By Evelyn L. Merz
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has issued an Interim Feasibility Report of its post-Harvey “Buffalo Bayou and Tributaries Resiliency”. Comments are due by November 20. The extended the comment deadline to November 20 (from November 2) to allow more time for comments. The Houston Sierra Club requested a 30-day extension, so the new deadline is still a short fuse.
In a word, the interim recommendations of this report are BAD. The recommendations have nothing to do with resiliency and everything wo do with outdated, environmentally destructive, cookbook engineering approaches to flood management. It is time for the USACE to join the 21st century.
The Report can be found on-line and downloaded at https://www.swg.usace.army.mil/Portals/26/BBTnT_Interim_Report_202001001_Final_1.pdf .
The home page for the Study is at:
https://www.swg.usace.army.mil/Missions/Projects/BBTRS/Interim-Report/ . This site has background information and additional links. Comments can be mailed to the USACE to the postal address listed at the site or e-mailed to BBTRS@usace.army.mil .
Public comments on this Interim Report are to be incorporated into the DRAFT report, which will also have a comment period.
However, the current Interim Report favors a combination of two options: the construction of a new large reservoir on Cypress Creek and the 22-mile channelization of Buffalo Bayou from downstream of Barker Dam to just downstream of Studemont Street. The channel design would be typical trapezoidal ditch cross-section and lined with articulated concrete mats. . This would represent the wholesale destruction of some of the best remaining riparian habitat within the city of Houston. It is doubtful that the valuable population of alligator snapping turtles now living in Buffalo Bayou could survive, unless they somehow survived excavation during construction and then learned to burrow into concrete matting. The alligator snapping turtle is a threatened species in Texas.
So what happened to resiliency and non-structural means? What happened to the option of detention? The Non-structural option was one of the original options and is being carried forward, but it has received a comparatively cursory analysis and is obviously not favored. The option of detention is not examined and detention should be analyzed.
I joined one of the four on-line virtual public meetings. Participants could submit questions to be answered via typing in a question into the chat feature. The moderator chose the questions to be answered and it was impossible to see any submitted question other than my own. I personally typed in questions about analysis of non-structural options and the lack of detention studies. I am certain that I was not the only person asking about non-structural options. However, no questions were answered about non-structural options and no questions were answered about the impacts of channelizing Buffalo Bayou.
Stay tuned for more news on this thoroughly unsustainable proposal.