Late May and early June have been extremely rainy in North Texas, and it’s been causing flooding problems in several areas in Ellis County.
One such area is the Black Champ Road neighborhood, which lies just west of FM 664 (Ovilla Road) in a rural area of Midlothian. The rains have eased with the transition into summer, but properties are still flooded along Chambers Creek, between a pair of reservoir dams. The reservoirs are intended for flood control, but are ironically contributing to the problem.
“As a consequence there is one residence who is now on an island because their road is underwater,” said Jerry Fisk, a resident of the area. “Property of other residents is currently underwater which extends beyond the bank of Chambers Creek by an estimated 150 to 200 feet.”
Fisk said his home was not threatened, but that he did incur some damages. “Flooding at other properties is even more extensive and the waters came near to some of them,” he said.
Residents of the area wishing to keep the bucolic character of Black Champ Road are already in an ongoing battle with local governments and the Texas Department of Transportation to prevent a rerouting of FM 1387 along an easement that was created years ago. The current flooding problem is just the latest challenge to the neighborhood.
Fisk said excessive flooding has occurred in 2024 in the months of January, April, May, and June. He added that some homeowners feel that much of that could have been avoided as complications.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently added Ellis County to the list of counties in a disaster area as a result of severe weather that has taken place since April.
Ellis County Emergency Management recently issued a “watch” condition for Chambers Creek Watershed Dam No. 10, but that alert was lifted on June 3 following “thorough assessment and monitoring of the dam’s structural integrity, water levels, and environmental factors” that concluded “the dam poses no immediate threat to surrounding areas or infrastructure.”
In spite of that, flooding persists in the neighborhood. The reason for that, Fisk believes, is that the engineering of the water flow into the dams is lacking. He also suggested that flows originating from upstream water treatment plants as part of new developments were not taken into account.
“All of this has led to knowledge that has caused some homeowners to feel that primary drains and emergency spillways, currently under new construction at both dams, are too high,” Fisk said. “Homeowners believe that the high elevations of the spillways will likely result in similar flooding in the future.”
Fisk said the floodwater elevation at Chambers Creek Dam No. 11 was reported at being 617.81 feet on June 7.
“It is my understanding that the new emergency spillway at CC11 will be at an elevation of 618 feet,” he said. “Waters at that level will result in flooding worse than what is currently being experienced. Thus that is the reason for believing that the emergency spillway should be lowered.”
