Bay Area Edition | September 2025

Building barriers From the cover

The big picture

Elements of the Galveston Bay Park Plan

Blake Eskew, chief economic consultant with the SSPEED Center team, cautioned that the estimated $7 billion park plan is still speculative. Eskew views the GBPP, which was announced by Rice University in May, as a “backstop” to the nearby Coastal Texas Project. That $57 billion project is being carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but could take around two decades to build out. While the Coastal Texas Project protects against many storms, Eskew said more extreme storms could push farther west into the less protected Galveston Bay. That is where the Galveston Bay project could help. “The potential economic and environmental damage from those kinds of storms is so vast that ... it is prudent to design at a higher level,” Eskew said. Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer who leads the GBPP, also warned of “rapid intensication,” when storms strengthen dramatically overnight. He pointed to Hurricane Harvey in 2017 as an example. Documents show that dredging of the bay provides clay soil to build a 25-foot levee along the ship channel with navigation openings and, eventually, a gate system. Blackburn said the barrier would serve as protection and recreational space for the area and would be completed in phases. Yet, Joanie Steinhaus, ocean program director of Turtle Island Restoration Network, questions whether the project is technically feasible, noting that nothing like the proposed mid-bay barrier or gate system has ever been built before. “I don’t know if a project like … [the GBPP] has ever been constructed,” Steinhaus said.

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Small craft access

Main gate

TRINITY BAY

Private land access

Houston-Galveston industrial complex & west-side protection to 25 feet

Galveston Bay Park

Texas City levee raised to 25 feet

Backside levee around Galveston (USACE)

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Double dune shoreline protections (USACE)

GALVESTON BAY

Houston Ship Channel gate (USACE)

GALVESTON BAY

GALVESTON ISLAND

SOURCE: SSPEED CENTERCOMMUNITY IMPACT

the surrounding areas and ecosystems, Eskew said. Blackburn also emphasized the stakes. “My biggest concern is that if those industries get hit by a big storm like that, without adequate protection, we’ll have the worst environmental disaster in the United States’ history,” Blackburn said. On the other hand, skeptics like Bob Stokes, president of the Galveston Bay Foundation, have concerns about the project’s potential environ- mental consequences. “Any massive infrastructure project … could very easily wind up impacting salinity,” Stokes said. “It could wind up impacting ow. By deni- tion, it’s this massive footprint.”

The local impact

Protecting local industries

6,000 above-ground storage tanks

The GBPP would protect the western side of Galveston Bay, particularly the Houston Ship Channel, which has tens of billions of dollars of industrial infrastructure—what Eskew described as the “lion’s share” of the bay’s economic value. Eskew estimates that replacing the area’s petrochemical and rening facilities in high-risk areas could cost $50 billion. Collectively, reneries in the area have 6,000 above-ground storage tanks with a combined capacity of 10 billion gallons of chemicals. If storm surge were to rupture those tanks, leakage into the bay could cause catastrophic damage to

10B gallons of chemicals

$50B in potential damages to the Houston area’s petrochemical and rening facilities

Project could protect against up to Category 4 hurricane

SOURCE: SSPEED CENTERCOMMUNITY IMPACT

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