By Brandt Mannchen
On February 17, 2026, I attended a Regional Flood Plan (RFP) meeting sponsored by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and the San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group (Region 6). These meetings begin the process to revise the present RFP and State of Texas Flood Plan (TFP).
The room was set up with posters that described the proposed process and the original RFP which was prepared in 2023 and made a part of the TFP in 2024. Now the second planning cycle (2024-2028) has begun. The meeting showed a 10-minute video about flooding and had people who could answer questions and discuss your issues and concerns.
I talked extensively with an employee of Freese and Nichols, a consulting firm that is part of the RFP process, about my ideas to resolve flood risks. The RFP includes data gathering, identification of flood risks, evaluation of present floodplain management practices, goals for flood risk management and mitigation, and strategies to reduce these risks. Some of the issues, concerns, and strategies that I discussed at the meeting and submitted in a letter to the TWDB and Region 6 included:
1. Protection, acquisition, and management of natural or restored habitats which soak up floodwaters (riparian woodlands, bottomland hardwoods, and prairies) in the Northern, Western, and Eastern San Jacinto River Watershed including Grimes, San Jacinto, Waller, Liberty, Walker, and Montgomery Counties.
My concern was if these parts of the San Jacinto Watershed aren’t protected, the downstream flooding effects due to development in the next 20-30 years will be significant and tragic all the way to Houston, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
I urged TWDB to work with what the U.S. Forest Service (Sam Houston National Forest) has done since the 1930’s and the Coastal Prairie Conservancy has done on the Katy Prairie so that complete floodplain greenways and overflow areas are established and protected.
This will reduce downstream flooding impacts and provide wildlife, carbon storage, clean air, clean water, soil erosion control, vegetation, rare, endangered, and threatened species, and compatible recreation benefits. A continuous greenway from SHNF to Galveston Bay should be considered in the TFP and the RFP. This idea is bolstered by the Cypress Creek and Spring Creek Greenways in Harris and Montgomery Counties.
2. The TWDB should create funding for local and state flood funds which immediately will be used after a flood for buyouts for citizens who have lands and properties that have flooded so people get out of the floodplain right away and live somewhere safer.
These lands will then be used as flood mitigation either as a natural or restored natural (green infrastructure) greenways, prairies, and other habitats or as flood mitigation projects. This should be a statewide priority.
3. The TWDB should have a council of state agencies that ensures that flood prone natural greenways (natural or restored 100-year and 500-year floodplains and prairies) are maximally incorporated into regional flood plans. There should be active federal advisory coordination with federal agencies.
4. The TWDB should state how it will deal with reduced presence and funding from the Federal Emergency Management Aency (FEMA) and other federal agencies if the presidential administration and the U.S. Congress continue to downsize and reduce their budgets. TWDB should discuss how this affects the ability of the federal government to help pay for floodplain buyouts and projects and what alternatives to this scenario will be.
5. The TWDB should discuss and integrate the Texas Land Trust Council into the TFP. It should determine how land trusts can work with TWDB to protect, buy, and manage natural and restored floodplains and prairies so they maximally assist in reduction of flood risk.
6. The TWDB should include a discussion and integration of local and other state agencies or districts (cities, towns, river authorities, MUDs, special districts like drainage districts, etc.) and private interests (developers) that shows how they will work with TWDB to protect, buy, and manage natural and restored floodplains and prairies so that they assist in the reduction of flood risk. A good example of how this has succeeded locally is the George Mitchell Nature Preserve within the Spring Creek Greenway in Harris and Montgomery Counties.
7. The TWDB should find and use experts at universities, colleges, and junior colleges who can help with the reduction of flood risk via their research, information, and expertise.
8. The TWDB should discuss how other states and the federal government have successfully interacted with public and private groups and individuals to buy, protect, and manage floodplain lands for whatever purpose, via fee purchase or conservation easements so that they can maximize their actions to acquire natural and restore floodplains and prairies that help reduce flood risk.
It’s not too late for you to provide your issues, concerns, and ideas about flooding in Region 6 and the State of Texas. Send your comments to: San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group, C/O Hollaway Environmental, 2500 Summer St., Suite 1130, Houston, Texas 77007.