S'ump, Y'all?

By Robert Wilonsky Tue., Jun. 9 2009 at 12:42 PM

Categories: News

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Click to expand the image from the council's 2008 briefing concerning the Able Pump Station

Several Friends of Unfair Park have asked where the city's getting the $29 million needed to cover the costs of further Trinity River floodway study, which, as we noted last week, pushes back the construction of the Dallas Floodway for at least 10 months and the Trinity River toll road for two years. An item on the city council's addendum for tomorrow details precisely where it's getting the dough:

Funding is supported by reallocation of funds approved for construction of Levee Drainage System -- Sump A (Able Pump Station). Design of Able Pump Station, planned to be completed in 2010, will continue, and construction will require funding in a future bond program.

For those not keeping score at home, the Able Pump Station is a "Trinity River flood control component," and a not insignificant one. So noted an August 2008 briefing before the council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee: "Drainage studies have determined the need to pump more water to prevent flooding of the areas near the sumps"; hence, this new and improved sump, the function of which is also to encourage economic and "aesthetic" redevelopment in the Lower Cedars.

It will be interesting to see if council member Steve Salazar proposes an alternative method to fund the study, such as taking the city's $15 million contribution to the on-life-support Texas Horse Park, which he hinted to Sam after the press conference last Monday.

And, for some reason, Jim would really like you to back and re-read this column from 2006. I can't imagine why.

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