The Texas Water Development Board has agreed to fund a grant application for a Montgomery County flood mitigation study, which officials hope will produce a better flood-warning system and ideas for projects to reduce flood damage.
Although the planning for this application began almost a year ago, the push for a study came as the county was recovering from two major flood events, the Tax Day and Memorial Day weekend floods, where the county was battered by heavy rains and flooding through much of the county.
“This is great news for our county and will be a big help as we continue to look for ways to solve some of our flooding issues,” said County Judge Craig Doyal.
San Jacinto River Authority General Manager Jace Houston, who submitted the grant application for the three entities, said the Texas Water Development Board award the full requested amount.
“We were extremely successful; they had over 40 applications for just $3 million in available funding, and we received our full grant request, which was $460,000. It was a home run,” Houston said. “It’s a wonderful success for our county.”
The overall study is designed to be completed in multiple phases, the first involving the Lake Conroe watershed and the upper West Fork of the San Jacinto River, including Alligator Creek. Future phases would involve other watersheds
The study will investigate structural and nonstructural flood damage reduction projects for selected tributaries and will develop a Comprehensive Flood Protection Plan.
The study request was for $920,000 for Phase 1; the approved grant from the state will fund half of that amount, or $460,000
The remaining $460,000 is to be paid by SJRA, the county and city of Conroe as follows:
•SJRA: $250,000
•County: $90,000
•City: $120,000
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