure the fact that the reimbursement program will expire in two months, and almost $800 million remains uncommitted (see circle diagram below). Now the City did not allocate all of that for reimbursing people who fixed their own homes. But they did allocate more than $400 million for homeowner assistance (see table on right below).
By the City’s own projections at the time, it should have expended $261 million by now ($1.275 billion minus $1.014 billion). However, the GLO says the City has only drawn down $24.6 million, according to Eck. That’s less than 10% of the projection the City made 16 months ago.
STATE ACTION PLAN, PAGE 254
The GLO says that the City has pushed deadlines back month after month, always using the excuse that they’re right on the cusp of turning over a large number of applications for approval.
Future Aid At Stake
Sources familiar with how HUD works indicate that non-performance on this contract could jeopardize future HUD aid to the City.
Meanwhile, I know one applicant for reimbursement who completed the City’s survey the very first day it was available. Her application still has not been processed. But, she says, the City hopes to work on it soon! That’s better than the 6,541 people still waiting for the City to invite them to submit an application.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/23/2020
1151 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/2020/10/Screen-Shot-2020-10-21-at-4.25.48-PM.png?fit=1654%2C904&ssl=19041654adminadmin2020-10-23 11:57:302020-10-23 12:11:51Disaster Recovery Disaster: Part 1
On Friday, October 16, 2020, stakeholders in the Lake Houston Spillway Improvement Project met at the dam to review gate alternatives and progress on the project. The main item of interest: a review of options still under consideration to increase the outflow during major storms, such as Harvey.
Phase One includes preliminary engineering and environmental permitting. It should take 18 months and is on schedule at this point. A key deliverable for phase one is verification of the benefit/cost ratio. But, of course, to determine that, you need to know the cost.
Alternatives Still Under Consideration
FEMA allotted 18 months for Phase 1. We’re six months into that. Work to date has focused on determining the optimal alternative. Five remain:
Expanding the existing spillway by adding new tainter gates
Adding a new gated spillway within the east embankment
Creating a new uncontrolled spillway within the east embankment
Building crest gates within the east embankment
Developing crest gates within the existing spillway
Tainter gates lift up from a radial arm. The tainter gates on Lake Conroe have 15X more release capacity than the lift gates on Lake Houston.
Above: the current conditions at the Lake Houston Dam.Looking slightly upstream. East is on the right.
The east embankment is a solid earthen area 2800 feet long east of the spillway and existing gates. Water cannot get over it in a storm. By adding various structures in this area, engineers could widen the current spillway capacity, allowing release of more stormwater.
One main benefit: additional gates would reduce uncertainty associated with pre-releases. Operators could wait longer until they were certain an approaching storm would not veer away at the last minute. That would avoid wasting water.
Reverse angle.Note the difference in height between the east embankment (left) and the spillway (right).Looking downstream toward Galveston Bay.Looking west toward Beltway 8. This shows the major segments of the dam.
Benefit/Cost Ratio Must Be > 1.0
The lake-level reduction benefits of these gate alternatives during major floods range up to roughly 8x. The costs also vary by roughly 4x. Those are order-of-magnitude, back-of-the-envelope estimates and far from final. Much hard work remains to develop tighter costs and tighter estimates of flood-level reductions. The latter will determine flood-prevention savings in a storm. And the benefits divided by the costs will determine the benefit/cost ratio.
In FEMA’s eyes, the benefit/cost ratio must exceed 1.0 to justify the project. Said another way, it must produce more benefits than it costs.
FEMA allotted 18 months for phase 1. We’re six months into that phase with a year left. Project partners expect results of the alternatives analysis before the end of the year.
Benefit/Cost Calculation
Given the ballpark costs of some of these gate alternatives, we will need very tight estimates of the benefits.
Potential Benefits include:
Upstream flood risk reduction
Reduced maintenance (debris management) for CWA
Improved Water Quality (post storm)
Potential Impacts include:
Increased scour and erosion potential to wetlands downstream
Increased water surface elevations to structures downstream
Calculating Benefits
Benefit Cost Ratio = (Net Present Value of Benefits)/(Project Costs)
Project Costs = (Capital costs) + (Net Present Value of Operations and Maintenance Costs)
Major Tasks Remaining in Phase 1
Barring surprises, the preliminary engineering report is due in February 2021 and environmental permitting should be complete by the Fall of 2021. Other tasks that must be completed by then include:
Hydrologic modeling of flows into and out of Lake Houston using the latest Atlas 14 data
Hydraulic modeling of Lake Houston, its Dam, and the San Jacinto River downstream of the dam to Galveston Bay
Calibration of models to historic storms
Examination of upstream benefits to residents/businesses removed from flood impacts
Examination of downstream impacts associated with additional flow release scenarios
It’s important to understand that not everyone who flooded in the Lake Houston Area did so because of the lake level. Some on the periphery of the flood flooded because water backed up in streams leading to the lake. If you got two feet of water in your living room, it doesn’t automatically mean a lake level reduction of two feet would eliminate your flooding by itself.
Congressman Dan Crenshaw (left) reviews the project with team members at the Lake Houston Dam and listens to their needs.
Phase 2 Still Not Certain
Assuming all goes well in the planning, accounting, and conceptual validation, FEMA will make a go/no go decision on construction at the end of next year or the beginning of the following year. Construction should take another 18 months.
Credits
Funding for this project comes from FEMA, Texas Division of Emergency Management, City of Houston and Harris County Flood Control. Other stakeholders include the Coastal Water Authority, Harris County, Fort Bend County, Baytown, Deer Park, and other communities adjacent to Lake Houston.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/17/2020
1145 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 394 since Imelda
With Hurricane Delta behind us, now we face a political storm. KPRC Channel 2 News reported earlier this week that the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is putting the State of Texas back in charge of the City of Houston’s $1.3 billion Harvey relief dollars. That wouldn’t happen unless something was seriously wrong with City’s program.
Home destroyed by Harveyand rebuilt by owners/friends. No insurance. And no government help so far.
HUD Eliminates Direct Funding to City
According to KPRC, Acting HUD Assistant Secretary John Gibbs said this “… eliminates direct allocation funding to the City of Houston. The City’s sub-recipient agreement will be terminated, and the funding used for State-run programs to support recovery efforts within the City. The General Land Office (GLO) will administer homeowner assistance, rental, and economic revitalization programs to serve eligible City of Houston residents.”
The switch will not affect whether the $1.3 billion dollars allocated to the City will be distributed, just who will distribute it.
One Home per Week
The state said the City has only been able to address 163 homes to date that Harvey damaged. That’s exactly one per week since the storm. Even considering that the City didn’t get the money immediately, the rate still averages less than two per week.
3+ Years in a Black Hole then a Start Over
I know one family – neighbors – who applied for a grant to help rebuild their home after Harvey. They waited more than 18 months for a call back. When one didn’t come, they called the State’s General Land office, the agency taking over the funds. With a nudge from the GLO, the City finally returned the family’s calls. The City requested more information which the family supplied. Then came another long wait. The case fell into another black hole. The neighbor called two or three times a day, then learned that the lady managing the case was no longer in her job. They had to start over with another case worker. Now it appears they will have to “start over” again – three years after Harvey.
The lengthy wait for help has been doubly disappointing for my neighbors.
Not only were their lives destroyed; now their hopes are dashed.
The family cashed in their kids’ college funds and 401Ks to rebuild their home when help never materialized. Those kids will soon be in high school. And how the family will pay for their college is another source of worry.
The family is still waiting with a shoebox full of receipts and photographs of the damage – for a call that may take years to come.
Unanswered Questions
In trying to figure out why this happened, I talked to several sources familiar with City government. The answers I usually got involved “complex process,” “under-qualified staff,” “set up in a hurry,” and “inadequate supervision,” “contractor issues,” and “lack of accountability.”
One went so far as to predict, “Most of this money will never get to recipients. It will get ground up in overhead.” Meanwhile…
“Many poor families don’t have college funds to tap. Many still live in mold-infested homes without wallboard. Or they’ve just abandoned their homes.”
As I said in 2018 – 276 Days after Harvey – there’s definitely an opportunity for business-process re-engineering here. Simplifying the process will help more people.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/10/2020
1138 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Cart-in-Living-Room.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=19001200adminadmin2020-10-10 14:21:272020-10-10 16:11:34HUD Orders State to Take Over CoH’s Harvey Relief Funds
Last Saturday morning (9/26/2020), Sally and JG Geis were out walking around Lake Woodlands. They came across a gathering of people protesting a proposed new development on Mitchell island in the lake.
The 23-acre island was originally platted for 19 homes with a minimum size of 7,000 square feet. The new plan consists of 58 high-end residential homesites, which will reportedly start at $1 million.
According to nearby residents, the new plan will affect a pair of nesting bald eagles which visit the area every year.
As if on cue, one of the eagles flew into a nearby tree to watch the protest.
Cell phone photo of bald eagle watching protest at entrance to Mitchell Island on Saturday. By Sally Geis.
Enlargement of eagle within previous photo. By Sally Geis.
Notice of October 1 Online Public Hearing
Public Notice of Project. Photo by Sally Geiss.According to the sign, the Planning Commission will hear virtual testimony starting at 2:30PM on October 1.
From 1+ acre lots to 10 foot lot lines. Note the credit line near the bottom. LJA Engineering! Wherever there is controversy, we seem to find LJA Engineering.
Trying to Beat the Clock on New Regs and Flood Maps?
Cross-hatched = floodway. Aqua = 1% annual chance of flooding. Brown = .2% annual chance. Source: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer Viewer. Note: These zones could soon change because flood insurance maps are being redrawn.
Proposed layout shows larger lots facing lake and smaller lots facing east where smaller homes already exist. For a high-resolution PDF of the entire plat, click here.
Elevating 58 homes will take lots of fill to meet the CoH minimum elevation requirement. Where will that fill come from? Outside the development? How will that affect the floodplain for surrounding homes? So many questions!
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/2020/09/20200926-IMG_0237.jpg?fit=813%2C1200&ssl=11200813adminadmin2020-09-29 14:47:032020-10-01 15:58:06Bald Eagle Joins Protest of New Woodlands Development
During a flyover of the City of Houston’s Northeast Water Purification Plant Expansion project on 9/11/2020, I counted 13 construction cranes operating simultaneously on different parts of the site. The site stretches a full two miles from the start of the plant near the northeast corner of Beltway 8 to the tip of the water intake platform in Lake Houston. Here are photos that show the scope of this massive construction project.
The water intake platform stretches approximately 1100 feet out into Lake Houston.The 108-inch intake pipes are larger than some pieces of construction equipment.Looking NE toward Lake Houston along the path that the intake pipes will take through Summerwood.Looking west toward the main treatment plant, with Beltway 8 in the background.Construction began in 2018.Looking SW across the eastern portion of the new plant.Looking SW across the western portion. The site is divided into about 10 sections each as large or larger than a city block.A close up of construction activity in just one of the sections.Looking straight east back toward Lake Houston from the western edge of the plant.Note the current water treatment plant in the foreground.It produces about 80 million gallons per day of fresh water.Looking north over the center of the site.Looking WNW. Note the NE corner of Beltway 8 in the top left.The plant expansion will provide another 320 million gallons per day.For scale, note the size of the man on the scissor-lift in the red circle.
The plant expansion will supply 320 million gallons per day of treated water capacity in addition to the current 80 million gallons per day. So capacity will quintuple by completion in 2024.
Converting Area to Surface Water to Reduce Subsidence
According to the City, “The expansion will include conventional treatment processes like the existing plant that help coagulate, settle, filter, and then disinfect water.” Quality will exceed requirements set forth by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
In addition, says the City, an advanced oxidation process called ozonation will disinfect water to help ensure that harmful organisms such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium are eliminated. Ozonation also helps eliminate taste and odor causing compounds, which improves the aesthetic quality of the water supplied by the plant.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200911-RJR_1586.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2020-09-17 11:33:022020-09-17 11:44:16Construction of Northeast Water Purification Plant in High Gear
The project area includes Cypress Lane and Palmetto Lane. The map above shows the project limits highlighted in red.
Scope of Work
The scope of work for the ditch rehabilitation project includes:
Regrading and re-establishing of the roadside ditches
Replacing of the culverts and resetting them to match the flow line of the ditch
Replacing the driveway where the culverts are replaced
Increasing the capacity of any culverts less than 24 inches in diameter
Removing any unpermitted culverts or other encroachments in the City Right of Way.
Project Approximately on Schedule
I drove by the project earlier in the week and it appeared that the City had completed approximately a quarter to a third of the project in about a quarter of the time. That means they are on schedule or slightly ahead.
Ditch rehab already completed in Forest Cove
From the looks of things, it appears the City is doing exactly what it promised.
For More Information
For more information, please contact Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin’s office at (832) 393-3008 or via email at districte@houstontx.gov.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/10/2020
1108 Days after Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200902-RJR_0221.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2020-09-10 17:02:562020-09-10 17:03:13City Making Good Progress on Forest Cove Ditch Rehabilitation Project
