BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Roger Rodriguez has lived in a Bexar County neighborhood near Highway 90 for nearly 40 years.
He said canals and ditches used to redirect water overflow from neighbors’ properties when it was a majority farmland area in the past. However, the environmental makeup of the landscape has changed.
The Rodriguez property during severe flooding. (The Rodriguez Family)
“The severeness started about 15 years ago,” Rodriguez said.
He said more people are building houses on former farmland, and the county has not kept up with infrastructure upgrades for the influx.
Rodriguez’s wife, Patricia, said the retention ditch that is designed to capture excess rainfall is ineffective.
The county owns the retention ditch area, and the couple believes it is to blame for several major floods inside their home.
The couple’s home has flooded with stormwater filled with fecal matter and debris multiple times. Over the years, Roger and Patricia have paid tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
“It’s not just me who experienced all this damage and all the issues. It’s also my neighbor,” Patricia said.
The Rodriguez property during severe flooding. (The Rodriguez Family)
The couple said they’ve been asking Bexar County Public Works for help since 2017. Public Works crews came out in January 2022, but the work remains unfinished.
“They failed us because the water stayed. Their test failed. When I contacted them to tell them that, they said no, that they couldn’t help us anymore and that there was one other thing they were supposed to do. But here we are almost a year later, and nothing has been done,” Patricia said.
The Rodriguez property during severe flooding. (The Rodriguez Family)
KSAT 12 took their concerns straight to the Bexar County Public Works Department. For weeks, we e-mailed, called, and went to the office in-person. We received the following statement from Monica Trevino-Ortega, assistant public information officer of Bexar County Public Works:
“Another resident in the area has been in contact with the Bexar County Public Works department and the Precinct 1 office previously, and our infrastructure team has been actively working on this issue. The department completed re-grading on upstream culverts along with reshaping the downstream side of the main drainage structure along Miles Road earlier this month. Our crews also cleaned out the existing culverts in this section a few weeks ago. Public Works is currently in the process of obtaining a contractor to finish the remaining work that should be complete this fiscal year. Right now the purchase order should be received in the next few weeks and the contractor can mobilize quickly after that.”
We will continue to monitor this story as it develops.
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