Getting Semi-Serious about Protecting Texas's Coast

Last year, five counties including (Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, Jefferson and Orange counties) signed on to a plan that would create the Gulf Coast Community Protection and Discovery District. While Harris County rejected the proposal on multiple occasions, finally on Tuesday, Harris County passed their own proposal to join. The plan passed by Harris County was a watered down version of the original proposal. It stripped the district of any binding power and limited the scope of a study which will look at various options like the Ike Dike. The Ike Dyke is a plan that would create "a 15-mile seawall along Galveston Islands and massive floodgates at the entry to Galveston Bay." The Ike Dike, not only protects private and public property, but also gives the business community assurance that the Ship Channel will be protected.

Creating this new District which could channel money into projects like the Ike Dike, but the five other counties still need to approve Harris County's plan. For more information, the Houston Chronicle reports on the subject and major differences between the two plans. This plan comes just in time for a new study that finds that storms in Texas will increase in the next few decades due to an increase in energy available to storms. Read more at Reuters.