The San Jacinto River Authority is one step closer to funding its projects after the entity announced Sept. 23 that the Texas Water Development Board ranked four of its five proposed flood infrastructure projects as priorities for the 2020 Flood Infrastructure Fund cycle.

The FIF program was passed by the Texas Legislature and provides financial assistance in the form of loans and grants for flood control, flood mitigation and drainage projects.


With this selection, SJRA is now invited to submit full applications for the four projects to the TWDB for grant approval, according to the SJRA news release. TWDB is expected to review the full applications and make final selections for grant and loan funding later this year.

“The next step is to find local partners who, along with SJRA, will commit to the local-match funding and in-kind services," said Chuck Gilman, SJRA director of water resources and flood management, in the news release. "These large-scale, impactful projects come with a very high price tag. It will take a regional approach with various funding commitments to see these projects through to completion.”

Here are the SJRA proposed projects headed to the next round.
  • An Upper San Jacinto River Basin Regional Sedimentation Study that would identify and create a plan for implementing potential sedimentation solutions in the upper San Jacinto River Basin in the Lake Houston watershed
  • A Spring Creek Watershed Flood Control Dams Conceptual Engineering Feasibility Study that would perform a feasibility study of two potential dam/reservoir locations within the Spring Creek watershed
  • A Lake Conroe-Lake Houston Joint Reservoir Operations Study that would develop a joint reservoir operations and communications strategy for Lake Conroe and Lake Houston
  • A Flood Early Warning System for San Jacinto County that would provide for installation of rain and river/stream stage gauging equipment at three locations