Summary
Nueces River Authority officials told Nueces County commissioners they won a Texas Water Development Board award to update regional flood maps and asked the county to participate by committing about $478,000 in matching funds, payable over 10 years under a zero-interest loan arrangement.
The Nueces River Authority told Nueces County Commissioners on Tuesday that it has been awarded state funding to carry out an expanded regional flood-mapping and flood-infrastructure planning project covering the Region 13 basin and asked the county to pledge a local match share to participate.
Travis Pruske, chief operations officer and political sponsor for the Region 13 flood planning group, said the project the NRA received from the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) is approximately $30 million in scope and is designed to produce updated, high-resolution flood modeling, an early-warning system, high-hazard dam inspections and low-water crossing assessments across the 31-county planning region. Pruske said the project will map the county at approximately six-inch vertical resolution using LIDAR and other modern hydrologic techniques and will identify phased flood-management projects that could be packaged into grant-ready applications for remediation.
Under the TWDB award, participating counties must provide a local match; Pruske said Nueces County's pro rata share of the match is about $478,000 and that the NRA has secured a 10-year, zero-interest loan option so that a county could pay roughly $47,000 annually instead of providing a lump-sum payment. He said the NRA will act as the applicant and fiscal manager and would coordinate with county staff, municipal governments, drainage districts and regional providers to ensure proposed projects are feasible and tied to the state flood plan.
Panelists told the court the project would specifically: update and replace outdated FEMA and other local flood maps; analyze rainfall-runoff patterns on shorter-duration events (two-to-three hour storms) that FEMA 24-hour models can miss; inspect the county's high-hazard dams and about six low-water crossings; and create Flood Management Projects (FMPs) ready for state grant submission. Pruske stressed that one goal is to break very large, expensive projects into smaller, fundable phases so counties and districts can actually apply for and receive funding; he said earlier regional studies produced large-program price tags rendered infeasible for state grants.
County public-works staff and commissioners asked practical questions about how the Tri-County study and other earlier efforts would be incorporated, the schedule for data and LIDAR delivery (estimated 18 to 24 months), how the NRA will work with local drainage districts, and how mapping products could be used immediately for county engineering, permitting and design studies. Juan Pimentel of county public works said he met with the NRA staff and supports the approach, noting the county could adopt the updated maps as authoritative for permitting long before FEMA completes any federal adoption process.
No formal action was taken at the meeting; county staff asked for more time to review the interlocal agreement and legal terms and to consult with the county attorney before the court would commit funding. Pruske said the NRA is available to meet one-on-one with commissioners and staff and will return with final agreement language and a detailed implementation schedule.
