REDUCING THE RISK A new report from engineering rm Jones & Carter recommended 22 stormwater detention basins be added to the Cypress Creek watershed, including 16 in the Spring and Klein area. TIER 1 STORMWATER DETENTION BASINS TC Jester Boulevard and Cypresswood Drive Potential basin volume: 1,345 acre- feet, or 438.3 million gallons Estimated cost: $51.6 million Construction start (pending funding): 2024 Potential structures removed from 100-year ood plain: 124 Cypress Creek between Kuykendahl Road and Ella Boulevard Potential basin volume: 683.6 acre- feet, or 222.8 million gallons Estimated cost: $41.5 million Construction start (pending funding): 2024 and 2025 Potential structures removed from 100-year ood plain: 60 FM 1960 and the Hardy Toll Road Potential basin volume: 1,475.6 acre- TIER 2 STORMWATER DETENTION BASINS feet, or 480.8 million gallons Estimated cost: $81.6 million Construction start (pending funding): 2026 Potential structures removed from 100-year ood plain: 453 Cypress Creek between Cutten and Hardy Toll roads Potential basin volume: 3,320.9 acre- feet, or 1.08 billion gallons Estimated cost: $164.5 million Construction start (pending funding): 2025, 2028 and 2029 Potential structures removed from 100-year ood plain: 240
CYPRESS CREEK
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CUTTEN RD.
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SOURCES: HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT, JONES & CARTERCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
which was released in January and recommended nearly two dozen stormwater detention basins be added to the Cypress Creek watershed. These recommendations would help reduce ood risks for more than 3,000 struc- tures between Hwy. 290 and the Hardy Toll Road over the next several years, according to the report. The projects are expected to cost $597.1 million, and ood control district ocials are work- ing to identify funding sources. If these proposed basins are all added, engineering ocials in the report estimate 39% of structures would be removed from the 10-year ood plain; 21% would be removed from the 50-year ood plain; and 19% would be removed from the 100- year ood plain. Structures in these ood plains have a 10%, 2% and 1% chance of ooding in any given year, respectively. Since Harvey, the HCFCD has com- pleted or initiated several mitiga- tion projects and studies. More than $291 million of the $2.5 billion ood bond Harris County voters approved in 2018 was set aside for Cypress Creek projects, including home buyouts, maintenance work to restore channel conveyance capacity, storm debris removal, drainage infrastructure repairs and detention basins. Jonathan St. Romain, a depart- ment manager with the HCFCD, said stormwater detention basins are more eective than channel modications. Detention basins temporarily store stormwater until it can make its way back into a nearby channel. Most of the projects would be multipurpose. “We understand that communities need and desire these projects as well that allow for ood risk reduction, while at the same time, you know, it sort of is common sense that you can look at a detention basin that is this open area of land that is ... good and useful to put trails around and to
the report. Combined, these projects would remove more than 637 struc- tures from the 100-year ood plain at a cost of roughly $174.7 million. Ultimately, 22 of the 23 sites were recommended in the prioritization process, including 16 in the Spring area. According to the report, these basins combined would hold about 12,800 acre-feet—or 4.17 billion gallons—of excess stormwater. Michael Baker International’s Cypress Creek Watershed Major Trib- utaries Regional Drainage Plan update from February 2020 recommended about 26,500 acre-feet of stormwa- ter detention be added to the water- shed, which would be enough space to store 8.6 billion gallons of water. An additional 30,000 acre-feet, or nearly 9.8 billion gallons of water, is recom- mended upstream in the Little Cypress Creek subwatershed. St. Romain said while adding 56,500 acre-feet of detention is feasible, it would take years to achieve. “That’s really the reason we have this plan is to have a long-term road map so that we can get there, but everybody—us included—we’ve got to understand that kind of scale can’t happen quickly,” he said. Mitigationeorts Jim Robertson, who serves on the board of directors for the Cypress Creek Flood Control Coalition, was pleased to see a prioritized list where detention basins could be located—a rst for the watershed, he said. However, Paul Eschenfelder, the founder of Cypress Creek Association— Stop the Flooding, criticized that the plan would only remove 19% of struc- tures from the 100-year ood plain at an expense of nearly $600 million. “In the end, that’s going to leave over 13,000 structures and $15 billion in economic value exposed to repeated ooding,” Eschenfelder said. “If you
provide pockets of parks and other fea- tures,” St. Romain said. Basinbasics The Cypress Creek Program Imple- mentation Plan evaluated 49 poten- tial stormwater detention basin sites before narrowing the list down to 23 basins distributed throughout 11 areas along Cypress Creek. Factors weighed in the prioritization process included ood risk reduction, existing condition, project eciency, social vulnerability index, partner- ship funding, long-term maintenance costs, environmental eects and the potential for multiple benets, accord- ing to the report. Spring-area projects in the top- priority tier include a group of four basins near the intersection of Cypresswood Drive and TC Jester Boulevard as well as a group of three basins located along Cypress Creek between Kuykendahl Road and Ella Boulevard—all of which are slated for construction in2024, pending funding.
WE UNDERSTAND THAT COMMUNITIES NEEDANDDESIRE THESE PROJECTS AS WELL THAT ALLOW FOR FLOODRISK REDUCTION...
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so that [the] Harris County Flood Con- trol [District] can implement [those solutions] or do something to help the residents and the businesses because we’re going to ood again—I mean, it goes without saying,” he said. Adamek and thousands of other Spring-area residents could soon nd relief from ooding once a new plan for the watershed is implemented. In July 2020, Harris County Com- missioners Court approved a $1.4 mil- lion agreement for engineering rm Jones & Carter to develop the Cypress Creek Program Implementation Plan,
JONATHAN ST. ROMAIN, A DEPARTMENT MANAGER WITH THE HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT
Additional basins include one proposed for construc- tion in 2025 near Cypress Creek and Ella Boulevard and another proposed for construction in 2026 near FM 1960 and the Hardy Toll Road, according to top-priority
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