Bigger ‘Ike Dike’ backed
Corps says $31B hurricane barrier preferred option
A decade after Hurricane Ike devastated the Texas Gulf Coast, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday that a more ambitious version of the proposed “Ike Dike” — a 70-mile-long coastal barrier that could cost as much as $31 billion — is the preferred choice for protecting the state’s coastline from future storm surges.
The decision moves the project closer to ultimately being built, but leaves unanswered how to pay for it, especially with the estimated cost skyrocketing to between $23 billion and $31 billion — two to three times above original estimates.
The option backed by the Army Corps and the Texas General Land Office is similar to the original “Ike Dike” proposal developed by researchers at Texas A&M University in Galveston after Ike hammered Southeast Texas in 2008, with some subtle differences.
“This study actually incorporates both coastal storm risk management features and ecosystem restoration features up and down the coast and some coastal storm risk management down on South Padre (Island),” said Kelly Burks-Copes, the project manager for the Army Corps’ study. “It’s a comprehensive study so it’s looking at the entire coast of Texas, much bigger than the Ike Dike per se.”
The project comes with significant questions, most prominently its price tag, significantly higher than the initial $12 million to $15 billion estimates that were floated when the Ike Dike concept was developed, in part because it includes extensive barriers and ecosystem restoration stretching down most of the Texas coastline. The report states that funding the massive infrastructure project would require a cost-shar-
ing arrangement between the state and federal governments.
Still, officials stressed that the project was critically needed. Experts warn that the Houston-Galveston region remains highly vulnerable to a catastrophic storm surge and warn that the next hurricane could overwhelm the Houston Ship Channel and send the regional economy into a tailspin.
“One storm can cost many lives and billions of dollars in damage, so the expense of doing nothing far outweighs the investment to protect and enhance our coast,” Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said in a written statement. “Texas’ coast is home to one in every four Texans and 30 percent of the American oil refining sector resides here. The Coastal Texas Study is about protecting our people, our economy and our national security. The options selected are proven to be effective in mitigating the deadly effects of storm surge on our state.”
The Army Corps developed the coastal barrier plan in partnership with the state land office. The two agencies are three years into a 5½year, $20 million study. The report released on Friday marks the first phase of the study, along with a draft environmental impact statement, in which four different alternatives for coastal protection were evaluated. ‘Ring levee’ around Galveston
The study’s release comes 14 months after Hurricane Harvey dumped 51 inches of rain on some parts of the Houston area, leaving more than 70 people dead across Texas and causing more than $150 billion in damage statewide.
The coastal barrier would be a system of levees and sea gates beginning on high ground north of High Island and running the length of the Bolivar Peninsula. It would then cross the entrance of Galveston Bay and extend the length of Galveston Island, incorporating the existing seawall. It would end at San Luis Pass.
At the entrance to Galveston Bay, a system of storm surge gates would be constructed to protect the coastline during storm events but otherwise allow for navigation to the ports of Galveston, Texas City and Houston. A large navigation gate would also be placed along the ship channel. These gates are modeled after similar structures in London on the River Thames and on the coast of the Netherlands.
A “ring levee” would also be placed around Galveston to protect the bayside of the island, a densely populated area, from surge and flood waters. Gates and other barriers would be built near Clear Creek as well as Dickinson, Offatts and Highland bayous.
The plan also includes beach and dune restoration along the lower Texas coast, and nine ecosystem restoration projects to increase resilience.
Bill Merrell, a Texas A&M University Galveston professor who proposed the Ike Dike concept more than nine years ago, noted some minor differences between his original plan and the one backed by the two agencies.
Merrell’s plan included a gate at San Luis Pass, which is south of Galveston, and a mix of gray and green infrastructure along the coast, most notably a series of 17foot high dunes on Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston in lieu of a seawall. Built after the catastrophic 1900 Galveston hurricane, the 17foot-high seawall spared the island from many storms but was overtopped by Ike’s storm surge and waves.
He also did not include any protection for High Island, nor a ring levee around Galveston, which he called an “extreme” measure that would require a sophisticated pumping system in the event of heavy rains.
“It’s a fishbowl effect. You have to pump it, and if your pumps work, you’re happy, and if your pumps don’t work, you drown,” Merrell said. “You’d have to pour a lot of maintenance money into it.”
Burks-Copes said that dunes and beach nourishment are “still in play” as options for Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula as opposed to a more hardened barrier. Environmental concerns
The exact footprint of the barriers and levees has yet to be determined and will be a primary focus of later phases, Burks-Copes said. She added that the current proposal calls for a 17-foot-tall barrier, but that height could be altered and the alignment of the barrier could shift further inland or out into the Gulf of Mexico depending on environmental and real estate concerns.
Jim Blackburn, a Rice University professor and co-director of the university’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education, & Evacuation from Disasters Center, called the study an “essential” step in moving toward federal funding. The SSPEED Center has developed a concept for a gate in the middle of Galveston Bay designed to supplement a potential coastal barrier system. That concept was one of the alternatives considered by the Corps and GLO.
“We at SSPEED Center hope to supplement this environmental impact statement with our own work on the Galveston Bay Park Plan, which we think could be phased in with the Corps’ work and we think should be seriously considered by the Corps’ part of the project,” Blackburn said.
The new report also outlined several environmental concerns, including possible impact on wetlands and constriction of tidal exchange that could affect the salinity of estuaries such as Galveston Bay. This, in turn, could potentially affect the ecology of Galveston Bay and the fish, birds and wildlife that depend on the resources provided by wetland and marsh habitats. “It’s not clear how much (the coastal barrier) will restrict flow in and out of Galveston Bay from the Gulf of Mexico, that’s pretty critically important because most of our marine organisms spend some portion of their life cycle in the bay and some portion in the Gulf and then it flows freely back and forth,” said Bob Stokes, the president of the Galveston Bay Foundation. Public meetings planned
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have previously opposed the Ike Dike concept, arguing instead for a “planned withdrawal” or abandonment of storm-surge threatened coastal areas.
Burks-Copes said the report weighs potential environmental impacts, noting that the gates in Galveston Bay would constrict tidal flow by about 20 percent. BurksCopes added that the ecosystem restoration planned further down the coast would offset some of the negative environmental impacts and that additional study phases will more directly evaluate how the barrier system would affect marine life, such as dolphins.
“As we go down the coast we’re not expecting impacts, we’re actually expecting benefits because we’re actually proposing quite a bit — 160,000 acres of habitat restoration — going from the north all the way down to South Padre Island,” Burks-Copes said.
The Army Corps and state land office will hold a series of public meetings along the Texas coast to review the plans for the coastal spine, beginning Nov. 27 in Port Lavaca and continuing through December. There will be a 75-day public comment period, 30 days longer than the typical period for an environmental impact statement, which began Friday with the plan’s release.
The final feasibility report and environmental impact study is expected in 2021. Once a final report is issued, it would be sent to Congress to consider funding the project.