Projects

The development of Riverstone required a permit from the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). As part of the USACE permit, the District is required to construct and maintain 25 acres of wetlands areas under strict federal requirements. The 25-acre requirement includes multiple wetland planting beds in the lakes throughout Riverstone. These wetland beds were purposefully created in the lakes to help improve water quality. Wetlands Park on LJ Parkway and the Cypress Bend greenbelt along the Club at Riverstone Trail also include protected wetlands.

There are a variety of “desirable” wetland plant species LID 15 must establish under the USACE permit, but the District is limited to the maintenance that can be performed on “undesirable” or invasive plants. In recent months, the lack of rain has resulted in lower lake levels, allowing more weeds to grow in wetland areas that are typically underwater. During the peak of drought conditions in August and September, maintenance crews were able to cut back the plant material in these beds, particularly in the dry areas most impacted by the drought. Wetland maintenance crews also continue to treat invasive species by hand. As conditions improve in the fall, the District will resume transplanting desirable plants and continue to improve the aesthetics of the wetlands. LID 15 residents are cautioned not to cut or trim any plants in the wetland areas, but they are encouraged to contact LID 15 directly with any maintenance concerns.

Riverstone Lake with Multiple Wetland Plant Beds

Three new pumps at the Steep Bank Creek Pump Station are now operational, creating 150,000 gallons per minute (GPM) of additional pumping capacity. Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District No. 15 (LID 15) partnered with Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District No. 19 (LID 19) to improve flood control in the Steep Bank Creek watershed, which includes the eastern portion of LID 15. The expanded pump station is located inside LID 19 on Thompson Ferry Road, but this flood control facility is jointly operated by LID 15 and LID 19.

The Steep Bank Creek Pump Station was originally constructed with four pumps that combined remove up to 80,000 GPM.  The three new pumps increase the total pump capacity to 230,000 GPM. The facility is also home to 12 mobile pumps that can produce an additional 80,000 GPM. When combined these improvements represent a 388% increase in pumping capacity since Hurricane Harvey.

The four original pumps included a natural gas-powered generator to operate during a power outage, and diesel generators were recently added to back up the new pumps. The pump stations in LID 15 are exercised monthly and are operated when the Brazos River reaches flood stages that automatically close the flood gates in the levee.  If it rains in LID 15 while the flood gates are closed, the pump stations are activated to remove runoff from inside the levee.

Steep Bank Creek Pump Station

Steep Bank Creek Ribbon Cutting
Pictured from left to right: Girish Misra (LID 15), Glen Gill (LID 15), Jeff Anderson (LID 15), Fort Bend County Judge KP George, Rohit Sankholkar (LID 15), Kalapi Sheth (LID 19), Fort Bend County Pct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers, Timothy Benz (LID 19), Sreekanth Pannala (LID 19), Radhika Iyer (LID 19), and Jay Parekh (LID 19)

The development of Riverstone required a permit from the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). As part of the USACE permit, the District is required to construct and maintain 25 acres of wetlands areas under strict federal requirements. The 25-acre requirement includes multiple wetland planting beds in the lakes throughout Riverstone. These wetland beds were purposefully created in the lakes to help improve water quality. Wetlands Park on LJ Parkway and the Cypress Bend area along the Club at Riverstone Trail also include protected wetlands.

There are a variety of “desirable” wetland plant species LID 15 must establish under the USACE permit, but the District is limited to the maintenance that can be performed on “undesirable” or invasive plants. With the recent hard freeze, many of the desirable plants are now dormant and have wilted.  These wilted plants will remain in the wetland beds until the major risk of another hard freeze passes in about 6 weeks.  However, as spring approaches this wilted material and any undesirable plants will be trimmed back and removed by hand.  The maintenance contractor will also relocate desirable species from densely planted areas to help reestablish and improve aesthetics in other beds.