Flood control steps floated
DISASTER BILL: Revamp of dams hinges on congressional politics
Hopes for major improvements to the centerpiece of Houston’s flood control system — the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Addicks and Barker dams — are hanging on an obscure provision of the 180page disaster relief bill that has been languishing in Congress since December.
Contentious issues such as immigration policy, children’s health care and President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall stole the national spotlight during congressional negotiations that broke down last week, causing a three-day shutdown of the federal government.
But officials responsible for protecting Houston against deadly floods like those brought on by Hurricane Harvey have been
paying close attention to something much less high-profile: the fate of lines 9 and 10 of Page 22 of the $81 billion disaster relief bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December.
The provision would allocate funds for the Army Corps to “initate and complete ... up to six authorized feasibility studies.” The selection criteria in the bill make it likely that one of the studies would focus on Addicks and Barker.
For years, the region’s flood control officials have sought such a study to assess how nearly eight decades of growth have affected the two dams and what fixes may be needed. Since Harvey, elected officials have called for significant improvements to the dams, including deepening their reservoirs, building canals to carry water out of the reservoirs when they become too full and constructing additional dams and reservoirs.
No such project could get off the ground until the Army Corps has conducted a feasibility study. That’s why those two lines of bureaucratese in the disaster bill loom so large.
Optimism returns
Houston officials who have been monitoring the bill had their hopes raised when the House approved the bill in December, only to be discouraged when the Senate went home for the holidays without voting on it.
Optimism returned this week when Congress passed a stopgap funding measure to end the government shutdown, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged that the Senate would take up various issues, including disaster relief, this month or next.
“We’re absolutely paying close attention,” said Russ Poppe, executive director of the Harris County Flood Control District. “As vague as (the bill’s language) is, it still sets the stage for what studies would be eligible for funding consideration.”
Both dams were stressed to their limits by Harvey’s record deluge, when some areas of Harris County saw more than 51 inches of rain over the storm’s duration. At their peak, water levels in the reservoirs were the highest ever recorded.
The situation had been building toward a crisis for decades, as development upstream of the dams caused increasing amounts of storm runoff to flow into the reservoirs and development downstream limited how much water could be released into Buffalo Bayou. With more water coming in and less going out, reservoir levels grew higher after heavy storms, straining the earthen dams, which were built in the 1940s.
During Harvey, the pool of water behind the dams grew so large that it inundated thousands of homes that had been built along the reservoirs’ western fringes, upstream of Addicks and Barker.
The situation was equally dire downstream. To prevent a dam failure during the storm, the Army Corps released massive amounts of water into Buffalo Bayou, inundating thousands of homes.
In December, a Houston Chronicle report described how the Army Corps, Congress and local officials had failed for decades to take action to relieve the pressure on the dams, despite a string of studies documenting the dangers and proposing remedial measures.
Those steps include buying out properties upstream and downstream of Addicks and Barker, constructing relief canals to keep reservoir water levels from getting too high, and building a third dam and reservoir.
The Army Corps feasibility study would assess the condition of the existing dams, the flow of storm runoff across the region and how the rapid development of recent decades have affected both.
Funding has been elusive
Corps money is distributed in a competitive process that pits such projects as harbor deepening or wetland restoration across the country against one another. That’s why funding for a study of Addicks and Barker has proved so elusive.
Harvey appeared to change that.
The Texas congressional delegation secured language in the House disaster relief bill that put the Houston region at the head of the queue for a feasibility study.
The text gives priority to areas that have had “multiple disaster declarations in recent years,” a description that applies to Harris County.
“It gives Addicks and Barker a leg up in terms of moving to the top of the line,” said Michael Strachn, a senior adviser at Dawson and Associates, a government relations firm that focuses on water and other infrastructure projects.
It is unclear whether the Senate will seek to pass the House version of the bill as is, or wrap it into a bigger piece of legislation on government spending. If the latter, there is a danger the House bill’s language giving priority to Harris County could get lost or revised in the political wrangling.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the Republican majority whip, said Tuesday that political divisions over immigration policy and military spending still are complicating prospects for Senate passage of a disaster relief bill.
Nonetheless, Ciara Matthews, a spokeswoman for Gov. Greg Abbott, said Abbott is confident Congress will fund the bayou projects, as well as the feasibility study that could lay the groundwork for a third reservoir.
Abbott has “received repeated assurances” from members of Congress that it will fund a third dam and reservoir and that the funding will come in the next few weeks, Matthews said.
“If Congress refuses to provide Texas the funding that is needed, Gov. Abbott will strongly advocate for the use of state funds for the third dam and reservoir,” she said.
Eyes on rainy day fund
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he and other officials are “laser-focused” on getting disaster relief. He said he has been talking mainly with Culberson because he sits on the appropriations committee and “because he’s the right person in the right place to be doing it.”
Emmett also is looking to the state’s $10 billion rainy day fund. An investment of roughly $500 million to plan and build a third reservoir, he noted, would require only 5 percent of the rainy day fund. The investment likely would be spread over several years.
“That way we’re not even subject to what goes on in Washington,” Emmett said.
State legislators would have to vote on tapping the fund. Matthews said Abbott believes the cost would be higher than $500 million.
Emmett said that until Congress acts, the state and the county won’t know how much money they’ll have to provide to strengthen flood defenses. Some might come from a county bond issue.
“We can’t wait a lot longer. We have to decide if we are going to put a bond in May or November,” he said.
“In the next two weeks, we’re going to have to make hard decisions and I really hope Congress and the federal government go ahead and vote.”