Frequently Asked Questions
Cameron County Drainage District 5 was created in 1993, following widespread flooding from Tropical Depression Two.
The boundary spans approximately 40 square miles across Cameron County, including parts of Harlingen, Combes, Palm Valley and Primera.
The district is governed by a three-member Board of Directors and operates with a team of four employees. With a current tax rate of $0.14, CCDD5 generates over $4 million annually to fund operations, maintain infrastructure, repay Flood Infrastructure Fund (FIF) loans, provide matching for grants, and acquire land for future drainage improvements.
CCDD5 manages roughly 70 miles of open drainage channels that carry stormwater to the Arroyo Colorado, playing a vital role in the Valley’s regional flood management system.
No. It only maintains those that have been dedicated to the Drainage District. The others are maintained by another governmental entity: city, county or TxDOT.
It regularly maintains the open drains and the detention ponds it is responsible for and continues to make improvements to them while building new detention ponds.
Yes. Staff are currently working on the final environmental stage of the $17.7 million in total grants and loans to expand its existing open drains and to build additional regional detention basins.
Yes. The Drainage District is currently working on over $73 million in grant projects, while actively seeking new grants.
It uses the results of the Hydrologic and Hydraulic (H&H) Study that the Board of Directors of the Drainage District adopted in 2019. This H&H Study is the study of the movement of water, including the volume and rate of flow as it moves through a watershed basin, channel, or man-made structure. The Drainage District, in order to determine where the necessary improvements need to be made, used the 2019 rain event to calibrate the modeling of the drainage improvements we are currently working on.
Go to www.ccdd5.org by clicking the Mapping link and then the GIS District Map sub-link. You can search for the property by physical address.