Plans to address erosion on Brazos River
When people visit Kelly Grayson, she tells them to ignore GPS directions and take an alternate road.“the river ate up my street,” she explains.
Two years ago, Grayson purchased a 2.62-acre parcel overlooking the Brazos River. It included a woodpaneled, blue-painted house — their “dream home,” Grayson said — and plenty of land for the family’s 25 cats, 11 goats, five dogs and two horses. Since then, Grayson and her family have watched the river claw away at the bank in surprising ways.
After months of bureaucratic hurdles and at one time being told that a solution was unlikely, Grayson and her neighbors in Simonton have received promising news that Fort Bend County may initiate efforts to address the erosion near their homes.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham approved more than $72.5 million of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds for flood mitigation projects. According to an April 1 news release from the Texas General Land Office, nearly $26 million has been earmarked for Simonton.
Watching river flow
Prone to rising dangerously during downpours, then receding swiftly, the Brazos has carried away chunks of land, bulky oak trees and sections of a street in Grayson’s neighborhood.
The deceptively turbulent river has created two pinch points in Simonton requiring attention, one located just a few yards from Grayson’s front door. The pinch points, which can alter the flow of the river in ways that make erosion worse, are two of 13 locations found by a multijurisdictional
study to have experienced severe erosion since 2015.
In Simonton, a stretch of Longhorn Street has vanished. An orange “road closed” sign marks the boundary between the intact road and the void beyond.
Not far from Grayson’s land is a house that has partially crumbled into the river.
“Myself and several neighbors have complained to the authorities about this,” Grayson said. “I’ve complained since I moved here and became aware of the channels to speak to properly. And I know other neighbors have been talking to the authorities for even longer than that.”
Although the powerful Brazos River has been gradually meandering and eating away at its surroundings for decades, the situation was exacerbated by Hurricane Harvey.
“My first 30-35 years in the county, erosion was basically dormant because we didn’t have any significant floods,” said Mark Vogler, Fort Bend County Drainage District general manager and chief engineer. “But then in 2015, 2016 and 2017, we had four major floods in the river that removed the vegetation that had built up, and things really started to shift a lot in that area.”
Vogler, who came to Fort
Bend County in 1982, explained that the unstable riverbank in the Simonton area was gradually stabilizing itself after the damage from 2017.
Grayson purchased the land for approximately $285,000. The previous owner had been transparent about selling at a reduced price because of potential erosion concerns, and it was widely acknowledged that authorities were actively working on a plan to address the issue, Grayson said.
“This was supposed to be our dream,” Grayson said, speaking over the bleating and frolicking baby goats in the background. “We started a farm, and this was where we were going to settle down. My husband said, ‘No more moving.’ ”
Nevertheless, the prospect of moving remained because for two years, inquiries from Grayson and her neighbors did not prompt any level of certainty that the erosion would be addressed, Grayson said.
Vogler emphasized the importance of conducting thorough research before purchasing property, as erosion is a natural process. A lot of money is at stake and needs to be used effectively to address erosion across the region, he said.
“People buy some property that doesn’t drain well, maybe it’s in a flood plain, maybe rolling along the river,” said Vogler. “And they think somebody’s got to fix that for them. These folks are just fortunate that this grant money became available … so that repair can be done. This is the government giving money to the government, which has been made by government.”
Grayson said the river and its banks have changed since she moved in.
“When we first moved here, the river was lower,” Grayson said. “It was more gradient from the top down to the river, where it was safe to even climb down if you wanted to.”
Hurricane relief funds
Using various allocations from Congress, the federal government earmarked more than $5.676 billion in Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery to assist
Texas in its long-term recovery efforts after Harvey. The General Land Office oversees the distribution of these funds.
The GLO authorized the Houston-galveston Area Council to manage the allocation of funds for local infrastructure projects within the council’s region, which includes Simonton.
Grayson said she’d called all of these organizations as she tried to figure out what was going on, and no one seemed to have any definitive answers.
“I’m very direct. I said, ‘Tell me what the timeline is,’ ” said Grayson. “Do I need to figure out if I need to sell my house? Can I even sell this house?”
Cities must submit proposals outlining their eligibility and the extent of Hurricane Harvey’s impact on their area. The GLO uses a scoring system to allocate its funds.
“We submitted our application to the GLO last year,” said Justin Bower, director of community and environmental planning for the area council. “It’s been a back and forth process.”
Bower said Fort Bend County will handle the construction and environmental work, and the area council serves as the funding mechanism.
Last year, Sugar Land and Fort Bend County received $60 million in grant money to tackle erosion along the Brazos River.
“It’s taken a while longer than we would have liked for the Texas General Land Office to release those funds,” said Fort Bend County Precinct 4 Commissioner Dexter Mccoy. “We have a great partnership and we’re trying to move this as quickly as we can to make sure those projects get started.”