Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert addressed the county's post-Harvey procedures at the Fort Bend Regional Infrastructure Conference June 28, specifically discussing the Barker Reservoir, desilting Willow Fork, the countywide watershed study and the Brazos River erosion study.

“[Drainage] is high on everybody’s mind," Hebert said. "We’re still recovering from Harvey; we still have homeowners that are out of their homes. We’re cursed because of those homeowners who are good Americans, taxpayers, employed, educated, therefore they don’t qualify for much federal aid. They’d have to do it on their own if it weren’t for flood insurance back behind the Barker Reservoir. As we move forward we'll make the necessary reconfigurations to handle another Harvey better.”

The projected total revenue loss from Harvey due to reevaluations of flooded property is $2.7 million, which doesn't have a significant impact on the county's budget of $365 million, according to Hebert. He said the county's approximate $60 million in reserves is saved for these kinds of disasters.

About 175,000 cubic yards of Willow Fork have been inundated with silt, primarily due to the Barker Reservoir becoming a stilling well for several days because of Harvey. Hebert said the county is working on de-silting both Willow Fork and Cane Island with the $52 million granted to them by the National Resource Conservation Service.

Hebert said the county is not seeking monetary damages from the Barker Reservoir, despite the property damages and cost to the county. He said they feel it's more important to fix the reservoir than to be reimbursed, and they just want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to follow their own rules.

“I have one singular goal with Barker Reservoir, and that is whatever they do to Barker Reservoir, it has got to be guaranteed that we’ll never have that reservoir with a droplet of water in a home in Fort Bend County," Hebert said. "It’s just that simple. It’s private property, and they’re using it for storage. We think it’s wrong.”

Hebert has been traveling to Washington, D.C., for delegation about drainage guidelines within the Corps and gray areas within the Clean Water Act.

The Brazos River reached an all-time record after Harvey at 55.2 feet, which is 0.8 inches below the 100-year flood elevation level. Hebert said the court will have to develop a new floodplain master plan, update effective flow boundaries, determine effects from loss of floodplain storage and compare Harvey to previous record floods in Fort Bend County. Eventually, this will lead to the development of a two-dimensional model of the river extending just south of Hempstead to the Brazoria and Fort Bend County line.

“We want to go all the way out to Hempstead because everything that’s coming into the river below Hempstead comes through Fort Bend County. We want to advance more into our model as to how that works," Hebert said. “There’s some indication that some of our data that we’ve been using for many years may be flawed because we’re not seeing the flows, but we see the elevation of the water in the upper reaches of the Brazos."

Congress classifies natural disasters as social welfare problems, which Hebert said needs to be reevaluated. He said the county had families, especially behind the Barker Reservoir, that didn't have flood insurance because the Federal Emergency Management Agency told them it was not required, so they don't qualify for federal aid.

"We have to realize that people that exceed the income test may for reasons not within their command be caught in a situation where a little bit of money in the early stages, 1) helps de-stress them, 2) gives them hope, and 3) buys them some time to try to figure out how to fix their problems,” Hebert said. "Congress needs to look at their social welfare programs and realize that hurricanes, major earthquakes and violent disasters that damage significant property and force families out of their homes are not social welfare problems."