http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/news/specials/hurricane/7030757.html

As Houston today enters its second hurricane season since Ike devastated the region, there appears to be an increasing sense of urgency to protect the upper Texas coast from future storm surge events.

The momentum for building something — dikes, floodgates or otherwise hardening the coast — comes as the area's political leaders have fully grasped two factors.

First, there's an increasing realization that Ike was very far from a worst-case scenario.

Though the $30 billion in damage caused by the storm makes Ike far and away the costliest storm to ever strike Texas, had its eye come ashore at Galveston's extreme west end its financial tally could have been as much as four times worse.

Second, there's a wider understanding that many of the region's most valuable commodities, including NASA, rapidly growing Bay Area communities, the Port and its chemical industries, are nakedly vulnerable to a large storm surge.

“I think there's a growing consensus that something's got to be done,” said Bill King, a former mayor of Kemah and central figure in regional hurricane planning.

It has been more than a year since oceanographer William Merrell proposed the multibillion-dollar Ike Dike project, a series of dikes and gates that would protect Galveston Island, Bolivar Peninsula and all areas threatened by a surge from Galveston Bay.

This idea has since catalyzed a community discussion and, along with a proposal by the Texas Governor's Office, led to the formation of the Gulf Coast Community Protection and Recovery District, which holds its second meeting today.

The district, which includes Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson and Orange counties, formed to study and possibly implement remedies to storm surge.

A fair hearing
Although the Ike Dike may not be the final solution — environmentalists have raised concerns about the effect of gating off Galveston Bay and the project's potential to spur development in sensitive areas — Merrell is happy there will be a comprehensive study of the issue.

“It will get a fair shake,” Merrell said of the Ike Dike.

“During this process everyone gets a chance to get their two cents in. My goal was to make sure this got on the table and that it got a fair hearing. Now that's happening and I couldn't be more pleased.”

A new report released last week by Rice University's Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center bolsters the case for doing something to mitigate storm surge, said Phil Bedient, the center's director, who co-authored the report with environmental attorney Jim Blackburn.

“It's pretty clear that we now really need to have a serious discussion about how to defend and mitigate against surge as best we can. You can't completely protect an area, but you can reduce the risk,” Bedient said.

The report reinforces the notion that Ike could have been worse. Had it struck 30 miles down the Texas coast, for example, the surge at the Port of Houston would have been 19 feet, instead of just over 13.

Refineries vulnerable
That's significant because the report highlights that protections for refineries and chemical plants along the Houston Ship Channel top out at 14 to 15 feet, about 10 feet below a worst-case surge for the area.

Not only would the overturning of fuel tanks behind these levees cause localized environmental catastrophes, Bedient said, there's the wider economic issue.

About one-third of U.S. tanker traffic travels though ports along the upper Texas coast, and the state's coastal regions contain more than one-quarter of the country's gasoline refining capacity.

These are among the reasons that former Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, tapped in April to be president of the new six-county surge district, believes whatever projects the group decides upon have a good chance to obtain federal funding.

“It's not only the people who live in those coastal areas that are impacted by surge,” he said. “If we get 20 feet of water up the Eastern ship channel, the price of gasoline is $10 in Kentucky.

“This is a local problem of national strategic interest.”

Hiring an engineer
At today's meeting Eckels said the surge district will discuss hiring an engineer to design the scope of a study, likely taking a couple of years, to identify the best protection strategies.

Among the primary requisites of the engineering job will be to ensure that any designs meet the requirements of the U.S. Corps of Engineers, from where federal funds would be most likely to come.

Eckels said he has two other main goals for the process.

The first is to ensure that whatever project does get built will not compromise the environment.

“We don't want to build a levee system and then fill in the marshes behind it,” he said. “We're not on that kind of mission.”

And he said he's committed to fully involving the public through open meetings, public hearings and other forums to hear from all groups, including environmentalists, fishermen and homeowners.

Never-ending problem
Whatever gets done, says King, also a member of the surge district, it's important not to view it as a magic bullet.

“I think it's a big mistake to think about this issue as a single project,” he said.

“One thing I learned from the Dutch is that they've been doing this for 700 years. We're starting a war, trying to hold back Galveston Bay from inundating the area, that's never going to end.”