George P. Bush emerges as Ike Dike champion

GALVESTON - Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush has emerged as the long-awaited champion for what supporters say is a much-needed storm-surge barrier for the Texas Gulf Coast.

Advocates of the "Ike Dike" concept have longed bemoaned the lack of a prominent state official to champion construction of a costal barrier that could protect Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula from a storm surge like the devastating one generated by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Bush said a storm-surge barrier is needed to protect one of the largest concentrations of petroleum refining and petrochemical processing plants in the country, as well as tens of thousands homes that are vulnerable to an Ike-like storm surge, he said.

"It is unacceptable policy to wait for the next storm," before taking action, Bush said.

In addition to making public statements supporting the structures, he said his office is in contact with key congressional committees and is seeking a meeting with the White House to make sure that the estimated $12 billion needed for the six-county storm barrier system is high on a list of projects for President Donald Trump's $1 trillion capital improvements initiative.

Bush is "the first person who has shown true leadership and real concern about protecting the coast," Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. "We've made more progress in the last eight months than we made in the last eight and a half years."

Among the accomplishments are a bill finally being put before the Legislature; a bill passed that was spearheaded by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Friendswood, to speed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers storm-surge protection study; and the storm-surge district's recommendation of project embracing the Ike Dike concept.

The Corps of Engineers, which must recommend a similar plan in order for Congress to fund construction, is scheduled to have a preliminary recommendation in June next year.

The land commissioner pointed out that more than $17.5 billion in federal money was spent after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005 to protect the city from storm surge. "We have three times the population and we estimate five times the economic impact," Bush said. "We think it's sensible policy for the national government to be a financial partner."

He is embracing a study completed last year by the six-county Gulf Coast Community Coastal Protection and Recovery District, known as the surge district, that recommended the Ike Dike concept to protect Galveston, Harris and Chambers counties, as well as a system of barriers to protect Brazoria, Jefferson and Orange counties.

Bush's outspoken support of the Ike Dike concept has encouraged advocates who have been working to make it a reality since Texas A&M University Galveston professor Bill Merrell proposed the idea more than eight years ago.

Mitchell, who has steadily lobbied local, state and federal officials for the Ike Dike over the years, said that although most officials support the Ike Dike, few have come out as forcefully as Bush and taken such active measures to move the idea forward.

Harris "Shrub" Kempner of Galveston, owner of Kempner Capital Management and an influential Ike Dike supporter, said Bush's emergence as an outspoken advocate of the concept is an important development. "It mobilizes a level of support that wasn't there before and it mobilizes it in a very direct way," Kempner said.

Bush said he would be working in the Legislature with Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, who has filed a resolution expressing the Legislature's support for the Ike Dike that has not yet come for a vote. Perhaps more important is the bill Taylor expects to file this week creating an entity to handle construction of the Ike Dike and its maintenance. "This agency is working with legislators, Sen. Taylor, to help craft a newly created entity to work with existing entities to raise money and maintain the system," Bush said.

Bush's leadership comes in the absence of strong vocal support for a storm-surge plan from officials in Houston and Harris County, although Mayor Sylvester Turner has signed a statement supporting the Ike Dike concept.

"The two gorillas in the room are the county and the city," said Houston Councilman David Robinson, one of the councilmembers most involved in storm-surge protection issues. Robinson said the city lacks the expertise and resources to lead the way in storm-surge protection and is therefore bowing to the surge district and researchers at Rice University's Sever Storm Prediction Education and Evacuation from Disasters, or SSPEED, center; and Texas A&M University at Galveston's Texas Center for Beaches and Shores.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said the county supported the surge district's recommendation, but it was inappropriate for the county to throw its support behind a particular plan until all the studies are complete. "Let the engineers finish their work before people start passing resolutions," Emmett said.

Bush, as an official elected statewide and as head of the agency charged with protecting Texas coasts, is more properly positioned to take the lead in pushing for a storm-surge solution, Emmett said.