Houston Chronicle By Mike Snyder May 5, 2018
Even before Hurricane Harvey dumped 14 months’ worth of rain on the Houston area in four days, government and business leaders were discussing the need to build a third reservoir west of the city — a key step in completing a 78-year-old plan to protect the heart of Houston from devastating floods.
That 1940 plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers included several projects that were never built, including a reservoir on White Oak Bayou, a levee on Cypress Creek, and about 50 miles of canals.
The engineers who drew up that plan might have gaped in astonishment at Greater Houston, 2018 - a vast agglomeration of glittering skyscrapers and humble bungalows, narrow streets and 24-lane freeways, cell phone towers and salvage yards, strip clubs and construction cranes. Yet even as the region and its needs have changed, the vision of an additional reservoir has endured.
Eight months after Harvey, area leaders generally agree that a third reservoir is needed to supplement the protection provided by the Barker and Addicks reservoirs - two projects in the 1940 plan that did come to fruition. Unresolved issues involving the location, design and primary goal of a third reservoir, however, reflect broader questions about regional values and priorities.
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https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-area-continues-to-eye-third-reservoir-to-12889397.php
