AUSTIN — Today Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and San Patricio County Judge David Krebs announce the Texas General Land Office (GLO) approved more than $38.2 million in flood mitigation projects to improve drainage and water infrastructure for residents in the majority low-to-moderate income (LMI) area of San Patricio County and the City of Mathis.

“San Patricio County, like many coastal Texas counties, has been in great need of improvements to ensure its infrastructure can handle extreme weather events, but has simply lacked access to funding to make those improvements,” said Commissioner Bush. “The GLO is proud to work with great partners like San Patricio County and the cities of Mathis, Sinton and Taft, to bring impactful resiliency to vulnerable communities in need. These awards represent positive, generational change for so many communities that have rarely had access to the funding needed to protect their residents.”

“As we all know too well, Hurricane Harvey left wide swaths of San Patricio County without power, overwhelmed drainage and sanitary sewer systems, and destroyed vital pumping facilities, which made flooding impacts even worse,” said San Patricio County Judge David Krebs. “This $38 million in funding from Commissioner George P. Bush and the GLO is a welcomed relief and will go a long way to addressing our County's drainage challenges. With these funds, we will be able to rebuild and improve critical infrastructure, increase our ability to move floodwaters downstream and away from structures, improve sewer lines, and reduce the need for rescue and relief efforts during future flooding events. All of San Patricio County will benefit from this true blessing for years to come.

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 Mathis: Citywide Water System Improvements Project - $22,830,172

LMI Percentage: 67.11%

Hurricane Harvey left the city pf Mathis without power, destroyed a portion of the existing raw water pumping facility pier, and rendered the rest of the pier unsafe to be used. In addition, the sanitary sewer system was overwhelmed via Inflow & Infiltration (I&I).

This project will increase resiliency to the city of Mathis water treatment plant and provide sanitary sewer improvements to the city’s water management. The city of Mathis will demolish and reconstruct the pier for access to two water pumps, emergency generators, and sewer line improvements to mitigate against damage and system failure caused by future flooding events. Improvements to city water supply and sewer lines to mitigate against damage and system failure caused by future flooding events.

The city of Mathis will:

• Demolish and reconstruct the existing raw water pumping facility pier located on Lake Corpus Christi.
• Emergency Generator Improvements: to maintain the supply of water:
  1. Install generator on site (shore side) of Lake Corpus Christi Pier to keep raw water pumps operational.
  2. Install generator located at the Water Treatment Plant to keep service pumps operational.
• Sanitary Sewer Lines: To improve the efficiency of moving wastewater to the wastewater treatment plant, the existing sanitary sewer line will be removed and replaced for increased capacity.

San Patricio County: Channel Outfall Drainage Improvement Project - $15,435,182.60

LMI Percentage: 54.54 %

The project will improve drainage in the Taft and Sinton areas. The project area is very susceptible to flooding due to the channel’s inadequate capacity. Currently, the existing ditch sections are undersized, and several culvert crossings severely restrict the amount of runoff that can be conveyed into the downstream natural channel. 

The project will deepen and widen existing outfall channels and ditches, reconstruct bridges and trestles, and harden ditch stretches that are subject to erosion. The improvements will improve the area’s capacity to handle future heavy rain events, help minimize public and private losses due to flooding, and reduce the need for rescue and relief efforts. The project consists of the Taft and Sinton sites:

Taft Site

• Widen and deepen the existing channel for a total of 24,600 LF
• Widen the existing railroad crossing adjacent to US Highway 181
• Replace the following bridges: CR 71 bridge, CR 100 bridge, CR 98 bridge, and Pyron Farm Road bridge
• Concrete plate the ditch section through Highway 181 to prevent erosion
• Concrete plate the bend in channel alignment to prevent erosion 

Sinton Site

• Widen and deepen the existing channel for a total of 18,500 LF
• Widen the existing railroad crossing adjacent to US Highway 181
• Concrete plat the ditch section through Highway 181 to prevent erosion
• Concrete plate the bend in channel alignment to prevent erosion
• Build a new lower water crossing to serve the farming community

In order to build the project, two drainage easements, one per site, will be obtained.