This text is co-published with the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Newsroom as a part of an initiative to report on how energy is wielded in Texas.
Billionaire Elon Musk is taking difficulty with a current investigation by the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Newsroom that raised questions on a flood tunnel challenge he’s pitching to handle Houston’s continual flooding woes. However consultants mentioned his response, which he didn’t clarify to the newsrooms, isn’t supported by details or information.
Final month, the newsrooms reported that Musk’s tunneling firm, The Boring Co., has been lobbying elected officers for months to permit it to construct tunnels beneath Houston for flood mitigation. Boring has proposed digging two 12-foot-wide tunnels beneath Buffalo Bayou — the primary waterway operating by means of central Houston — to hold stormwater out of neighborhoods and towards the Gulf of Mexico throughout main storms. Specialists say, nevertheless, that bigger tunnels, nearer to 30 to 40 toes in diameter, might carry way more water and be simpler.
Musk and representatives with Boring didn’t reply to interview requests or reply questions the newsrooms despatched prematurely of final month’s story about whether or not Boring’s smaller tunnels would be capable to deal with the size of floodwater Houston is prone to encounter sooner or later.
As a substitute, Musk waited till hours after the story revealed to submit a response on X, the social media firm he’s owned since 2022.
“Boring Firm tunnels will work and price <10% of alternate options,” his Aug. 28 submit learn. “If extra stream is required, extra tunnels might be constructed and moreover they are often route water from many elements of the town, not only one.”
The submit was written in response to a submit on X from U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Houston Republican who helped organize personal conferences with authorities officers in Harris County and throughout the state to promote them on Boring’s flood tunnel plan. Hunt additionally didn’t reply to questions from the newsrooms forward of publication of the unique story, however he weighed in on X after the story was revealed.
“A lifelong Houstonian and Texas Congressman spoke to the neatest man on planet earth about fixing a generational flooding difficulty in our metropolis that nobody else will repair,” Hunt wrote.
Musk’s submit supplied no information or engineering rationalization to again up his assertions. So the newsrooms examined his statements, evaluating them towards flood research, and interviewed engineering consultants, a few of whom identified key technical and logistical challenges with the Boring plan.
One in every of Musk’s claims is probably going false, and the others are usually not but doable to confirm with certainty, based on the newsrooms’ examination.
Once more, when the newsrooms pressed Musk and Boring representatives to elucidate the tech billionaire’s claims, they didn’t reply. Nor did Hunt.
Credit score:
Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle
Would Boring’s tunnels price lower than 10% of alternate options?
Musk’s proposal carries a cheaper price tag than the estimated price of the bigger system the flood management district has spent years and thousands and thousands of {dollars} finding out. However that’s partly as a result of the 2 are strikingly totally different proposals.
Hunt’s crew has mentioned Boring’s Buffalo Bayou challenge would price $760 million, based on inside communications obtained by the newsrooms by means of public data requests.
The county’s flood management district, then again, proposed in 2022 tunnels of 30 to 40 toes in diameter for that phase of the system at a value of about $4.6 billion.
Because the challenge continues to be within the analysis part, the county numbers are preliminary. However based mostly on the figures out there, Boring’s proposal would price nearer to one-sixth of the county’s estimate — not lower than 10%, as Musk’s submit steered. So Musk appears to be exaggerating how less expensive his system can be.
Flood management consultants additionally maintained that the diminished value is considerably proportional to the diminished capability of Boring’s narrower tunnels. Two 12-foot tunnels would supply lower than one-fifth of the amount {that a} single 40-foot tunnel affords.
Meaning they might divert much less water from susceptible areas than one giant tunnel.
Jim Blackburn, a Houston environmental lawyer and flood coverage knowledgeable, mentioned whereas Musk’s firm deserves a good listening to, cheaper doesn’t routinely imply higher.
“If it’s a smaller tunnel, then I might anticipate it to price much less,” Blackburn mentioned. “You’ve received to have a look at how a lot flood mitigation you get for the {dollars} you spend.”
Emily Woodell, a spokesperson for the Harris County Flood Management District, mentioned the company wants extra info earlier than it might weigh in on any of Musk’s claims.
“We’d must do a number of examine earlier than something might even probably transfer ahead, so I wouldn’t need to speculate,” she mentioned. “Till now we have a challenge or one other examine, we’d level individuals to our web site for the experiences and information we’ve compiled up to now.”
Can extra tunnels be constructed for extra water stream?
Musk’s submit mentioned if extra floodwater must be moved, extra tunnels might be added. Engineers mentioned it’s not that easy.
Larry Dunbar, a veteran water sources engineer who has suggested Houston-area governmental businesses on drainage points, mentioned based mostly on dimension alone, it might take about 11 of Boring’s tunnels to hold the identical quantity of water as one giant tunnel. Lined up facet by facet, with sufficient room between them to maintain the bottom secure, the total system might span tons of of toes. That might require securing rights to extra land and constructing extra entry factors for upkeep, he mentioned.
And every new part of development may convey one other spherical of opinions and mobilization prices, Dunbar mentioned, undercutting the pace and affordability that Boring has touted as key benefits of its proposal.
“The problems begin to simply get an increasing number of difficult,” Dunbar mentioned. “Not that it might’t be completed, however simply to sort of throw on the market — ‘Oh, if we’d like extra, we’ll simply do extra’ — effectively, there’s much more to it than that.”
Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, who has an engineering background, agreed. Extra tunnels would additionally imply extra tools to take care of, which might drive up long-term prices, Ramsey mentioned.
He added that the county would wish to determine on the total plan on the outset so all system components like pumps, drains and outfalls might be designed correctly.
“It might not be easy to simply add extra tunnels later,” Ramsey mentioned.
John Blount, a former Harris County engineer who retired after greater than three many years with the county, equally dismissed Musk’s suggestion that Boring might simply construct extra tunnels if the preliminary plan falls brief.
Whereas engaged on different infrastructure tasks, Blount mentioned, he has come throughout plenty of contractors able to constructing tunnels giant sufficient to deal with the job correctly the primary time.
“You don’t begin small and determine it out later,” he mentioned. “This complete idea of placing in 20% of what you might want to see if it’s sufficient makes zero sense.”
Credit score:
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Can Boring’s tunnels transfer water from different elements of the town, and can the tunnels work?
Musk argued that Boring’s tunnels may very well be utilized in totally different elements of the town, not simply alongside Buffalo Bayou.
Some native officers agreed that Musk’s tunnels may really work higher for smaller watersheds that don’t tackle as a lot water as Buffalo Bayou.
Ramsey mentioned he helps exploring smaller tunnels for areas like Searching and Halls bayous, which run by means of different elements of the town and in addition want sources to strengthen their flood safety. The county commissioner publicly referred to as for a better take a look at narrower tunnels throughout a commissioners court docket assembly in April, after Hunt had pitched him on Boring’s proposal in February.
“It’s one other software in our toolbox to assist mitigate flooding. And positively with what’s occurring within the Hill Nation,” Ramsey mentioned, referring to current lethal floods in Central Texas, “and what continues to occur in Harris County, we’d like as many instruments as we will presumably get.”
Woodell, with the flood management district, informed the newsrooms in August that the company initially targeted on large-diameter tunnels as a result of engineering research recognized them as the best possibility for a countywide system.
Nonetheless, she mentioned smaller tunnels may very well be a viable answer in sure areas. Since that concept had not been a spotlight of analysis, she added, extra examine can be wanted earlier than any such challenge might transfer ahead.
Colleen Gilbert, government director of the Greens Bayou Coalition — a nonprofit that works to guard neighborhoods close to Greens Bayou, in northeast Houston — mentioned communities in her watershed are determined for reduction as effectively. They’d welcome the huge storm tunnel as soon as proposed by Harris County, she mentioned, however even smaller tunnels can be higher than nothing.
“We’d be thrilled to have any and all prospects checked out,” Gilbert mentioned. “If Congressman Hunt and The Boring Co. are this, we’re delighted to listen to it.”
Specialists and officers the newsrooms interviewed, nevertheless, nonetheless took difficulty with Musk’s sweeping assertion that “Boring Firm tunnels will work” as a result of it doesn’t take into consideration complexities of the challenge or that success largely is dependent upon what sort of system the county in the end needs.
In a two-page memo Boring despatched to Hunt’s crew in February and that was circulated amongst native officers within the county, the corporate framed the pitch as an “revolutionary, cost-effective answer” to Houston’s continual flooding.
“We’re assured in our capability to execute this challenge efficiently,” wrote Jim Fitzgerald, Boring’s international head of enterprise growth.
However Dunbar mentioned the one method to consider Musk’s declare is to concentrate on the aim of the stormwater tunnels.
If the objective is to construct as giant a challenge as doable for the bottom value, Dunbar mentioned, Boring’s proposal may match the invoice. But when the objective is to defend lives and property from one other Hurricane Harvey-level flooding occasion, he believes the smaller-scale challenge merely doesn’t measure up.
“You need to have some underlying motive why you construct this tunnel, what you’re making an attempt to perform,” Dunbar mentioned. “And I’ve not heard that Elon has provided that reply.”
Rock Owens, retired Harris County lawyer for environmental affairs who represented businesses together with the flood management district, mentioned he has seen native officers repeatedly greenlighting large tasks that weren’t effectively thought out and led to expensive authorized battles.
He pointed, for example, to flood management points alongside White Oak Bayou in northwest Houston. In a prolonged authorized battle that started in 1999, about 400 owners within the space blamed the county for approving upstream growth with out satisfactory flood management, which they mentioned brought about repeated flooding of their houses.
The Texas Supreme Court docket in the end dominated in favor of the county in 2016. However Owens mentioned even unsuccessful lawsuits are expensive and the sort of problem that would have uncovered the county to a considerable damages award.
Musk’s ethos of shifting quick and worrying about penalties later, Owens mentioned, solely heightens the chance.
“That works positive within the personal sector, however not the general public sector,” he mentioned. “We’re not Mr. Musk’s private fortune; we’re wanting on the livelihood and lifelong investments of people that stay right here.”
Yilun Cheng is an investigative reporter with the Houston Chronicle. Attain her at [email protected].
Lauren McGaughy of The Texas Newsroom contributed reporting.
