1. Texas GLO & US Army Corps Join on Texas Upper Coast Storm Barrier Study

2. The Agreement Signed 9/1/15GLO Statement “It has been seven years since Hurricanes Ike and Dolly,” Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said in a statement announcing the agreement. “We are still just as vulnerable now as we were then. It is time to take action and move forward — and that’s what we’re doing with this agreement.” The Goal Under the agreement, the land office and Army Corps will “begin the process” of conducting feasibility studies on projects that would protect areas of the Texas coast against things like storm surge caused by hurricanes. The Texas General Land Office and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced an agreement to begin conducting studies on the “feasibility of projects for flood reduction hurricane and storm damage mitigation and ecosystem restoration.”

3. “This study will include evaluating a coastal barrier and an inland barrier such as the Ike Dike and Centennial Gate as well as other structural and nonstructural alternatives that would reduce coastal storm surge,” said Sharon Tirpak, the assistant chief of project management and coastal program manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District.” - Corps Are all alternatives being studied? “When conducted, the feasibility study will look at projects that have been proposed by Texas A&M at Galveston and Rice University. Since 2008, the two schools have proposed projects aimed at protecting Galveston and areas along Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel from the threat of storm surge caused by a hurricane.” - GLO

6. An Army Corps feasibility study is required before projects such as the Ike Dike can receive federal funding. The cost of conducting such studies have long been seen as an impediment to progress to those projects. In 2014, Tirpak told the Galveston City Council that the cost of the feasibility study for projects in the Galveston area would cost $10 million. Local governments would need to put forward millions of dollars in matching funds to pay for the feasibility studies. With an agreement between the state and federal government, that may no longer be the case.

7. A cost-sharing agreement between the Army Corps and land office had not yet been reached, Tirpak said. The Corps needs to receive an exemption from certain federal rules to move forward with the study as well. On Monday, a land office spokesman said the agency was already in contact with local governments about the new agreement, and its consequences. “By working together as a region — combining and coordinating local, state and federal resources — were will directly address ongoing threat to the Texas coast for future generations,” Bush said.

8. Back to the Future