DR-4332-TX Environmental Assessment Public Notice 001

Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Assessment for the City of Pasadena Street Drainage and Flood Mitigation Project, HMGP-DR-4332-TX Project #7.

Interested persons are hereby notified that the City of Pasadena has applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), through the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) for Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funding under Section 404 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act.  FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program provides grants to states and local governments to implement long-term hazard mitigation measures that reduce the loss of life and property due to natural disasters and to enable mitigation measures to be implemented during the immediate recovery from a disaster.  This notice also serves as FEMA’s final floodplain notice under Executive Order 11988 for Floodplain Management as the proposed action is taking place in the 100-year floodplain.

FEMA proposes to provide funding to the City of Pasadena to mitigate flooding in flood-prone areas of the City which are located outside the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). The Proposed Action area is generally bounded by SH 225 to the north, Beltway 8 to the east, Spencer Highway to the south, and the city limit along Scarborough Lane and Allen Genoa Road to the west. The Proposed Action will lower the elevations, by one to two feet, of approximately 27 linear miles of various local street segments within existing right-of-way and construct eight new detention ponds, ranging in size from 3 acre-feet to 7 acre-feet. A new storm sewer system will be installed under the roadway, sized for a 3-year storm event, with culverts ranging in size from 18- to 60-inches in diameter. Lowering the selected roadway segments will create critical storm water storage along those corridors. These proposed improvements, in conjunction with the enforcement of minimum slab elevations for new construction, will lower floodwater surface elevations within the Proposed Action area to below existing structure slab elevations. 

A draft Environmental Assessment (EA) has been prepared to assess the potential impacts of the proposed action and alternatives on the human and natural environment in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations implementing NEPA (40 CFR Parts 1500 – 1508), FEMA’s Instruction 108-1-1 for implementing NEPA, the National Historic Preservation Act, Executive Order 11988, Executive Order 11990, and 44 CFR Part 9. The draft EA evaluates alternatives that provide for compliance with applicable environmental laws.  The alternatives evaluated include (1) No Action; (2) the Proposed Action described above.

The draft EA is available for review and comment online at on FEMA’s website at www.fema.gov/resource-document-library. An electronic version of the draft EA can also be requested from Kim Campo-Allen, FEMA Region 6, at kimberly.campoallen@fema.dhs.gov. A hard copy of the EA will be available at the Office of the City Secretary (by appointment only) at 1149 Ellsworth Drive, 2nd Floor in Pasadena, Texas through the 30-day public comment period.

The comment period will end 30 days from the initial notice publication date on September 11, 2020. Written comments on the draft EA can be mailed or emailed to Kim Campo-Allen, Environmental Protection Specialist, FEMA Region 6, 800 N Loop 288, Denton, TX 76209; Email: kimberly.campoallen@fema.dhs.gov.  If no substantive comments are received, the draft EA will become final and a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) will be issued for the project. Substantive comments will be addressed as appropriate in the final documents.