The Woodlands Township approved the formation June 22 of a task force to study short- and long-term community drainage concerns in response to historic flooding events this spring.
There is no single agency responsible for planning, managing and maintaining the drainage system in The Woodlands, but the township wants to address issues of concern, board Chairman Ed Robb said.
“We’re too fragmented, in my opinion,” he said. “We’ve had unprecedented growth that has an effect upon the water and runoff, and now we’ve had unprecedented rain. We’ve had a lack of adequate funding, and we probably have a system that’s a bit antiquated in the terms of the way it’s fragmented.”
Flood mitigation
The township’s task force will consist of 14 individuals, including representatives from The Woodlands Joint Powers Agency, four municipal utility districts, Montgomery County precincts 2 and 3, The Woodlands Development Company, the township, village associations and the San Jacinto River Authority.
The task force will be charged with focusing on how to improve short- and long-term performance of existing drainage systems. Its members will also assure that drainage systems in adjacent growth areas will not negatively affect property in The Woodlands, according to the township.
During storms this spring, 25 properties, including one church and one high school, in The Woodlands sustained floodwater damage, Robb said.
The brunt of the heavy rainfall affected the Village of Creekside Park, resulting in the closure of Kuykendahl and Gosling roads on May 28 near Spring Creek due to high floodwater.
There are a number of government agencies that have some authority over the Spring Creek watershed drainage area and stormwater flooding, but no one agency is responsible for the entire watershed. In addition, there is no equivalent in Montgomery County to the Harris County Flood Control District, which has functional and legal responsibilities for flood planning and warning in Harris County.
“The most important priority I hear from people is to at least have some kind of early warning alert,” township Director Mike Bass said. “When Kuykendahl [Road] had three feet of water over it during the May flood, the only way we found out about that was when one of Commissioner [James] Noack’s people was driving north into Montgomery County.”
Resident feedback
A number of residents attended the township’s board of directors meeting June 22 to express concerns regarding flooding and support for the new task force.
Kent Maggert, director for MUD No. 36 in the Village of Grogan’s Mill, said his community fared well during the spring storms and only experienced street flooding.
However, the MUD has spent roughly $400,000 on ditch rehabilitation in the last seven years and mows six times a year to aid in flood mitigation efforts, Maggert said.
“When you have 2 or 3 feet of weeds in the bottom of the ditch that restricts the flow [of rainwater], then you end up with 2 or 3 feet of stilt and the design capacity goes down,” he said.
Due to the flooding in Creekside Park, there were at least six homes in Timarron Lakes with water damage and more homes with water in or near the garages, said Nancy Becker, president of the Creekside Park Village Association.
“This [event] highlighted that additional planning needs to be made before a situation like this happens again,” she said. “Residents reported storm sewers stopped functioning, and water was backing up through the streets of Timarron and Timarron Lakes due to the rise of Spring Creek. Due to the flooding, we lost one of two water plants necessitating Stage 3 water restrictions.”
Christ Church United Methodist on Research Forest Drive experienced flood damage three times over the course of nine weeks this spring, senior pastor Dan Hannon said.
“I believe there is a systemic issue of the care and maintenance of our culvert and drainage systems over the rapid growth that has occurred in our community,” he said. “I think there needs to be an opportunity to look at those.”
Proposed flood study
The SJRA, Montgomery County and the city of Conroe requested funding in mid-June from the Texas Water Development Board for a flood mitigation study of the West Fork San Jacinto River watershed.
“We’ve been working on this for about four to six months,” SJRA General Manager Jace Houston said. “It will help us do a better job estimating how our different streams react to different rainfalls.”
If approved by the TWDB, the study will be partially funded by $2 million made available by the state Legislature for flood mitigation projects. The remaining funds would come from the SJRA, Montgomery County and the city of Conroe. There are two parts to the proposed study: flood protection planning studies and flood early warning systems.
“On the protection planning side, they update the typography and use that data to update rainfall runoff models,” Houston said. “If an inch of rain falls in this geographic area, how will it flow from when it first hits the ground and makes its way to a stream?”
Although the township is not an official member of the study, several township directors expressed interest in participating in future phases.
“We may not have statutory authority, but we recognize we can do more if we partner with the MUDs and SJRA,” Bass said.
Houston said the second phase of the study may be implemented in other parts of the county.
“We have a project to increase the height and technology of the radio tower,” he said. “Once I upgrade the size of our tower, I’m going to do a communications path study to see if I can reach [flood] gages in other parts of the county. Once we get that communications backbone in place, we can put gauges in any place I can reach from that tower.”
