Call To Action: Flood Mitigation Project Priorities

The “I’m Busy What Is This About?” Summary:

• There’s a bond election in August for county-wide flood mitigation projects.
• If approved, hundreds of long-delayed projects could finally receive funding.
• There will be public meetings to set priorities for those projects.
• The project to widen and deepen the White Oak Bayou through JV is one of those projects.
• Action: Please write a public comment to push for high-prioritization of this project (Mention– Project key: E100-00-00-USACE, ID: C-14)
• Or RSVP to attend the meeting on 6/12 @ 6pm.

Detail:

All citizens serious about flood mitigation in Jersey Village need to participate in a critical public input process being held by Harris County. The Commissioners Court approved a bond election to be held in August of this year. Assuming approval of this bond initiative, Harris County Flood Control District will undertake many flood mitigation projects that have languished for years due to lack of funding. During the debate about the bond election, Commissioners stressed the importance of community involvement in the process of setting project priorities. In response, the Flood Control District will hold several public information meetings to solicit feedback from communities in various watersheds. The White Oak Bayou watershed, which encompasses all of Jersey Village, will have it’s shot on Tuesday, June 12 at 6pm at the White Oak Conference Center. For more information on that meeting and to RSVP, which will send you a reminder before the meeting happens, click here.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase before “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. These public input sessions are exactly that. Of the hundreds of flood mitigation projects on the table across all of Harris County, only a handful impact Jersey Village directly. It is important for JV citizens to be loud, persistent, and clear on what is needed now, not later. By far the biggest priority for Jersey Village, as identified in the Long-Term Flood Recovery Study, is the widening and deepening of the White Oak Bayou Channel and the JV Bypass Channel. These projects are both currently in design, but not yet funded 100%. The bond initiative could be the main funding source for this project, but citizen input may well be the factor that makes this project happen sooner rather than later.

The Jersey Village City Council has funded all flood mitigation projects identified by the Long-Term Flood Recovery Study as within our scope: the Golf Course Berm (the City’s first ever flood-specific capital project), improve stormwater drainage in the Wall/Capri/Crawford neighborhood system, and provide required local matching funds for home elevations (which we received preliminary approval for, anticipating final approval any day now, elevating 18 homes). Funding these projects began just days after the Tax Day Flood of 2016 while debris was still on many of our curbs. For comparison, Harris County– a government agency with exponentially more staff and money… not to mention an entire department dedicated to flood control– won’t have a funding source considered until a full year after Hurricane Harvey, assuming voters approve this bond package. However, funding is just Step 1 in a long, tedious process any government agency, large or small, must go through to change how stormwater is managed in a vulnerable watershed. Any project that remotely impacts water entering a drainage conveyance must prove to have zero impact to property upstream and downstream. This is why Jersey Village, and all other municipal entities, are prohibited from unilaterally modifying the White Oak Bayou channel and also why the Long-Term Flood Recovery study, presented in June 2017 and finalized in August of 2017, was and is essential to our goal of mitigating flooding in JV as much as possible. There’s a difference between what you know, and what you can prove… and we are required by law and by our duty to all taxpayers to go on what we can prove. So is Harris County, which is why getting this project on the top of the priority list is so crucial.

So… how can you help?

• First, you need to know the name of the project and identifying codes:

Title: Design and Construction of Corps of Engineers White Oak Bayou Section 211(f) Project.
Project key: E100-00-00-USACE
ID: C-14

Sometimes details are essential to make your comment stand out among the thousands of others competing for attention. So I recommend including these details in any correspondence or public comment.

• Second, you need to submit your comment correctly. You can do so in 2 ways:

1. In writing online here: https://www.hcfcd.org/bond-program/watersheds/white-oak-bayou-bond-program/submit-feedback-white-oak-bayou-watershed/ 
2. In person at the June 12th White Oak Bayou Watershed Public Meeting. More details (and RSVP for a reminder!) here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2163246230565522/

• Third, you should know what to include in your comment that will help this project become a priority. Here are some suggestions to get your brain going:
  • According to the City of JV’s flood study data and in conjunction with flood mitigation projects already funded and in design/engineering, this project could remove approximately 62 homes from the 100-year floodplain resulting in approximately $5.4 million in avoided damages in a 100-year flood event. Combined with the City’s ongoing home elevation/buyout program, the total damage avoidance in a 100-year flood event would be around $10.2 million per event.
  • For the entire White Oak Bayou watershed, according to the General Reevaluation Report for the Federal Project the overall benefit-cost ratio was 6.9 with a 3.75% interest rate and 4.2 with a 7% interest rate (See Pg. 58 of the JV Long-Term Flood Recovery Study). Not completing this project would be a disservice to all taxpayers.
  • This project will have a multiplying effect on JV’s pending flood mitigation projects by keeping the bayou in-bank longer, and clear out faster, allowing the City’s new infrastructure to recharge capacity between rain bands as evidenced during Hurricane Harvey.
  • Jersey Village’s flood mitigation projects will help not only our citizens, but also communities downstream by withholding hundreds of acre-feet of stormwater from entering White Oak Bayou at the peak of the worst flooding scenarios. A wider, deeper bayou channel and bypass channel will allow that water to drain responsibly with no impact to communities downstream.
  • This project has been on the books since at least 1996 and, while helpful mitigation projects have been implemented, the true potential has not yet been realized due to lack of funding to complete the final phases. Since the completion of the last major component of this project, 208 homes have flooded in Jersey Village.
  • Commissioners Court recently authorized the Harris County Flood Control District to negotiate with Cobb, Fendley & Associates Inc. for design, bidding, and construction phase engineering services for this project. It would be wise to fund and complete this project as soon as possible while resources are in place and data is more applicable.
  • If you are contacted by a Flood Control District representative, feel free to point that person to the City’s flood study data, located here: http://www.jerseyvillage.info/page/Long_Term_Flood_Recovery_Project

Of course, feel free to use your own terminology and experiences with your comments. These are merely a suggestion and hopefully a helpful start to your own brainstorming. If you plan to attend the meeting and make your comments in-person (depending on the format, which I do not know at this time), I recommend keeping your comments brief, to-the-point, cordial, and professional. “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar”.

Thank you for reading and for being so willing to help in our neighborhood’s long-term battle for meaningful flood mitigation!