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Addicks & Barker Reservoirs

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Addicks & Barker Reservoirs HCFCD watersheds: ADDICS ACSN ARMAND I CRSS BARR C BRAS SAN ACIN RIR SAN ACIN RIR BFFA & GASN BA CARNRS SIMS CDAR SRING CR SRING CR & CAR CR GS CR CRSS CR INC GRNS WHI A Briefing Document HNING WIW CR ADDICKS & BARKER RESERVOIRS Walnut Creek-Spring Creek Little Cypress Creek Cypress Creek ADDICKS White Oak Bayou RESERVOIR Buffalo Bayou Buffalo Bayou San acinto River BARKER RESERVOIR Brays Bayou Upper Oyster Creek Figure 1 Watersheds impacting or impacted by Addicks and Barker History of Addicks & Barker Benefits of Addicks & Barker Reservoirs HCFCD ublicly announced proects Addicks Dam/Reservoir and Barker Dam/Reservoir are two federal flood Addicks and Barker Reservoirs and Dams hold water during large rainfall scale 100000 control projects located in western Harris County that are designed to store events, reducing the flow of water into Buffalo Bayou and mitigating the risk of water during large rainfalls to reduce downstream flooding along Buffalo flooding along the bayou. This protects areas of significant economic impact 0 1mi mi mi 10mi 18mi Bayou within the City of Houston. in Houston, including Downtown, Memorial, River Oaks, Washington Avenue, Middle Oyster Creek Montrose, Fourth Ward, and the East End. Without the reservoirs, Harvey would Addicks and Barker Dams were constructed between 1942 and 1948 as partAustin Bayou Halls Bayou of a larger U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1940 flood protection plan for the likely have caused significantly more flooding in these areas. City of Houston. At the time, around $4 million were spent on construction of these two dams, including land acquisition for the dams and for some of the land area behind the dams within the design flood pool of the reservoirs. The reservoirs were intended as part of a larger system that was never implemented: 1. A levee to prevent flood water from Cypress Creek watershed from overflowing into the Addicks Reservoir. 2. A reservoir on upper White Oak Bayou. 3. Bypass channels to direct high volumes of water being released from the dams out of Buffalo Bayou and around Houston. The two dams were redesigned and reconstructed in the 1980s to meet updated Figure 2 Congress & Milam Intersection During a Flood (1929) safety criteria for federal dams. Initially, these two dams and reservoirs were far from developed areas of Houston; however, today, development has occurred in and around both, including thousands of single-family homes built within the reservoirs’ design flood pool for each dam, and within the pathway of floodwater releases from these dams along and outside the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The reservoirs are designed to hold more rainfall than a 1% event, so land upstream of the reservoir is considered “safe” because it is protected from flooding due to rainfall in a 100-year event. Therefore, FEMA does not map these areas within the 1% floodplain, but in an event larger than the 100-year, they will flood. Similarly, during events larger than the 1%, dam releases can occur, flooding areas downstream, along Buffalo Bayou, that are not mapped in the FEMA 100-year floodplain. This scenario occurred during Harvey. Figure 3 Congress & Milam Intersection During Harvey (2017) 1 Briefing Document 2 | 05.07.18 How Do the Dams/Reservoirs Work? Addicks and Barker capture and store excess rainwater that runs off of the land Thus, as the reservoirs start filling up, at a certain level some of the water upstream from the dams, creating a flood control reservoir, or pool, of water stored behind the dams can begin to flow over the spillways. The spillways all for an extended period of time until the stored water can be released through have neighborhoods and commercial developments downstream of them. The outlet pipes or conduits located at the bottom of each dam. Where Buffalo reservoir levels have reached high enough to spill over, and it is not known what Bayou starts, both dams have Controlled Outlet Gates that allow outflow to be flooding might result from an overflow. released at a desired rate. The flood control reservoirs hold floodwater and then At its highest point near the outlet structure, Addicks Dam is 121 feet above slowly release through gated outlet pipes. The gates at the ends of the pipes mean sea level, while Barker Dam is about 115 feet. The top of the dams slope can be incrementally opened to regulate the amount of water released from downward to a ground level approximately 70 feet above mean sea level, these dams so as to mitigate flooding downstream. Emergency Spillways are according to FMA making the dams about 45-50 feet tall. For Addicks Dam,being theinside spillways the 1 A are at located at the far ends of both dams. Emergency spillways are built to allow elevation 112 feet to 115 feet; for Barker, the spillways areone at elevation also knon 106 asfeet. water to flow out of reservoirs during extreme conditions in order to prevent Large areas behind each of the dams and within the reservoirs’Special Flood footprints Haard are dam failures, similar to an emergency overflow drain on a bathtub or sink. Area (SFHA) is hat is inundated when the dams are filling up. referred to as being inside the floodplain Normal Flow ADDICKS RESERVOIR OUTLET controlled op of Dam 121 ADDICKS Harvey High oint 109.1 RESERVOIR WATERSHED Bottom of the Dam 70 BUFFALO CNRD RAS BAYOU ADDICKS RESERVOIR BARKER BUFFALO/ RESERVOIR WHITE OAK WATERSHED WATERSHED BARKER RESERVOIR OUTLET controlled BARKER RESERVOIR op of Dam 115 Harvey High oint 101.5 BRAYS controlled gate WATERSHED spillay Bottom of the Dam 70 BUFFALO CNRD RAS BAYOU Spillway Flow ADDICKS RESERVOIR SPILLWAY uncontrolled op of Dam @ utlet 121 ADDICKS op of Dam @ Spillay 112-115 RESERVOIR Harvey High oint 109.1 WATERSHED BUFFALO/ WHITE OAK BAYOU Bottom of the Dam 70 WATERSHED ADDICKS RESERVOIR BARKER BUFFALO/ BARKER RESERVOIR SPILLWAY uncontrolled RESERVOIR WHITE OAK WATERSHED WATERSHED BARKER op of Dam @ utlet 115 RESERVOIR op of Dam @ Spillay 10 Harvey High oint 101.5 BRAYS BRAYS controlled gate WATERSHED BAYOU WATERSHED spillay Bottom of the Dam 70 Harvey did not eceed emergency spillay levels 2 Briefing Document 2 | 05.07.18 ADDICKS & BARKER DURING HARVEY Figure 4 North Addicks Before Harvey Figure 5 North Addicks After Harvey Upstream Flooding Within the Reservoir Pool During Harvey, unprecedented amounts of rainfall caused water levels to reach More than 10,000 homes located inside of these two reservoirs are estimated 109.1 feet above mean sea level inside Addicks Reservoir and 101.5 feet to have experienced some level of flooding during Hurricane Harvey. As the inside Barker Reservoir, both of which were record pool levels. In Addicks, water level in these reservoirs began to rise significantly, water was released the water level was high enough to flow out of the reservoir, going around the through the gated flood control structures at the outlets of each dam. northern spillway that meets up with the natural ground at 108 feet elevation. MA SSIB HAR FDRA GRNMN RR op of Dam 121 op of Spillay 112-115 Harvey High oint 109.1 Bottom of the Dam 70 land outside federal govt property but inside reservoir federal government property flooday 1annual chance floodplain (100-year) 0.2 annual chance Shown in Figure 4 & 5 floodplain (500-year) etent of 109.1 elevation pool levels from Harvey Figure 6 Diagram of Addicks as a Result of Harvey Rainfall 3 ADDICKS & BARKER DURING HARVEY Figure 6 South Dairy Ashford Road @ Buffalo Bayou - Before Controlled Release Figure 7 South Dairy Ashford Road @ Buffalo Bayou - During Controlled Release Downstream Flooding Due to Dam Releases top of spillway In order to minimize upstream flooding, risks of spillway overflows from the 115 reservoirs, and the risk of further rainfall exceeding the reservoir capacity, the 110 Army Corps of Engineers released water at a controlled rate through the outlet gates during and after Harvey. The combined amount of water released through 105 the gates of both dams exceeded 15,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), well above 100 the capacity of Buffalo Bayou, resulting in flooding in neighborhoods downstream of the dams. Such reservoir releases have never happened before. Typically, 95 combined reservoir releases have not exceeded 2,000 cfs. Neighborhoods 90 between State Highway 6 and Beltway 8 were especially affected by the releases and an estimated 4,000 homes were flooded. 85 80 What Is the Status of the Reservoir Projects? Reservoir Elevation (Feet) 75 New outlet gate structures will replace the existing ones at both Addicks and Barker Dams, expected completion in 2019. Like all dams, Addicks and Barker 70 are at some risk of failing, and failure could be catastrophic. More information 65 about this can be found in later fact sheets. 100 Risk of Future Dam Releases 90 water released to clear reservoir Addicks and Barker Dams could again release large amounts of water downstream 85 or flood homes upstream during extreme rain events like Harvey, or as a result of 80 a number of smaller rains occurring over a short period of time. HARVEY RAINFALL 75 top of bank Some solutions that have been suggested to avoid future releases include 70 excavating and/or clearing vegetation in the reservoirs’ storage areas to increase their volumes, expanding Buffalo Bayou to increase its capacity and allow more 65 flow, adding more flood control structures upstream, and additional regulations 60 stream elevation for upstream development to reduce the amount of water entering these reservoirs. Buffalo Bayou Elevation (Feet) 55 50 KEY POLICY QUESTIONS 45 AUG 18 AUG 25 AUG 31 SEP 7 SEP 14 SEP 21 SEP 28 Could a new regional flood management strategy help use our current Figure 8 Stream Gages 08/12/17-09/30/17 structures to their full ability and help target future funds for improvements? Could regional policy restricting development inside the reservoir pool or For More Information Visit overflow path help prevent damages in future events? HCFCD Could a policy requiring better water storage for developments lessen the hcfcd.org demand for new storage structures in the future, or even prevent flooding in Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium areas not near the reservoirs? HoustonConsortium.com 4 Briefing Document 2 | 05.07.18.
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