Bay Area Edition | November 2023

From the cover

Horsepen Bayou widening project under review

BY JAKE MAGEE

The overview

Project limits

Armand Bayou Watershed

Bay Oaks subdivision

Channel widening limits

Ocials plan to widen a tributary in the Clear Lake area, but some residents aren’t on board. Horsepen Bayou is a tributary in the Armand Bayou Watershed. Both Horsepen Bayou and Armand Bayou ow southeast toward Clear Lake, which ows into Galveston Bay and eventually the Gulf of Mexico. During Hurricane Harvey, several homes near Horsepen Bayou took on 20 to 30 inches of water, said Jeremy Ratcli, Harris County Flood Control District coordinator for Precinct 2. In response to the storm, Harris County ocials in 2018 proposed ood mitigation projects in the form of a $2.5 billion bond, which voters overwhelmingly approved. One such project, budgeted at $12.5 million, was widening Horsepen Bayou, Ratcli said. The project includes widening the channel. Unlike some other ood projects, the plan doesn’t include a detention pond, meaning the channel has to be widened farther than it otherwise would be to compensate, ocials said. “By providing more capacity in Horsepen Bayou, the area storm sewer and tributary system will function more eciently,” HCFCD Communications Lead Sheldra Brigham said.

99 TOLL

228

Armand Bayou

146

Ellington Airport

HORSEPEN BAYOU

Horsepen Bayou

CLEAR LAKE

GALVESTON BAY

SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICTCOMMUNITY IMPACT

The details

Those opposed

What’s next

Those in the Bay Oaks community have expressed that the channel widening is not the project they want. Ratcli said many residents in the area have yards with fences that abut Horsepen Bayou. Those fences, which are on county property, would have to be taken down and moved back to accommodate the channel widening, he said. Additionally, some residents have expressed concerns about the loss of trees and other nat- ural beauty with channel widening and instead would prefer a detention pond. “All the other [considered] projects are upstream detention ... in vacant elds that would not have disturbed residents in their neighborhoods or altered the natural habitat of the bayou, and they would provide substan- tially more relief,” resident Yee Leng Toh wrote in a letter to county ocials. However, Ratcli said a detention pond isn’t feasible due to the area’s proximity to Ellington Airport. Detention ponds attract birds, which are dangerous near active runways.

HCFCD oficials said they are taking another look at what the inal project might look like. For instance, HCFCD oficials said they are analyzing the possibility of including in the project a detention pond—which would reduce the required amount of channel widening—despite the proximity of Ellington Airport. Project timeline November 2018: Voters approve $2.5B bond for Harris County ood projects July 2020: HCFCD ocials hold community engagement meeting for Horsepen Bayou project April 2021: Ocials approve project design June 2022: Ocials hold second community engagement meeting Fall 2023: Ocials authorize study for alternative design Early 2024: Original project will break ground if alternative not chosen

$11M: Remaining budget Project budget

Total: $12.5M

$1.5M: Spent on engineering and surveying

SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICTCOMMUNITY IMPACT

The project would widen 3 miles of Horsepen Bayou by an average of over 20 feet. Originally this was less but had to increase to avoid disturbing nearby wetlands, Brigham said. Ratcli said the project was chosen for two main reasons: • It provides ood reduction in the area by increasing the channel’s capacity. • The project is in HCFCD’s right of way. “We don’t really like displacing people if we don’t have to,” Ratcli said.

SOURCE: HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICTCOMMUNITY IMPACT

COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM