City Council & County Commissioners discuss flooding & storm drainage issues
By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2015
The Eagle Pass City Council and Maverick County Commissioners Court held a joint workshop on Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 5:00 P.M. at the City of Eagle Pass International Center for Trade, to discuss common issues affecting the community, particularly flooding and storm drainage issues which have hit hard the past few years.
Interim Eagle Pass City Manager and Public Works Director, Hector Chavez, presented a detailed history of flooding in Maverick County and the approval of the City’s Flood Plain Ordinance in 1978.
Chavez discussed the 100 year flood plain in the community and presented a map detailing the 100 year flood plain. Chavez noted how severe thunderstorms in recent years have discharged more than 10 inches of rain within a 24 hour period causing severe flooding problems in the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County. Anytime there is 10 inches or more of rain within a 24 hour period, it causes flooding in certain areas of Maverick County.
Chavez noted that several detention ponds have been built by the City of Eagle Pass during the past years to catch the storm drainage waters and control some of the flooding, but that more detention ponds are needed to be built in the City of Eagle Pass to remedy the severe flooding problems facing the community.
“What residents need to keep in mind is that when you build within a 100 year flood plain and you get an event that is bigger than 10 inches of rain within 24 hours, you will get flooded,” said Chavez.
“What the city and county have to do is a joint effort to build more detention ponds. On the North side, we have Seco Mines that has a lot of flooding problems with Seco Creek and Barrera Street, and on the North side, you have Las Quintas Fronterizas, Jardines Verdes, and Cedar Ridge. Both the city and county have to work together on these public projects,” said Chavez.
“There are other things that need to be done, for example, we need to do a detention pond behind West Lakes Subdivision, canal alterations, and canal concrete lining.” added Chavez.
Chavez added that homeowners need to buy flood insurance, flood proof their homes, and take advantage of federal governmental programs such as the buy back of flood prone homes.
Chavez discussed the flooding and water drainage problems at the Language Development Center, South Veterans Boulevard, Cedar Ridge Subdivision, and Las Quintas Fronterizas Subdivision. Chavez emphasized that these areas flood due to storm drainage and water run off from areas East of Veterans Boulevard such as West Lakes Subidivision. He added that the City needs to build a new detention pond, canalization, and channels in West Lakes Subdivision to capture the large amounts of storm waters coming from this area into South Veterans Boulevard, LDC, Las Quintas Fronterizas, and Cedar Ridge Subdivision.
Chavez also addressed the flooding problems on the North side of Eagle Pass such as in Seco Mines and Barrera Street and how the 100 year flood plain affects these areas. Chavez stated that parts of Seco Mines and Barrera Street are within the 100 year flood plain and regularly flood when there is an 10 inch or greater thunderstorm within a 24 hour period.
Chavez added that one of the main projects involved is altering the existing arroyo at an approximate cost of $,4,000,000 to divert storm waters and control flooding on the North side.
Chavez reiterated the importance of both the city and county working together in tackling the flooding and storm water drainage issues facing both governmental entities and their residents. Possible solutions include building more detention ponds on the North side and buy out the properties of homeowners within the 100 year flood plain through federal government grant programs.
Maverick County Commissioner Precinct 1 Jerry Morales questioned Chavez if the City could approve a subdivision even if it was developed and constructed within a flood zone.
Chavez replied ” There’s nothing that prevents you from building in a flood zone but there’s special provisions that you have to meet.”
Chavez noted one alternative is to raise buildings above the flood plain, water run-off mitigation and other alternatives depending on the circumstances.
Chavez presented alternatives which both entities could work on together to alleviate flooding, including the building of the West Lakes Water Detention Pond, widening and cleaning out of the canal in the areas of Las Quintas / Jardines Verdes.
“I believe that these projects if we work them together will help us alleviate, not completely eliminate because if you get anything above the 100 year flood plan, you will still flood, but the flooding will be a lot less than what they have right now, ” said Chavez.
Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo raised a key point if the City of Eagle Pass had the authority to deny any subdivision application within the 100 year flood plain.
“Don’t you have the right to turn down any development before it even gets to the County as a plat? Maverick County was actually sued by the Attorney Generals Office for not protecting the rights of the citizens against developers. That sounds to me a lot like what we went through in 1996 when we got sued. They came in and said, hey guys, you allowing developers to come in here and develop without any of the services, the basics, sewer, water and drainage and they’re selling these lots. How do we get back to that point where an individual is being allowed to construct and there isn’t a process that stops him and says we already know that the subdivision that you are building on is in the flood plain, we already know there’s going to be issues here. You have it in your Master Plan so somehow it got through the first phase because the county is the last phase and were here saying you know what , we keep doing things the wrong way , we keep doing this , it comes back and we keep approving this subdivisions and this subdivisions that were approving are having issues. How did we even get here? And that’s when we said we have to hire an engineer to protect the interest of the county because that citizen isn’t going to go back to the developer, they’re going to go to the entity and say how come you allowed this to happen.” said Judge Saucedo.
“You state that you pointed it out to the developer but you couldn’t stop it in the planning stage?” asked Saucedo.
“Because FEMA and the Flood Insurance Program allow it, they allow you to build in a flood plain but there are conditions that you have to meet which are you’re going to have to elevate above the flood plain, flood proof, there’s a lot of things that they have to do in getting a permit. If they’re in the county it would fall on you guys because your also under FEMA and you would have to make sure that they build to those specifications. We’re telling them can you build , yes but you’re going to have to follow the specifications and if they’re out in the county , you would have to make sure they’re building to those specifications.” answered Chavez.
It was obvious that the City and the County have approved subdivisions in flood plains in the past that have come to haunt both entities and their residents. Valuable lessons have been learned from the past mistakes and need to be avoided now and in the future.
