County joins Ike Dike study

Galveston County and five other coastal counties have formed a governmental corporation that will study ways to protect communities and the Houston, Galveston and Texas City ship channels from storm surge.

The Gulf Coast Community and Recovery District is expected to launch a study of the multibillion dollar Ike Dike concept devised by Texas A&M University at Galveston professor Bill Merrell after Hurricane Ike.

Brazoria, Chambers, Jefferson and Orange counties already had joined with Galveston County to form the coalition.

Harris County, which had been the lone holdout, came on board last week after concerns were allayed that the corporation would commit its members to spending money on projects, Galveston County Judge Jim Yarbrough said.

Yarbrough said language in the corporation’s bylaws prevents the organization from spending any significant amount of money without the approval of the commissioners court of each member county.

Much of the group’s initial focus will be finding funding and commissioning a study of Merrell’s Ike Dike concept. Merrell proposes extending Galveston’s seawall to the island’s West End, erecting a similar barrier on the Bolivar Peninsula and installing giant gates at the entrance of the Houston Ship Channel that would keep storm surge from pushing into Galveston Bay.

Former Kemah Mayor Bill King, who worked with the state on hurricane issues, said he thought the state was prepared to fund a study. The corporation would then be able to use that study to lobby the Legislature to push the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to get funding for the massive system.

Yarbrough said the coalition was established to study and possibly lobby for projects only and won’t have the ability to take on debt or levy taxes. Each member county will have a representative on the corporation’s board of directors. Three additional members will be voted on by the counties.

The first meeting of the corporation should be in mid-March, Yarbrough said.