The Galveston County Daily News

The question on everybody’s mind was this: “Will they raise the height of the Texas City levee so there will be no more close calls?”

Civic Club members and several guests came last week to hear Col. David C. Weston of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tell the latest in plans.

But the best they got was a qualified maybe.

Weston said the levee began as an idea in 1958 and was completed in 1985, illustrating the slow and deliberate movement of typical government projects. Its original cost was $80 million, 30 percent of which was paid by Galveston County.

The corps is replacing crushed concrete along the bottom of the levee with 22,000 tons of rocks. That job is in progress.

A study to see if the present height requirements are sufficient is in the planning stages. The present standard for Texas City, Port Arthur and similar levee structures is for a 15-foot surge.

“Further up the bay, the water gets higher,” he said, “as it reaches shallower water.”

Weston noted there are many variables about Galveston Bay, which affect what happens in a hurricane, variables a lot of people don’t take into account. In the upper bay, there is shallower water. In the west bay, the land drops off to very deep water.

“Is there really an increased threat? Do we build the wall higher? We must have congressional authorization to do that. By September, we should have the answers to those questions,” he said.

The study, he noted, looks at 100-year storm criteria as part of their flood control project.

The 100-year criteria means the chance of something happening is one in 100. That criteria, interestingly enough, was set up, not by the engineers or the weather forecasters, but by the insurance companies, he said.

Hurricane Ike, he believes, met the 100-year storm criteria.

Whatever is done “depends on what the local people want and how bad they want it,” he said. “To get things done, they have to get Congress’ ear.

“The federal government pays on the basis of cost-benefit ratio, and budgeting is done through the Office of Management and Budget.”

The corps, which consists mostly of civilian employees, works on a project basis, which means if it doesn’t have a project, it doesn’t have a budget, he said.

One project already funded is the dredging of the Texas City ship channel to 45 feet. Contracts are about to be let.

The third item of interest — fervent interest to most every one in Texas City — is the Texas City Dike.

Weston said from the point of view of the corps, the news is good, because the original infrastructure, created in 1911 to slow down the currents and help ships enter the channel, is virtually intact.

Other parts of the dike are, of course, the responsibility of the county, the city and private businesses. Replacement of rock to all jetties, including the dike, should be completed by the corps in December.

Somehow, local officials must manage to round up enough federal and local money, I guess, to help them fix the road and replace the rest of the amenities at the Texas City Dike.

Cathy Gillentine is a columnist for The Daily News. She may be reached at cgillentine1(at)sbcglobal.net.