In wake of major floods, Texas water agency drafting statewide flood plan

By Katie Riordan

For 60 years, the Texas Water Development Board has been the keeper of a master list of projects that are supposed to meet the state's water needs for the next half century. But the latest list the agency is compiling is not about supplying water — it's about managing it.

Earlier this year in the wake of two major floods that crippled communities across the state — and just months before the remnants of Hurricane Harvey dumped a historic amount of rainfall on southeast Texas — state lawmakers voted to give the agency $600,000 to create the state's first-ever flood plan. The document will broadly evaluate statewide flood risks and detail projects local governments want to pursue to mitigate those vulnerabilities with suggestions as to how the state could help fund or finance them.

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In the Houston area, local officials are now discussing a variety of flood control projects that have been delayed for years, such as a third major reservoir to detain floodwater as it travels downstream to the coast. They're also renewing their support for the construction of a physical barrier along the coast to protect from devastating storm surge during hurricanes, noting that Houston dodged a bullet with Harvey, which made landfall farther down the coast. The "coastal spine" project, under review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is estimated to cost some $5.8 billion for the Houston area alone and at least $11 billion for the entire six-county coastal region.