Fort Bend OKs Barker Reservoir levee study
Commissioners seek to prevent Harvey-like floods
Fort Bend County commissioners agreed Tuesday to fund a study that would determine the cost and feasibility to add a levee to enclose the back of Barker Reservoir, which contributed to flooding in the area after Hurricane Harvey.
The study, approved unanimously, would allow AECOM Technical Services to complete the project for about $67,200.
“We’ve had major floods in three years,” Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert said after the vote. ““We’re looking at the reservoir because it’s an option that we need to understand.”
The study comes after a Houston Chronicle investigation found that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicted that Barker and Addicks reservoirs would have record flooding from Harvey days before officials alerted the public.
More than 3,000 homes in the Fort Bend County area were flooded from the Barker Reservoir after Harvey, Hebert said. Altogether, 6,800 homes were damaged during the storm and its aftermath, when more than 200,000 people were evacuated.
Harris County homeowners and businesses sued the federal government last year and accused the Corps of Engineers of “knowingly condemning their properties by releasing water from the Barker and Addicks reservoirs after Hurricane Harvey.”
Fort Bend County Commissioner Andy Meyers said he supports the levee study because he believes it’s a cost-effective solution that will prevent homes from future flooding. He said he also supports possible creation of a third reservoir in Cypress Creek.
“My solution to the deal is a levee that would protect them. It doesn’t matter how the Corps of Engineers operated their reservoir.” Meyers said. “They would not be able to flood those people because obviously there would be a levee blocking the water from doing so.”
Engineers will have 90 days to complete the study, and results will be released to the community.
Hebert and Meyers said they want to know the cost of the levee in comparison to other flood control projects.
“What I’m trying to come up with is a solution that would absolutely prevent the Corps of Engineers from flooding those private properties again,” Meyers said.
“When I started looking at the few alternatives that were being suggested, they were all very extensive and very long-term. … In the meantime, building a levee could actually work in conjunction with deepening of the reservoirs. It doesn’t have to be an either/or type situation.”
Fort Bend County has 20 levee systems that were designed to protect developments from flooding.
Representatives from the Willow Fork Drainage District, various engineering firms, the Harris County Flood Control District, and Stephen Costello, the city of Houston’s chief resilience officer, were also consulted about the project before the study was approved on Tuesday, officials said.
“These people never expected to flood,” Meyers said.
“They didn’t have flood insurance and yet they got hammered. So, we’re doing everything we can.”