By Ken Kramer, Water Resources Chair, Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club
The Houston area does not lack for flooding challenges, and a multitude of new funding sources are potentially available to meet some of these challenges. These funding sources provide an opportunity to emphasize flood mitigation strategies such as “nature-based solutions” or “green infrastructure” that may be more effective than traditional, more structural flood control projects. Equally important, however, flood mitigation measures made possible by this new funding need to address historic inequalities in flood management that often leave socially vulnerable families and communities at greater risk than others.
Major flooding events, such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017, certainly affect not just low-income but also middle-class and even upper-class neighborhoods. However, several factors – including past practices such as “redlining” and segregation as well as economic disadvantages – have resulted in high concentrations of low-income populations and people of color in low-lying areas without adequate drainage. Often these neighborhoods are adjacent to industrial facilities posing environmental risks heightened during flooding. Moreover, studies indicate that these vulnerable neighborhoods have not received flood mitigation funding proportionate to their needs or the risks they face.
This inequitable situation – and ways to overcome it – was the subject of a report released recently by the US Water Alliance entitled Water Rising: Equitable Approaches to Urban Flooding. The report and some of its case studies were discussed in an August webinar (a recording of which is accessible online).
Webinar speakers included Houstonians Iris Gonzalez, Coalition Director for the Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience (CEER), and Jamila Johnson, Infrastructure Policy Manager for Houston Public Works. CEER is a coalition of several organizations, including the Sierra Club, whose aim is “to fulfill the vision of just and environmentally sustainable neighborhoods” through “advocacy work in disproportionately impacted communities in the greater Houston region” aimed at securing “public and private investment…” to clean up contamination and “prevent or reduce flooding.”
The efforts by CEER and allies at the City of Houston to re-focus flood mitigation spending on vulnerable Houston neighborhoods such as Kashmere Gardens is a case study discussed in the US Water Alliance report. Residents of Kashmere Gardens are overwhelmingly (97%) African-American or Hispanic and Hurricane Harvey damaged 42% of the structures. As noted in the case study, “median incomes for the neighborhood are about one-third that of the rest of the city,” and only 10% of the structures there that were damaged by Harvey were covered by the National Flood Insurance Program.
An encouraging aspect of these efforts to bring about more equity in flood mitigation funding is that CEER and its allies, which also includes Dr. Earthea Nance of Texas Southern University and the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium, are promoting the use of nature-based solutions. For example, in comments submitted earlier this year to the Texas General Land Office (GLO) on the state agency’s Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant funds for Mitigation (CDBG-MIT), CEER and Houston Organizing Movement for Equity (HOME) noted that: “Nature-based solutions are the cornerstone of resilience for cities across Texas.” The joint comments go on to discuss the benefits of nature-based solutions for flood mitigation and to propose specific changes to the Action Plan to facilitate green infrastructure.
The close alignment of advocacy for equity and for nature-based solutions in flood mitigation was evident in a recent webinar presented by the Texas Living Waters Project (a joint project in which the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter is a partner) and allies on August 5. The theme of the webinar was “A Seat at the Table: How to Engage in Houston-area Flood Mitigation.”
The virtual event included presentations on trends in flood mitigation funding, opportunities for green and natural infrastructure through CDBG-MIT funding, effective methods for public engagement in government funding processes, and the work of the Houston Consortium to develop strategies for flood mitigation for the region, incorporating attention to equity and the environment. Jordan Macha of Bayou City Waterkeeper moderated the webinar. A recording of the webinar and the power point presentations may be accessed on the Living Waters Project website.
Despite these encouraging developments and activities, however, challenges remain in attempting to achieve equitable and nature-based flood mitigation. CEER and HOME in June noted their concerns about achieving environmental justice in Harris County’s actions to address flooding, despite the promise of the Harris Thrives Resolution about reforming the County’s flood program.
Moving away from inequitable and environmentally destructive flood control approaches will require active work by Houston area citizens, such as, for example, participation in citizen advisory committees for the CDBG-MIT program. But the potential payoff for pursuing equity and nature-based solutions in flood mitigation will be great – for everyone.