Cottage Grove is just inside the 610 Loop, west of White Oak Bayou. It is undergoing rapid densification from infill and redevelopment. Neighborhood residents are asking the city to call for TxDOT to change its plans so that the area can be used as a green corridor and to restore historical mobility connections. The area’s density trend of 23 dwellings per acre brings hundreds of families within a quarter-mile of the trail and it is four blocks away from an elementary school.

To encourage support for the project, Cottage Grove Civic Club activists are conducting guided tours of the trail on Friday, February 29 at 6 pm and on Saturday, March 1 and March 8 at 4 pm. They say, “Local residents, hikers, bird and butterfly watchers, off-road cyclists, runners, urban quality of life advocates, chaperoned children, and socialized dogs are invited.” Interested members of the public are also invited to the Cottage Grove Civic Club’s March 6 meeting, at 6:30 pm, at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School. For details, see the Cottage Grove website.

The Cypress Creek Flood Control Coalition has been coordinating with Commissioner Jerry Eversole, Commissioner Steve Radack and County Judge Ed Emmett for several years seeking funding sources and commitments to preserve land before development for the dual purpose of flood water detention/conveyance and greenway nature preserves, parks, and trails within the watershed. A major milestone enabling this to become reality will be voter approval of Harris County bonds, which will be on the November 6, 2007 ballot.

The following news release received from Judge Emmett’s office describes the 6 propositions on the ballot. “Harris County Commissioners Court agreed unanimously in August to seek voter approval this November for a series of bond issues to improve county transportation, parks, and infrastructure and Port of Houston facilities.

Court members approved placing six bond proposals worth $880 million on the Nov. 6, 2007, ballot. The bond issues would help pay for more parks, road construction, port expansion and other projects designed to expand the county’s economy and enhance its livability and environment without spurring a tax increase.

[The breakdown is Roads - $190 million; Parks - $95 million; Adult Detention - $195 million; Forensic Center - $80 million; Family Law Center -$70 million; Port of Houston $250 million]

“The court’s unanimous approval of these six propositions shows the importance that we all place on their passage,’ said County Judge Ed Emmett. “The bond issues will allow Harris County to address growing traffic congestion, provide for more green space to assist with flood control and make needed improvements for our jails and courts.”

“While our name indicates ‘Flood Control’ and that is our primary concern, land secured for parks and trails frequently serves a dual purpose of flood mitigation, so we come out a winner on both issues. Our county precincts work closely with Harris County Flood Control District in selecting land parcels and designing facilities taking into account the needs of both parties. As mentioned above, our Coalition has and continues to be a very active participant in the discussions of possible locations that serve both purposes.”

The CCFCC board of directors strongly endorses voter approval of the “parks” bond proposition. Our efforts towards the development of the Cypress Creek Greenway and new anchor parks, such as the planned Kickerillo Mischer Preserve, are focused on combining flood mitigation efforts, and recreational use and preservation of acreage along Cypress Creek throughout the Cypress Creek watershed. Without the passage of this parks bond issue, the timely development of the Cypress Creek Greenway is made much more difficult because of the current lack of public funding available for new county park projects which would be part of the Cypress Creek Greenway. There likely won’t be another opportunity for 4 or 5 years. We ask voters to consider the following statement made during a recent hearing concerning the City of Houston’s highly acclaimed undertaking to require land developers to set aside land for public parks; namely, “This effort is important because parks have function be yond generally improving the City. Parks and green spaces represent critically important environmental amenities; contact with nature is highly valued, and it offers a range of health benefits.”

A man-made freshwater/tidal marsh beside Braes Bayou at Mason Park, on Houston’s east side, is featured in Building Better II, a Sierra Club report concerning ten outstanding examples of innovative and environmentally sensitive methods of managing stormwater. This 3.5-acre project also netted a Gulf Guardian Award for the Coastal Watershed Program, a part of the Galveston Bay Estuary Program. The latter award is given by the Gulf of Mexico Program Partnership. Both awards were announced just before Thanksgiving.

Stormwater is a major cause of water pollution because it picks up toxic chemicals from streets and other paved areas and carries them into waterways. Also, sewer overflows associated with poor stormwater management carry untreated sewage into streams and bayous. Wetlands buffer storm runoff, slowing down floodwater so it does not collect downstream. As water flows through them, wetlands also filter out pollutants.

The Mason Park project features both a stormwater treatment wetland and a tidally influenced wetland. A variety of plants have been introduced to help remove pollutants from water. Marissa Sipocz, a coastal restoration specialist with the Texas Cooperative Extension/Texas Sea Grant program, said that the plants were chosen to tolerate some salinity, to be able to recover from destruction by nutria and carp, and for their attractiveness. “I chose some plants with showy flowers or seeds, like irises, swamp and spider lilies, and bull rushes. Something is interesting in every season.”

Other plantings included cord grass, saw grass, Thalia, and arrowhead. Cattails were not planted because they are aggressive and will take over a habitat, she explained.

Sipocz said the plants were gathered from wetlands within 50 miles of the site. “It is important to use field collected plants to maintain genetic integrity,” Sipocz said. Plant collection involved working with a variety of agencies and groups such as the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the EPA, and the Army Corps of Engineers.

High school students from Chavez and Austin High Schools were major participants in the project. Working with Texas Master Naturalists and the Park People, the students helped collect wetland plants, took care of them until the area was ready, and then, sometimes working in waist-deep water, helped plant them.

Sipocz said that the area was planted in stages from October of 2005 through this past September. As expected, many of the first plants were eaten, but, “like we planned, the plants came back from stubs,” she said. “We have already measured improvements in water quality.” Sipocz said that if the cash value of the donated services is added in the project cost at least two million dollars.

The wetland is also expected to attract such birds as ibises, white pelicans, ospreys, herons, and egrets.

Eric Olson, the Sierra Club staffer who selected the projects featured in the report, said that the Houston project was noteworthy for several reasons. “We liked it because it returned nature to an urban area, because it involved so many community groups, and because it is a model that can be replicated elsewhere.” The Sierra Club report also mentions other projects from the flood control district that begin to reverse years of environmental damage to area waterways.

The project began in 2001 when the Harris County Flood Control District was planning to widen Braes Bayou at Mason Park and the Texas Coastal Watershed Program received a grant from the Galveston Bay Estuary Program to develop a stormwater demonstration project. HCFC agreed to create an area for a wetland as it widened the bayou. The first step was for the Coastal Watershed Program to facilitate a partnership between more than 15 agencies and organizations, including Harris County Flood Control District, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department. The Coastal Watershed Program’s John Jacob said, “Some of the impact of the project has also been in bringing all these different parties together. The path has been laid for future collaborative work.”

Earlier this year, Harris County Flood Control District, Texas Cooperative Extension/Texas Sea Grant, and the City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department won The Park People’s Partnership Award for their efforts on this project.

Last Sunday afternoon, there was not much traffic on the Houston Ship Channel. A few huge ships were moored and one was being guided up the channel. Mothers For Clean Air organized this trip so that passengers could get a close-up look at chemical plants, but floating trash and sea gulls also competed for my attention.

As the boat left the turning basin, sea gulls followed its wake, swooping down to catch fish that were too small for us to see from the boat. Occasionally, other birds could be seen perched on pilings or chunks of rock. Some small black ducks floated by. My birding skills are very limited, but I saw one bird that I think was a brown pelican and several that might be herons. I saw at least six different kinds of bird — a surprise. My expectation has always been that the Ship Channel is a barren place that doesn’t support wildlife.

Something green trying was trying to grow everywhere along the channel bank that wasn’t concreted over. Brady’s Landing Restaurant and some of the industrial facilities had lawns, but sunflowers and trees were sprouting whenever there was a bit of dirt.

Looking down at the water, the most visible feature was trash. Plastic water bottles and bits of Styrofoam dominated. Recent rains had washed discarded cigarette butts, soda cans, plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, and litter from Houston streets through storm drains into the water of the channel. Unless cleaned up or caught on the banks, the trash will end up in Galveston Bay and move on out into the open sea.

A bright pink skimmer boat called the Mighty Tidy works five days a week to skim trash from parts of Buffalo Bayou and the Ship Channel. It was put into operation in 2003. The Mighty Tidy is managed by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, and is a project of the Harris County Flood Control District, Harris County, and The Port of Houston. Cleaning up the trash gives the area a better appearance but it also removes a source of pollution and lets flood waters flow more easily. Objects carried by floodwaters can damage the bayou’s banks.

Plastic is a serious problem in the world’s oceans. Last week, Greenpeace reported that there is a vast vortex of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The area, which can grow to the size of Texas, is not far from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The Greenpeace report, “Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans” said at least 267 species — including seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish — are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris.

The boat’s announcer didn’t mention the trash, and one boy (not from the Mothers for Clean Air group) tossed his pink soft drink can over the side.

The trip took us from the Turning Basin to the Washburn Tunnel. There was some activity at some of the chemical plants, and a pervasive smell of sulphur in the air near the end of the route.

The Port of Houston offers free Ship Channel tours on the Sam Houston several times a day with advance reservations.

Their “day job,” asking about the damage sustained, the significant threat to human health in the area, and what environmental health projects are thought most important, ended with a report presented to the NIEH director’s conference in November.

However, Sullivan says, “The flood of fact and feeling we got back from our collaborators refused to stay inside the neat little box of our original purpose. From the moment we arrived in Baton Rouge we realized that the magnitude of the human and ecological damage demanded something more intimate and less formal, something grounded in fact but which also opened a window into how it really feels to live in the middle of an eco-catastrophe.”

So Sullivan and Parras took the videos of their interviews and pieced them together with music, still pictures, and color commentary from locals, into a film entitled . . . after the wind, child, after the waters gone. . .

Sullivan says the people in the film hope to promote “understanding and empathy with the plight of coastal Louisiana, home of so much of our energy industry infrastructure, a nexus of ongoing struggles by African-American, Houma, and Cajun communities for basic environmental, social and cultural justice, the most bountiful and endangered estuarine fishery in the Lower 48, way-station for innumerable species of migratory birds, and the cradle of so much of our national culture.”

The film will be shown at Rice Media Center on Thursday, August 17, at 8 pm. The Media Center is at University at Stockton on the south side of Rice University, 6100 Main Street. For more information, contact josulliv@utmb.edu.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which issues flood plain maps used for determining flood insurance rates, has settled all appeals and protests of its maps. FEMA will be issuing a Letter of Final Determination in mid July. Communities in Harris County that participate in the National Flood Insurance Program will have six months once the letter is issued to change their ordinances to conform to the new maps – at which time the preliminary flood insurance rate maps will become effective and flood insurance rates and requirements will be determined using the new maps.

Preliminary maps do not affect flood insurance requirements or costs until the maps are final. Those who purchase flood insurance now may benefit from a grandfathering provision, which can help reduce an individual’s insurance cost. Sales of flood insurance are suspended when certain weather conditions, such as tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico, make losses likely.

The preliminary maps can be viewed at the Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project website and there is a hotline to answer questions about the new maps: (713)722-7227.

If you are interested in finding out what you can do to help reduce flooding, the Bayou Preservation Association website has reports from the group’s seminars on low impact development and “community flood control begins at home.”

The Gulf Restoration Network and the Sierra Club released a joint report, May 31, titled “The School of Big Storms – the High Cost of Compromising Our Natural Defenses and the Benefits of Protecting Them.” The report examines actions taken by communities across the Gulf that either increase protection from storms or make them more vulnerable. The report concludes that much of the devastation from hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 could have been avoided if the lessons discussed in the report had been heeded.

The report presents case studies for eight issues: development in flood plains; political pressure weakening plans to reduce flooding impact; protecting barrier islands and coastal wetlands; allowing projects that destroy natural storm barriers; encouraging development that is set back from the waterfront; protecting coastal habitat; exempting development from building codes; and strengthening oil and gas infrastructure.

According to the report, “Nature has suffered at the hands of the oil and gas industry in the Gulf Coast for many years.” A great deal of coastal wetlands loss is due to the pipelines and canals crossing swamps in Louisiana and Texas. Extraction of oil and gas contributes to subsidence. Toxic chemicals used in drilling remain in soil and water. These were issues before the increase in hurricane strength seen recently.

In addition, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 113 oil platforms and damaged 457 pipelines. It may take as long as seven years to repair the damage to pipelines. Some oil rigs are still missing and have become navigational hazards.

The report also examines the Murphy oil spill in St. Bernard Parish that occurred during Hurricane Katrina. More than 1 million gallons spilled and the mixed crude spread over a one-mile area. The oil that was not recovered has evaporated, but high levels of benzene remain in the sediment. According to the report, the storage tank that overturned was only 10 percent full, leaving it an easy toss for the 18-foot storm surge. Standard practice is to top off tanks so they do not overturn.

The report recommends that oil and gas companies be held accountable for the damage they have done and be required to assist in wetland restoration. It also suggests that those facilities that can be relocated be moved out of harm’s way whenever possible. Facilities that can not be moved must be built to withstand Category 5 storms.

One case study focuses on Houston and its response to Tropical Storm Allison. The study blames the damage, in part, on development in flood plains and the region’s failure to complete projects that were supposed to mitigate the impact of upstream development. However, the study also looks at improvements the Harris County Flood Control District has made in its flood control plans and recommends that other communities study them.

The full report is available from the Gulf Restoration Network, .

3015 Richmond, Suite 201
Houston, Texas 77098
(713) 522-0590/fax: (713) 523-3057
hsweetnam@blueprinthouston.org

www.blueprinthouston.org

Heidi Sweetnam, Executive Director
hsweetnam@blueprinthouston.org

Callie Bluemer, Executive Assistant

Publications: Yearly annual report; Web site – www.blueprinthouston.org.

Programs: Periodic public meetings about planning in Houston.

Major Events: Citizens Congress, fall.

Volunteer Opportunities: Civic Awareness and Engagement Committee.

4999 W. Belfort
Houston, Texas 77035
(713) 723-7230/Fax: (713) 723-0121
bobx@hal-pc.org

Bob Schwartz, President
(713) 723-7230
bobx@hal-pc.org

Ed O’Rourke, Treasurer
(713) 664-4343
eorourke@pdq.net

Publications: Publish in Meyerlander and in local newspapers.

Speakers Bureau: Contact Bob Schwartz.

Meeting Times: Third Monday of every month, 7:30 pm, The Gathering Place at 5310 South Willow, Houston, TX 77035.

Volunteer Opportunities: Contact Bob Parrott.

Major Events: Annual meeting in Mar.

12526 Texas Army Trail
Cypress, TX 77429
(281) 469-5161/Fax: (281) 469-5468
floodalliance@ccfcc.org

www.ccfcc.org

Richard D. Smith, President
(281) 469-5161

Michael Murr, Board Secretary
(281) 370-1830

Publications: Monthly news article provided in electronic form to neighborhood newspaper editors. Website facts. Annual report.

Programs: Flood Protection: Research, consultation, advocacy and education. Preservation: Greenway trails/ park development focused on preservation of floodplain lands. Reforestationprojects.

Major Events: Annual meeting featuring guest speakers and forthcoming watershed plans. Sponsor scout reforestation and water quality projects.

Speakers Bureau: Professional representatives sponsored as speakers at monthly meetings (check agenda on web site). Proved speakers upon request.

Meeting Time: Third Wednesday of each month, 7:30 pm, at Lake Forest Utility District Office, 14223 Lakewood Forest Drive. See information and map on Web site.

Volunteer Opportunities: Both outdoors and indoors. Retired folks in high demand. Grant applications. Contact us to discuss your interests.