Leon Creek watershed master plan examined
6/4/2009
By Chuck McCollough - Express-News/Northwest Weekly
The Leon Creek watershed is under better flood-control management because local governments are working together, water officials told a highly skeptical crowd May 26 at Helotes Elementary School.
The public meeting and another held Tuesday at Leon Springs Elementary School were sponsored by the San Antonio River Authority (SARA), City of San Antonio, Bexar County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to explain the Leon Creek Water Master Plan and answer questions.
Most of the questions dealt with in-place development that has changed water flow, especially in areas like Boerne Stage Road.
Myfe Moore, a Helotes resident, was one of the more vocal of approximately 40 people who attended the meeting, most landowners who say they have dealt with flooding caused by development that should never have occurred.
“This was a dog and pony show. These people have no credibility,” Moore said after the meeting. She lives in Helotes and has a ranch a few miles away near the headwaters of San Geronimo Creek.
“My main complaint is that the left hand of local government doesn't know what the right hand is doing,” she said.
Moore said local government (she lumped city and county into that category) hands out building permits for areas that will cause flooding for neighbors and then turns around and spends millions on studies and ways to control flooding from development that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Question after question from landowners whose properties flooded dealt with why local officials allowed the flood-producing development to occur.
About the best local officials could offer was to admit mistakes were made in the past and emphasize there is now a new united effort to mitigate flooding while also trying to better control development that may cause flooding.
SARA General Manager Suzanne Scott said local officials are taking a united and holistic approach to the Leon Creek watershed and other San Antonio River tributary watersheds like Salado Creek and the Medina River.
Part of that united approach was formation of the Bexar Regional Watershed Management partnership several years ago.
The partnership includes SARA, Bexar County, San Antonio and 20 suburban cities joining together in a regional approach to managing flood control, storm water and water quality, officials said.
The SARA general manager said in the past studies on the impact of a development on the Leon Creek watershed were done piecemeal and focused on a small area of the watershed.
“Those studies didn't take the time to see what the cumulative effect one small area combined with other small areas (impacted by development) had on the watershed. We are doing that cumulative look now, a macro view of the Leon Creek watershed,” Scott said.
“We are learning from past mistakes as it relates to development and looking at better ways to do control development” she said.
Other information provided at the meeting includes:
• The Leon Creek watershed is 235 square miles and has a population of 278,000.
• The Leon Creek floodplain is 25.3 square miles.
• A 100-year flood in Leon Creek could impact 1,700 buildings and cause $90 million in damage.
• Ongoing mitigation projects such as regional stormwater facilities (that hold water temporarily) are helping reduce the number of buildings in the floodplain.
• Bexar County plans to raise part of Boerne Stage Road to reduce flooding.
Online: www.mysanantonio.com/community/northwest/Leon_Creek_watershed_master_plan_examined.html
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