AUSTIN — Today Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Mayor Charlie Henry announce the Texas General Land Office (GLO) approved more than $3.5 million for a flood mitigation projects to improve water infrastructure for the Chambers County city of Anahuac. This citywide water system project will directly benefit thousands of residents in a majority low-to-moderate income (LMI) area that has faced repetitive storm damage in 2017 and 2019.   

“Throughout Texas, many communities like the city of Anahuac have long been in need to of infrastructure improvements, but simply have not had access to the funding they need,” said Commissioner Bush. “Repetitive flood damage from storm surges and flooding rains exacerbates these problems. The GLO is proud partner with communities like Anahuac to make these improvements a reality and benefit these residents for generations to come.”

“Hurricanes Harvey and Ike before it ravaged much of Chambers County,” said Mr. Charlie Henry, Mayor of Anahuac. “Both disasters severely impacted the city of Anahuac’s water plant and affected our ability to provide safe drinking water to residents. With the $3.5 million in funding announced today, we’ll make city-wide water system improvements and upgrade our water treatment plant to ensure we can provide safe water for our residents in future disasters.”

In May 2020, Commissioner George P. Bush announced the kick-off of the application process for the first round of more than $2.3 billion in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to protect Texas communities hit by Hurricane Harvey and severe flooding in 2015 and 2016. During the first round, the GLO conducted three competitive application programs from the CDBG-MIT Action Plan. Those programs include:

• 2015 Floods State Mitigation Competition – GLO awarded $31,426,781 to four grantees.
• 2016 Floods State Mitigation Competition – GLO awarded 21 grantees with $135,462,438.
• Hurricane Harvey State Mitigation Competition Round 1 ($1 billion of $2,144,776,720 total).

Applications closed for the first round of funding October 28, 2020, and the GLO evaluated all 290 submitted applications in accordance with the HUD approved scoring criteria. Eligible applications with the highest scores were awarded funds. The second round of the competition will award the remaining $1,144,776,720 in mitigation funding to Hurricane Harvey eligible entities.

HUD defines mitigation as activities that increase resilience to disasters and reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of loss of life, injury, damage to and loss of property, and suffering and hardship, by lessening the impact of future disasters. HUD requires that at least 50% of total funds must be used for activities benefiting low- to moderate-income (LMI) persons.

The State of Texas CDBG Mitigation Action Plan: Building Stronger for a Resilient Future outlines the use of funds, programs, eligible applicants, and eligibility criteria as required by HUD. The plan was sent to HUD on February 3, 2020, after an extraordinary public outreach effort including a 50-day public comment period and eight regional public hearings, far-surpassing HUD requirements. HUD approved the plan March 31, 2020. For more information, please visit recovery.texas.gov/mitigation. 

City of Anahuac: Citywide Water System Improvements - $3,548,091.09

LMI Percentage: 56.79% 

The city of Anahuac has been adversely impacted by various disaster events over the years. Most recently, Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Harvey have proved detrimental for the city. Both disasters severely impacted the city's water plant and inhibited their ability to provide potable water.

This project will provide for key features, equipment, and processes needed by the plant to produce high quality potable water for the city. The project includes the following items:

• Replace 41 LF of the existing force main from the supernatant lift station at the water treatment plant to a manhole near the Texas Street lift station.
• Paint the existing control and lab building.
• Construct a new control building with new electrical and controls for better water quality monitoring by the surface water treatment plant operators.
• Construct a cover and pump removal system over the high service pump station to allow operation of the pumps during periods of wet weather.
• Construct a clarifier drain system to allow the city to drain the clarifiers to the wastewater pump station during periods of poor clarifier performance.
• Construct filter to waste piping for the filter effluent lines to better meet the maximum turbidity levels as required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
• Relocate all sampling and chemical injection lines between the plant and the chemical feed building.
• Construct an area to allow for the installation of a sludge drying system for the water treatment plant’s sludge holding pond.
• Rehabilitate the clarifier structure and piping to eliminate the leakage and seepage.