However, this is so bad right now with 52 inches of rain so far and still more to come that nothing could have totally prevented it (except) stopping global warming. But, it could have been lessened by not wrecking wetlands.
begin quote from:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Wrecked-wetlands-lead-to-flooding-Here-s-what-7259803.php
Wrecked wetlands lead to flooding. Here's what you can do.
January 18, 2017 Updated: January 18, 2017 8:36am
The Wimbledon
Champions Park subdivision is inundated by floodwaters in the
Cypresswood area on Tuesday, April 19, 2016, in Houston. (For more
aerial photos of recent flooding -- and of the wetlands that help ... more
When wetlands are allowed to function, they're the kidneys
of the area's watershed. Their special soil types are surrounded by
particular wetland plants that help hold water in shallow depressions.
They clean the water as they allow some of it to filter slowly into the
ground, the rest to drain slowly into our bayous. That process is the
foundation of our region's ecology.
The rampant destruction of our forested and prairie
wetlands is upsetting this balance, drastically reducing the land's
ability to absorb water. By allowing so many wetlands to be turned into
subdivisions, we're not just kicking them to the curb; we're turning
them into curbs. We need the ecological equivalent of dialysis.
Yes, conservationists have scored large victories. Bayou Land
Conservancy, based in the Cypress Creek watershed, has preserved more
wetlands in perpetuity than any other regional conservation group in
Texas, and with the Spring Creek Greenway, we've helped to form the
longest urban greenway in the U.S., one that protects many acres of
wetlands within its floodways.
We simply cannot keep pace with Houston's ever-increasing
development. Too often that development doesn't work with nature, but
instead cuts forests, plows under prairies and fills in with concrete
our ever-more-rare absorptive wetland soils.
As many of us again pull up soaked carpets, some for the
third time in less than 10 years, we should stop using the wishful
verbiage of “500-year floods” and "100-year floods" — we've seen too
many of both in our lifetimes — and start reality-based talk and action.
Yes, Houston floods, and with more construction permits
issued daily, it will increasingly do so. But there are actions we can
take:
• Trees and native plants —
both those directly on bayou banks, and those anywhere in the watershed —
absorb floodwater. According to American Forests, in one day one large
tree can lift up to 100 gallons of water out of the ground and discharge
it into the air. For every 5 percent of tree cover added to a
community, stormwater runoff is reduced by 2 percent. In the '60s,
Houston was home to the Moon Shot. It is time for a Tree Shot.
Photo: Image Courtesy Of Dr. John Jacob
New homes are built near a wetland in the
Houston area, one of several potential threats to the region's wetlands.
Harris County, for instance, has lost nearly 13,000 acres, or 13
percent of its wetlands, while adding 1.6 million new residents.
• Lobby for
enforcement of existing laws. The Galveston Corps of Engineers has never
had enough funding to adequately monitor the myriad “after-the-fact”
permit situations that arise, much less to oversee strict enforcement of
those projects that were permitted.
• Cities and counties whose citizens are
affected by these permits (which is to say: everyone) should have more
power in this permitting process than just being able to weigh in during
the public-comment period.
• Bayous are like freeways: You can't
keep increasing their speed and capacity forever. There's a limit to how
much water even an optimized-for-speed concreted bayou can move toward
Galveston Bay, and we're reaching it. Instead, we need to think about
slowing down the water, detaining it in ways that don't harm our houses
and displace wildlife, horses and people.
• Political action is important — but
there are lots of things we can do ourselves, directly. In our yards, we
take out quick-to-runoff St. Augustine grass and plant diverse native
vegetation (preferable deep-rooted prairie grasses and pollinator
flowers). At the grocery store, we can stop using the plastic bags that
later fly out of trash cans and clog storm sewers. And we can stop
buying water in the single-use plastic bottles that clog our drainage
systems.
• We all need to become more aware of our
area's natural systems. For starters, know your watershed. In the
Houston area, for the most part, it's the bayou or reservoir that rain
falling on your roof eventually drains into.
Photo: Harris County Flood Control District
Harris County's watersheds.
• We need to educate our kids and
ourselves about our area watersheds. In "No Child Left Inside" field
trips, Bayou Land Conservancy teaches thousands of students and teachers
what their immediate watershed is, how water flows from one watershed
to another, and what they can do to lessen humans' impact on them. In
different parts of our area, Katy Prairie Conservancy, Greens Bayou
Coalition, Houston Audubon and Galveston Bay Foundation do similar
conservation and education. All of these conservation groups could use
support — both for their education efforts and for their
direct-conservation efforts.
• Cease and desist the construction of
trapezoidal concrete detention areas. Engineers like right angles;
nature doesn't. These retention/detention “ponds” are, plain and simple,
mosquito pits. In a natural pond, dragonflies live up to three years in
their nymph stage, during which their favorite food is mosquito larvae.
But dragonflies require natural slopes and vegetation to crawl out of
the water. With vertical concrete boundaries, we are creating
Zika-virus-ready non-natural concrete holes in the ground.
Photo: Jerry Baker, Freelance
Poe Elementary science teacher Madison
Knisley at a Little Cypress Creek Preserve wetland pond during a Texas
A&M/Bayou Land Conservancy teacher training workshop.
• Stop thinking of preserving
wetlands as a drag on our economy. It's the opposite. “Green space is
green space," says Harris County Pct. 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle, "both
ecologically and economically. Economically it provides an attractive
draw to businesses who want good places to work and for their employees.
It also economically protects those same businesses and their
employees' families when the waters rise.”
Let's each do our part to make our watersheds healthier and
decrease flooding. We need to protect our remaining precious and
irreplaceable wetlands. Dialysis works only for so long.
This article first appeared on April 30, 2016, after the Tax Day flood.
Jennifer Lorenz is the former executive of the Bayou Land Conservancy.
Check out more of Gray Matters. It holds water in shallow depressions, allowing it to filter slowly into
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