Fort Worth’s Panther Island slated for federal funding, but not enough to keep work going
Fort Worth’s Panther Island, already out of money, will not be getting any federal funding in 2020, except for $1.5 million for a feasibility study, far short of the $38 million locals had requested.
The Army Corps of Engineers headquarters included the $1.5 million in its 2020 budget, but local officials said Monday they were waiting to clarify how the money should be spent. Another $1.5 million would also be needed from the Tarrant Regional Water District to pay for the $3 million study, said Clay Church, a Corps spokesman in Fort Worth.
The office of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, who has championed Panther Island in Washington, D.C., did not return emails seeking comment.
It was unclear Monday evening what the feasibility study would entail. Typically Corps projects like Panther Island require an analysis that explores the economic benefits of a flood protection project compared with its expected costs. Generally these studies, which can last up to three years, identify a flood problem, explore how to fix it and note the alternatives, Church said. The study would also look at environmental impacts.
That study wasn’t done for Panther Island, creating a thorn in the project’s side.
Though the project has existed since 2006, it has received only $62 million from Washington. Congress approved up to $526 million in 2016. Local taxpayers have spent more than $320 million on the project, which would cut a 1.5-mile channel in the Trinity River for flood protection.
The Trump administration has been unwilling to prioritize Panther Island without a cost-benefit analysis, but local officials have said a study of the project’s economic viability is not needed. They argue Congress OK’d the project in 2016 without calling for a study.
The estimated $1.17 billion project would also create an 800-acre island and prime riverfront real estate near the heart of downtown. Last summer, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price and U.S. Rep. Roger Williams met with Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director and chief of staff, to discuss the project. Both said they felt confident the federal budget office understood the project was for flood control, not economic development.
Price, in an emailed statement Monday night, said she was disappointed Panther Island didn’t receive money for construction.
“We will continue to collaborate with our local partners, this administration and our delegation in Washington on this critical flood control project,” she said. “I believe this is an opportunity to bring private partners to the table and explore public-private partnerships.”
Funding for a feasibility study has not been discussed publicly for some time.
In January, Mark Mazzanti, a former Army Corps of Engineers official who is coordinating the local effort for Panther Island, told the Trinity River Vision Authority Board that the project could qualify for a portion of about $170 million that Congress has set aside for flood mitigation.
Though the Corps, in partnership with the Tarrant Regional Water District, requested $38 million for the project this year, Mazzanti said just $10 million for design work would be enough to keep the project on track.
G.K. Maenius, president of the Trinity River Vision Authority Board, told the Star-Telegram in December 2018 the cost-benefit study would be too costly and take too long. At that time, the board was considering a third party review of Panther Island’s local management.
Dallas-based Riveron ultimately recommended several management changes, such as hiring a project coordinator and focusing on Panther Island’s flood control benefits. But the report only briefly mentioned the cost-benefit analysis without addressing whether one was needed.
“The current confusion over whether one is needed has created the current policy and technical obstruction to federal funding,” the report said.
Panther Island was not mentioned in the Trump administration’s proposal for the federal government’s 2021 budget, which was also released Monday. Mazzanti said he didn’t expect to the project to receive funding through the White House.
This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 6:58 PM.
