Ruffino Detention

The flooding surrounding Keegans Bayou In the Brays Bayou Watershed impacts about 10,000 homes in Southwest Houston such as Braeburn Valley West, Glenshire, Meyerland, Westbury, Sharpstown, Alief, Gulfton and Bellaire to name a few. In Southwest Houston, a Stormwater detention basin on Ruffino Hills will provide the greatest area flood control reduction in the Brays Bayou watershed while eliminating land, water and air pollution caused by the closed landfill.

City Of Houston Purchased Land To Protect The Community During Future Severe Storms

December 7, 2022 — Houston City Council voted to purchase 73.08 acres from the City of West University Place along the 9700 block of Ruffino Road for $10,509,460.

Monday, May 19, 2025 – Agenda Item 2.A: Ordinance authorizing the City Manager to execute a Purchase and Sale Agreement with the City of Houston, Texas, whereby Bellaire will convey its Ruffino Hills Tract to Houston. https://www.bellairetx.gov/1885/2023-Proposition-A

Regulatory Records Review

Ruffino Redevelopment is primarily to convert the property to a detention basin along Keegans Bayou to reduce flooding in Southwest Houston. The Texas Commission Environmental Quality assessments and records covered the period from 1978 to 2007, 28 years. In 2007 all post closure requirements were met, 18 years ago. It has been vacant for 36 years.

In 1959 the landfill began accepting household waste and ceased operations in 1992. After the landfill was closed, it was entered into post-closure care and was also used as a golf course from 1990. There was no documented groundwater contamination and no methane gas detected during additional monitoring in 1994-2001 and several TCEQ inspections of the facility in 2003 and 2006. On February 13, 2007 TCEQ submitted correspondence to the City which included the approval of completion and exit from the post-closure program.  In 2023 COH reported testing revealed no hazardous waste materials.  In the past few years Tetra Tech conducted a study to determine the feasibility to convert the Ruffino HIlls property to a detention basin. Based on the results of the study, the City of Houston purchased the property.

Imagine Ponds Park at Ruffino Hills

Imagine a natural woodland with existing ponds, wetland plants, tall  pines, hardwood forest trails, pollinators and wildlife. This landscape already exists on Ruffino Hills. The Ponds Park in the southeast portion of 143  acres is imagined as a nature park for environmental education and recreational activities through outreach programs available with significant partnerships.  

Optimizing stormwater management requires the use of both existing gray infrastructure and green infrastructure. Gray infrastructure is traditional stormwater infrastructure in the built environment such as gutters, drains, pipes, and retention basins. Green infrastructure mimics nature and captures rainwater where it falls, and includes permeable pavement, rain gardens, bioretention cells (or bioswales), vegetative swales, infiltration trenches, green roofs, planter boxes, rainwater harvesting (rain barrels or cisterns), rooftop (downspout) disconnection, and urban tree canopies. https://www.epa.gov/water-research/green-and-gray-infrastructure-research

“Nature-based infrastructure in cities is  42% less expensive on average than  grey infrastructure and provides 36%  more value when accounting for  avoided costs and co-benefits like  increased biodiversity, reduced air  pollution, and improved well-being,  according to a life-cycle study of the  costs, benefits, and risks of 40 projects  including urban green spaces, wetlands,  green roofs, street trees, and stormwater  infrastructure.”* 

*The Value of Incorporating Nature in Urban Infrastructure Planning  

By Ronja Bechauf, Emma Cutler, Andrea Bassi, Liesbeth Casier, Michail Kapetanakis, Georg Pallaske,  Benjamin Simmons on December 9, 2022 

http://www.iisd.org/publications/report/nature-in-urban-infrastructure-planning

Comparable open space to Ruffino HIlls is Arthur Story Park on 175 acres and 3 miles of paved trails, 6.6 miles from Ruffino. Willow Waterhole Greenway is on 291 acres, 7 miles from Ruffino.  One way to improve a healthy lifestyle is to have it be convenient. Ruffino is in the backyard of Southwest Houston.

Ruffino HIlls, with 143 acres, could be modeled after the Houston Arboretum which sits on 150 acres with programming and outreach, 12 miles from Ruffino Hills. In 1951 Houston City Council set aside acres in Memorial Park as an arboretum. The Houston Arboretum & Nature Center was founded in 1967 as a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization managed by the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center Board of Directors and staff under an agreement with the City of Houston Parks and Recreation  Department. It depends on donations to support nature education and conservation programs for  Houstonians of all ages. Ruffino Hills could serve Southwest Houston in that same manner. 

A stalled detention pond in Houston illustrates much of what’s wrong with region’s flood mitigation efforts