Preventing new fill and build developments that risk flooding established neighborhoods and advocating for mitigation of existing fill and build projects are the engines that drive Flood Naught in League City, TX. Fill and build — the widespread practice of clearing wetlands, piling up dirt, and building on top — slows stormwater absorption, deposits dirty runoff from highways, farms, and factories, and causes flooding. On the shores of Clear Lake and less than 20 miles from Galveston Bay, League City already faces severe risks from storm surges, high tides, surface flooding, and riverine flooding. Wetlands are crucial for flood protection, yet irresponsible development undermines resilience against storms like Harvey and Imelda. Flood Naught demands developers be held accountable and abide by required regulations such as FEMA’s No Rise Certification for Floodways and The Clean Water Act.
John Hancock in his I Flood and I Vote shirt at the Lower Clear Creek & Dickinson Bayou Watershed Study Meeting.
Flood Naught is led by neighbors striving to protect neighbors from the flooding threats posed by developers’ fill and build practices. They have worked with Bayou City Waterkeeper to sue the Army Corps of Engineers for allowing development in Bayou Brae, a League City neighborhood on the National Register of Historic Neighborhoods. The Corps sought to dismiss the suit, saying concerns about flood risk were not something that they — the federal agency in charge of wetlands regulation — could address. The court disagreed, validating residents’ concerns about the important role wetlands play in mitigating flood risk. Flood Naught also joined 113 Environmental and community organizations from across the nation to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the longstanding scope of the Clean Water Act and reject industry attempts to eliminate federal clean water protections that have kept families, communities, and rivers and lakes safe from pollution for decades.