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Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and some members of the City Council are headed to Washington D.C. Wednesday. While there, they will be pitching a multi-billion-dollar solution to flooding around Houston.
Unfortunately for Houston, the metro-area has suffered three 100-year floods (flooding usually so statistically rare it earned that nickname) in the past 15-months.
Looking to solve flooding northeast of the city, Councilman Dave Martin will join Mayor Sylvester Turner, members of the city’s Congressional Delegation, and others in a meeting with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in Washington.
Martin thinks the solution to flooding along the San Jacinto River and around Lake Houston is to dredge the 62-year old lake.
"Because of the silt that has gone from various other tributaries that lead into Lake Houston we've lost probably about 50% of the holding capacity of the water that sits in Lake Houston," Martin says.
With less room for water in the lake, heavy rains have produced major flooding.
Martin believes the cost to dredge the lake could be anywhere from $2-10-billion dollars, and whatever the cost, it will require federal, state and local money.
"Anyone who lives in around the Kingwood, Conroe, Huffman and all those areas can look at it, and there is no doubt [about it] that it's different today than it ever was," said Martin.
Houston's recently appointed "Flood Czar" Stephen Costello will also be making the trip to Washington.