Del Rio council prioritizes $1 million Blue Wall creek stabilization plan

The Blue Wall across from Moore Park moved to the top of Del Rio’s agenda as city leaders committed more than $1 million to stabilize the concrete embankment and keep San Felipe Creek from chewing farther into one of the city’s most visible public spaces.

The Del Rio City Council voted 6-0 on April 29 to authorize Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez to reallocate money from 2016, 2017 and 2018 certificates of obligation to the San Felipe Creek Blue Wall stabilization project. That decision did not create a new tax burden, but it did shift existing bond money into a repair that council members treated as urgent, not optional.

That urgency comes from where the wall sits and what it protects. The Blue Wall runs beside the creek corridor across from Moore Park, a stretch residents use for walking, recreation and access to the water. If the bank keeps deteriorating, the risk is not only a bigger repair bill later. City leaders also face the possibility of more erosion, more limited public access and further damage to a creek-side landscape that helps define the center of Del Rio.

San Felipe Creek carries weight far beyond one block of riverbank. A 2007 San Felipe Creek Master Plan, developed by the San Felipe Creek Commissioners, said the creek lies within Del Rio city limits, is fed by San Felipe Springs and was meant to be managed through restoration, preservation and rehabilitation. The plan also said the creek flows into the Rio Grande below Amistad International Dam and described the area as a biological and climatological crossroads that has long attracted human settlement.

That history has a hard edge. Del Rio still carries the memory of the 1998 flood tied to the remnants of Tropical Storm Charley, when 17.03 inches of rain overwhelmed the city and sent flash flooding through San Felipe Creek. Local accounts said a buildup of branches and debris upstream burst loose, sending a five-foot wave downstream that destroyed more than 120 homes and damaged more than 1,000 buildings. A National Weather Service summary said about 2,000 dwellings were destroyed. City records also note that artist Cris Escobar’s 1984 mural “Toxic Waste” at Blue Hole and San Felipe Creek lost part of its wall in that flood.

The Blue Wall project is not the only creek-side work on the city’s list. Recent bid postings have included replacement of ADA access ramps and handrails at the Moore Park footbridge and reconstruction of east bank walls and walks from Romanelli Park Footbridge to the Amphitheater. With council also reviewing 27 ongoing capital improvement projects, the Blue Wall became part of a larger question of how Del Rio spends limited infrastructure dollars to protect a creek corridor that is both a park setting and a piece of the city’s identity.