Missed Opportunities
Committees on Disaster and Flooding Interview Upper Guadalupe River Authority
A July 23 article in the Houston Chronicle titled “Kerr County river authority chose tax cuts over flood alert upgrades” details the 2024 decision made by the Upper Guadalupe River Authority (UGRA) to not proceed with a flood warning system on the Guadalupe River.
The story of flood monitoring on the upper Guadalupe River begins in 1987, when ten teenagers were killed when a bus full of summer campers was washed away at a low-water crossing during a flash flood. In response, the UGRA instituted a 50% tax increase to raise revenue to install gauges and warning equipment at ten low-water crossings in Kerr County. The tax hike garnered some public protest, but the UGRA board argued that the system would save lives and continued with the plan. That system worked until the 1990s when the private company managing the system shut down.
After a flash flood devastated the community of Wimberley, Texas in 2015, the UGRA revisited the topic of a river warning system. The organization commissioned an engineering study which found that “heavy rains can quickly result in high walls of fast-moving water with great destructive potential.” In 2017 UGRA applied for funds to install a warning system through Texas Division of Emergency Management’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The application was denied because Kerr County lacked an updated hazard mitigation action plan. The following year, TDEM again denied funding even with an updated hazard mitigation action plan completed.
In 2023, UGRA manager Tara Bushnoe, who sits on one of the Regional Planning Groups for the Texas Flood Plan (more about the Texas Flood Plan here), ensured that a flood warning system for the upper Guadalupe River was included in the Texas Flood Plan. The UGRA then applied for funding to cover the flood warning system through the Flood Infrastructure Fund (FIF), which is administered by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB).
TWDB selected UGRA’s pre-application for funding and offered to finance the project with a 5% grant and 95% zero-interest, 30-year loan. The UGRA board declined the funding, since they had noted their preference in the application for a grant, rather than a loan. The board and UGRA staff were unsure if a loan could be repaid with taxpayer funds and also did not want to raise property taxes to cover the project.
UGRA then pivoted away from the flood warning system and proceeded with a different, less costly project to create a web dashboard that aggregated all the relevant flood gauges and meteorological information so that National Weather Service and local Emergency Management Coordinators could access information about river conditions easily and quickly. This project was designed in response to feedback from local emergency management personnel that they would like an easier way to access UGRA river data.
The July 23 article came out the morning of the Disaster Preparedness and Flooding Joint Committee Hearing. It drew many questions for UGRA manager Tara Bushnoe who testified before the committee.
Bushnoe’s testimony began with a description of the UGRA. The mission of the Upper Guadalupe River Authority is to protect the health of the river. It is composed of a nine member board, appointed by Governor Greg Abbott, as well as a small staff. A significant portion of the staff works on water quality monitoring and testing. The agency is funded by Kerr County tax dollars and it is one of the smallest river authorities in the state. They help support six United States Geological Survey river gauges and advocate for Kerr County water resource concerns, including flood planning.
The role of the agency most relevant to the response to the July 4 flood is that they support National Weather Service and the local emergency management personnel with data on river conditions. UGRA manager Tara Bushnoe clarified that their role of the UGRA is not as a first responder or emergency manager. Alerting an emergency manager or county official to warn of impending flooding is not part of UGRA’s mission.
Bushnoe’s prepared testimony confirmed many of the details in the Houston Chronicle article about the agency’s attempts to get a flood warning system installed along the upper Guadalupe River. Questions from members of the committee focused closely on the 2024 decision to decline the TWDB’s offer of a 30-year loan to finance the river warning system.
Senator Charles Schwertner noted that in addition to the offer of a loan, the UGRA had several million dollars in reserve after discontinuing work on a water resource project. He asked why the board chose not to use the reserve money for the warning system. Bushnoe responded that the Sunset committee had advised the agency to use the reserve for their operating budget so that they would not need to raise their tax rate.
Senator Schwertner called the decision of the board “disturbing.”
Senator Paul Bettencourt piled on, calling the agency’s 2024 decision “pathetic.”
Committee Chair Charles Perry interrupted Senator Bettencourt to remind the panel that the purpose of the hearing was to gather information and that at this stage assigning blame or criticizing individual agencies was inappropriate.
Vice Chair Pete Flores asked Bushnoe what role UGRA plays in communicating flood risk to local officials. She replied that their role is to make information from flood gauges and meteorological stations available and to provide information about the river on a routine, not emergency basis. Vice Chair Flores followed up, asking if it is the role of UGRA to call the sheriff, for example, to alert them of impending flooding. Bushnoe responded that “no, it is not our role to call the sheriff.”
Flores wondered aloud whether the information UGRA gathers about the river is of any use if it is not available to the correct people immediately. Bushnoe clarified that the data they collect is available immediately online and that it is used routinely by the National Weather Service and local emergency management personnel.
The questions committee members asked UGRA manager Tara Busnoe, like the questions committee members asked staff from the Texas Water Development Board reveal a lack of clarity about the roles of these agencies when it comes to disaster planning and response.
Based on their testimony, UGRA and TWDB are both planning organizations that use data, engineering, and other resources to make recommendations to improve safety along Texas rivers. They maintain streamflow and weather instruments which provide data year round so that other agencies like TDEM, NWS, and local emergency management officials have timely data when responding to emergencies.