By Michael Tracey, The Young Turks
A political appointee and donor of then-Texas Governor (and now-Energy Secretary) Rick Perry was instrumental in pushing for a highway extension project which environmental advocates now say is likely to have exacerbated flooding conditions in Houston.
At least 38 people have died in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which has displaced tens of thousands of people from their homes and caused untold billions of dollars in damages.
Some of the most jarring images from the Houston area since Harvey struck have been of the Grand Parkway, which encircles the sprawling metroplex -- and parts of which are now submerged. Much of the parkway was built only in the past five to ten years, as Houston has seen a population and development boom. The most recent segment of the parkway to complete construction is Segment E, which traverses the western portion of the region.
Construction of Segment E was vociferously argued against by the Houston chapter of the Sierra Club, partially on the grounds that it could inhibit the ability of the nearby Addicks and Barker dams to protect critical parts of Houston. Construction typically inhibits the earth’s ability to soak up rainwater and would, the Sierra Club warned, generate additional runoff flowing into the respective reservoirs. Nevertheless, Segment E ultimately opened in December 2013.
While the Harris County Flood Control district maintained that the dams had been seriously strained but not breached, there was still widespread flooding in the vicinity -- including significant spillway overflow from Addicks. It is estimated that over 3,000 homes in the Addicks and Barker reservoir areas have flooded.
In 2011, the local Sierra Club sued the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Association and the Texas Transportation Commission after obtaining an internal Army Corps memo which conceded that building Segment E would increase the volume of stormwater entering the reservoirs and increase the risk of "catastrophic failure."
“It’s inevitable that as Segment E develops, there’s going to be more water going into that Addicks watershed, and inundating people further,” Evelyn Merz, a Houston Sierra Club committee chair, told TYT.
The state of Texas opposed the Sierra Club lawsuit, arguing at the time that stalling construction of the highway segment to allow for further flooding risk assessment would be too costly, and eventually the project was allowed to go forward. A commissioner at the Texas Department of Transportation at the time was Ned Holmes, an appointee of then-governor Perry, who is now Energy Secretary in the Trump Administration.
Holmes, a wealthy real estate developer who'd given at least $192,000 to Perry, was instrumental in setting into motion the plan to construct Segment E, securing $350 million from the Texas Transportation Commission for the project.
Explaining his rationale for insisting that the project be expedited, Holmes cited the need to entice ExxonMobil to move its headquarters to a location utilizing the parkway. “Exxon representatives have stated very clearly to me that TxDOT moving forward on the Grand Parkway is essential and that if that did not happen they would not select this site,” Holmes said at the time.
Brandt Mannchen, a member of the Houston Sierra Club executive committee, told TYT this week that concerns about the deleterious environmental effects of highway development have been borne out by Harvey’s toll. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that the more impervious surface you put down, the more large roads you put in, the more runoff you get. And then the problems happen.” (Impervious surfaces are surfaces which allow for the free flow of excess water which might otherwise be absorbed into, say, grassland.)
An additional proposed segment of the Grand Parkway, Segment C, would run through the Brazos River floodplain, to the south of midtown Houston. As with Segment E, the issue with this proposed segment is that not only would the highways themselves exacerbate flooding conditions, they would incentivize development in flood-prone areas that would involve paving over far more terrain that might otherwise help absorb floodwaters. “Just ‘cause we build these wonderful roads to get us here and there doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to be beneficial in all respects,” Mannchen said.
Holmes did not immediately reply to TYT’s request for comment. An employee at his investment firm said he is out of town.
Note: This story has been updated to include additional comments from the Sierra Club, the request for comment from Holmes, and the increased death toll.