HOUSTON — Houston City Council is taking another step toward funding improvements to the Lake Houston Dam that city leaders say will help reduce flood risk for residents along the lake and downstream along the San Jacinto River.
The project would add new gates to the dam, increasing its discharge capacity from 10,000 cubic feet per second to 75,000 cubic feet per second.
At its current capacity, the dam can release about 74,800 gallons of water per second — roughly one-ninth of an Olympic-size swimming pool every second, or about 450 pools per hour. Under the proposed improvements, the dam would be able to release nearly a full Olympic-size pool per second, giving operators more flexibility to lower lake levels ahead of major storms…