Author: HCWCID 114

Why We Are Required to Use Surface Water: Subsidence

A recent University of Houston report shows parts of the Cypress Creek watershed in the Spring area have experienced significant subsidence, which can worsen flooding and change drainage patterns, as well as cause damage to property, pipes and roads. As of 2021, an average of 4.2 feet of land sinking has occurred in Spring over the last century, with most of the land movement occurring since 1987. This subsidence is due to population growth and development and the resultant pumping of groundwater from the area’s aquifers (large, underground water-bearing rock), which compacts sublayers of clay and silt in those aquifers. Today, about 70% of water usage in northern Harris County comes from groundwater pumped from the Gulf Coast Aquifer System.

To prevent subsidence from worsening in northwest Harris County, the North Harris County Regional Water Authority (NHCRWA) treats Lake Houston water and turns it into drinking water for municipal utility districts, including Harris County WCID 114 (the District). The NHCRWA is required to reduce groundwater pumpage to no more than 40% of the area’s total water usage by 2025. In this regard, the NHCRWA is in the midst of a $1.4 billion expansion to its Water Purification Plant in Humble which, upon completion in 2024, will increase treated water capacity from 80 million gallons per day to 400 million gallons per day.

But construction, maintenance and operation of NHCRWA’s treatment and distribution facilities don’t come cheaply: By far the largest part of your monthly water bill is to reimburse the District for the cost of water delivered to it by the NHCRWA. And the District doesn’t have a choice—it is mandated by law to use surface water provided by NHCRWA which, in the long run helps reduce subsidence but, in the short run, is hard on our wallets.

Directors Tour District’s Facilities

Each year at this time Harris County WCID 114’s (the District) directors tour the District’s fresh water and waste water facilities with the District’s engineer and operator. These facilities consist of 3 water plants (where the District’s water wells and ground storage tanks [GST] are located), which pump and store fresh water, and 5 gravity-fed lift stations, which collect and transport waste water to the Kleinwood Joint Powers Wastewater Treatment Plant located near Meyer Park (the District is one of the Plant’s six owners). Additionally, Water Plant No. 1 is where the District connects to the North Harris County Regional Water Authority’s (NHCRWA) system for the receipt and distribution of surface water, a process mandated by law in order to help reduce subsidence.

The purpose of the tour, which generally lasts three hours, is to view those capital improvements recommended by the engineer and operator, as well as to ask them to take corrective action for items noted during the tour. This year the directors asked that dead trees be removed, encroaching vegetation be trimmed back, accumulated debris be hauled away, cedar fences be replaced, and agreed that the replacement of the master control center at Water Plant No. 3 be accelerated from 2024 to 2023. It was particularly timely that the directors were able to enter the 285,000-gallon GST located at Water Plant No. 1 when it was empty and view the repairs being made to replace faulty sealant and panels, the culmination of two years of negotiations with the GST’s manufacturer (the accompanying photos show this work being done and the directors inside the GST– from left to right Steve Feldman, Renee Alfaro, James Sibley and Doug Malloy, director Robert Robertson is not pictured).