Harris County Flood Control

Harris County Flood Control Support Services Division, a U.S. local government entity and county agency based in Houston, Texas, operates as a federal grant recipient, delivering stormwater infrastructure design, construction, emergency watershed protection, and flood-risk assessment services under cooperative agreements and project grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Harris County Flood Control holds a unique position as a public entity receiving direct federal grant awards rather than competing for contracts. The organization acts as a prime recipient on 47 awards (64% of its federal footprint) and as a sub-recipient on 27 awards (36%), with a combined potential value across all 74 awards of $749 thousand and combined dollars obligated of $398.9 million — a ratio reflecting the agency's heavy reliance on congressionally mandated and disaster-recovery funding streams. Recent awards cluster in stormwater detention basin design and construction, flood-mitigation engineering, sediment removal, and technical assistance to the National Flood Insurance Program. Representative prime work includes a $6.25 million Cooperative Agreement from EPA Region 6 under the Congressionally Mandated Projects program (CFDA 66.202) effective January 1, 2026 for design and construction of a 247-acre-foot stormwater detention basin in the Q134 sub-watershed; a $1.55 million Cooperative Agreement from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (CFDA 10.923) awarded March 26, 2026 for Emergency Watershed Protection Program recovery measures addressing watershed impairments and natural-disaster relief; and a $1.2 million EPA Region 6 award (CFDA 66.202) dated April 6, 2026 for a multi-compartment stormwater wet-bottom detention basin in the Keegans Bayou Watershed with completion targeted for December 31, 2027.

Customer concentration skews heavily toward FEMA. The top five agencies account for 88% of awards, dominated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency Headquarters Financial Assistance Awards (41 awards) and the standalone Federal Emergency Management Agency (13 awards), followed by the Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (7 awards), Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 (3 awards), and Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (1 award). The divergence between award count and potential value is negligible at the portfolio level — FEMA awards dominate both metrics. Harris County Flood Control serves as a Cooperating Technical Partner under the FEMA Cooperating Technical Partners Program (CFDA 97.045), with cooperative agreements dating from 2021 ($950 thousand through September 2024), 2022 ($1.9 million through September 2024), and continuing through project grant awards in 2023 and 2024. The organization also receives sub-awards routed through the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Texas Department of Public Safety for emergency protective measures, debris removal, reservoir and creek sediment removal, and stormwater conveyance improvements following hurricanes and natural disasters.

Activity has fluctuated over the past five years — six awards in 2022, five in 2023, ten in 2024, eight in 2025, and three to date in 2026 — with five awards reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months. The source contains a single outlier: a NASA Stennis Space Center award worth $749 thousand, classified under PSC Basic Research / Space R&D Services, which represents an anomalous entry in an otherwise cohesive stormwater and flood-management portfolio. Sub-recipient work routes through Texas state agencies (primarily disaster-recovery sub-awards for sediment removal, emergency protective measures, and conveyance improvements) with no subawards designated in the cooperative agreements Harris County Flood Control holds directly as a prime recipient.