Ratings agency buoys ‘Ike Dike’ plan
Moody’s touts benefits of proposal for coastal barrier
Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday gave its stamp of approval to a proposed 70-mile-long coastal barrier that could cost as much as $31 billion, saying the barrier system could help protect an economic powerhouse region that contributes 24 percent of the state’s GDP and 2.5 percent of the national economy.
This news follows the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ announcement that it supports a modified version of the “Ike Dike” proposal made by researchers at Texas A&M University in Galveston after Hurricane Ike devastated Southeast Texas in 2008.
Moody’s report noted that the state’s economic cost from tropical storms and hurricanes is rising, thanks to a growing coastal population and thriving energy and petrochemical industries. The biggest storms to hit Texas in the past 20 years — hurricanes Rita, Ike and Harvey — caused an estimated $167 billion in damage, and the damage could have been greater if they had struck the region as Category 5 storms.
“Absent efforts to mitigate Texas’ coastal exposure, the damage from future storms could be worse as the population and economy located there grows,” the report said.
The Corps developed the coastal barrier plan in partnership with the Texas General Land Office. The two agencies are three years into a 5½-year, $20 million study. The report released Friday marks the first phase of the study, along with a draft environmental impact statement, in which four alternatives for coastal protection were evaluated.
The coastal barrier selected as
the preferred choice of protection would be a system of levees and sea gates. The plan also includes beach and dune restoration along the lower Texas coast, and nine ecosystem restoration projects to increase resilience.
Moody’s reported that Texas has lost nearly 14,600 acres to shoreline erosion since the 1930s.
The project is estimated to cost between $23 billion and $31 billion, with 65 percent of the funds coming from federal sources and 35 percent from state, local or other sources. That level of funding from the federal government is not unheard of, Moody’s reported, and is proportionate to the U.S. government’s funding for similar projects in New York City.
“Although funding has yet to be determined and construction of the Ike Dike and the rest of a Texas ‘coastal spine’ is years away, the planning needs as much intensity as we and all of our government partners can give to a project to protect the Houston area from the ravages of future hurricanes,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement. “Many lives could depend on it. So I am glad to see that a prominent financial ratings service is looking over the horizon and seeing that this is a wise quest.”
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.
“It’s very positive that people realize that the largest manufacturing center in the United States is here on the Houston Ship Channel,” said Capt. Bill Diehl, president of the Greater Houston Port Bureau trade organization, “and they’re willing to protect that.”