Houston floodwater tunnel gets another look
HOUSTON — As it seeks solutions to reduce flooding along Buffalo Bayou, the Army Corps of Engineers is re-evaluating proposals to excavate dirt from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs and to carry floodwater under the city to the Houston Ship Channel or Galveston Bay.
Corps engineers in a recent study described the former as not effective enough and the latter as too costly. But Army Col. Timothy Vail said the staff since has received enough public feedback to warrant a second look.
Some 1,500 comments from the public were submitted by Nov. 15 — providing meaningful and compelling input, Vail said in a telephone town hall hosted by U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston. The formal comment period ended Nov. 20.
The feedback will help shape a final proposal. The corps was “incredibly committed” to reviewing all feedback, Vail said, and would analyze additional information on tunnels and see if there was another way to get rid of — or use — the excavated dirt from the reservoirs that feed into Buffalo Bayou.
Residents and officials agree flooding issues needed to be fixed: Thousands of homes flooded during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 when water backed up behind the Addicks and Barker dams and was released down the bayou.
However, local advocates made clear they were disappointed in the corps’ proposed solutions.
Advocates believe the corps’ interim Buffalo Bayou and Tributaries Resiliency Study took an
outdated approach, giving short shrift to nature-based options.
The study suggested pursuing projects such as digging Buffalo Bayou wider and deeper and building a third reservoir over the Katy Prairie, ideas that advocates believe would harm natural spaces that residents value.
Auggie Campbell, an organizer of Houston Stronger, a coalition formed to address flooding after Harvey, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about how the final project would shape up.
His was among the groups that met with the corps in recent weeks to discuss the report.
Houston Stronger submitted a 39-page document to the agency with other recommendations for
it to consider too, such as smaller flood-retention basins and land preservation.
Campbell said the group planned to continue providing input, hoping for a proposal the community could get behind.
“What the corps is doing is not easy,” he said. “The framework that they have to work in is not easy. And if we’re going to get a federal project, we’re going to have to work with the corps so they have every opportunity to succeed.”
Sarah Bernhardt, president and chief executive officer of the Bayou Preservation Association, also was hopeful. The corps is required to consider cost-benefit ratios, and she will be looking to see
if it still could identify a project that met community preferences.
“I’m optimistic they’ll go back and do their best,” she said, “and hopefully they’ll work with the community to come up with something that they can also use.”
Many remain interested in the tunnel idea, though it’s costly and raises some environmental concerns. Susan Chadwick, president and executive director of Save Buffalo Bayou, considers it to be another inappropriately big, slow and expensive fix.
She was among those calling on community members to stay vigilant, encouraging them to reach out not only to the corps but also to their elected representatives in Congress, who will make the ultimate decision on whether to approve and fund a final project.
“It’s still very much up in the air what they’re going to do,” Chadwick said, adding that she hoped the corps would review nature-based ideas that can be executed more quickly and benefit both the environment and human health.
In her own letter, Fletcher reiterated what she described as “the importance of building consensus on the path forward.” She said she hoped the corps will continue to accept public comment outside the formal review period.
“It is a priority of my constituents, and of the Congress, to include natural infrastructure and nature-based solutions,” she wrote. “It is also the strong preference of my constituents to preserve the natural beauty and environment of Buffalo Bayou in any path forward.”
The aim, Vail said, was to find the lowest-cost way to address future flooding. But the agency knows it also needs public support for the final proposal it brings to Congress, as it hopes to do by April 2022. Unless specifically authorized, it also needs a local sponsor — in this case it would be the Harris County Flood Control District — to help pay for and maintain it.
“We want the public to be part of a solution,” Vail said. “And in fact the public has to be part of the solution, because we can’t provide Congress our recommendation unless we know that there’s gonna be public support and a sponsor behind that solution.”