SocraticGadfly: Ike Dike hopes revived? I hope not

January 28, 2022

Ike Dike hopes revived? I hope not

The Trib hopes that Biden's infrastructure bill funds an "Ike Dike." I hope they're most certainly wrong. 

Knowing that an Ike Dike is actually the most oversold bit of grift in Tex-ass this side of the Texas Central Railroad bullet train, and really wouldn't help that much, I hope it doesn't fund it. (Oh, Brains, I don't "hate everybody," but you're as wrong on the Ike Dike as on Texas Central.)

The Ike Dike has several problems.

One, per the "grift" angle is that it's almost certainly being underpriced, as is about any project involving the Army Corps of Engineers.

Second is that it's going to have environmental problems, as is about any project involving the Army Corps of Engineers. As the numbers of migratory birds continue to plummet, for example, we can't afford more environmental problems on the Texas Gulf Coast, in the Central Flyway.

Third is that it's not going to solve all of Houston's hurricane-related flooding problems and won't solve, or even address, ANY of its inland storm related flooding problems. 

On that point, the Chronic admitted two months ago in a house editorial that an Ike Dike won't even solve all hurricane-related storm surges. So, for water already inside Galveston Bay, it says the next time the Houston Ship Channel is dredged, that the soil from that should be used to create artificial islands in the channel. This, of course (it SHOULD be an "of course," but the Chronic ignores that) is only a temporary solution, as "regular" storms would erode those islands just as they'll erode the beach "thickening" on the island and Bolivar Peninsula that's been touted as part of the Ike Dike project beyond the dike itself, and that erosion has been noted, so the Chronic has no excuse for ignoring it.

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