New "worst-first" criteria approved by Harris County commissioners Aug. 27 will determine when several flooding and drainage infrastructure projects in Buffalo and White Oak Watersheds will get started. Commissioners approved a new set of guidelines for prioritizing the final 80 projects waiting to get underway out of the 239 originally authorized in the county's $2.5 billion flood bond passed by voters in 2018. In the new project rating system created by the Harris County Flood Control District, 25% of a project’s score comes from flood risk reduction. Another 20% comes from the project's social vulnerability index, which is a metric devised by U.S. Centers for Disease Control that takes into account the ability of certain communities to recover from disasters. Factors include percentage of elderly residents, prevalence of limited English proficiency and number of households without a vehicle. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said the guidelines are also meant to reduce the influence of cost-benefit ratios when dedicating local flood bond money, a metric often required for projects to receive federal funding and one critics said can keep lower-income communities from getting needed improvements. “We really need to make sure that from today on …, the decisions we make in Harris County, as it pertains to flooding, are based on being smart—they are based on putting people first,” Hidalgo said. District G City Council Member Greg Travis, whose district includes parts of West Houston, Uptown and River Oaks, spoke during the public comment portion of the Aug. 27 Commissioners Court meeting and questioned the consequences of using the social vulnerability index. He said it may not accurately identify areas in need and prioritizes the eastern half of Harris County, despite projects in west Harris County having downstream benefits. “This is a very subjective standard ... When you look at all these weights that are being done, it looks like somebody decided, 'These are the projects we want. How can we put them at the top of the list and how can we put others at the bottom?’” Travis said at the meeting. The projects are ranked and split into quartiles to determine when work will begin, but commissioners could set deadlines to speed up completion of some projects at their next meeting Sept. 10. Here’s a list of projects in the Buffalo and White Oak Bayou Watersheds and where they rank out of the total 80 remaining projects.
Quartile 1: Work begins September 2019 – April 2020
White Oak Bayou
- Construction of Arbor Oaks Stormwater Detention Basin. Rank: 5.
Quartile 2: Work begins April 2020-November 2020
White Oak Bayou
- Right-of-Way Acquisition, Design and Construction of the North Canal. Rank: 20.
Quartile 3: Work begins November 2020-July 2021
White Oak Bayou
