With the future in mind, Houston-area water authorities are building pipelines and working to reduce the gradual sinking of ground, known as subsidence.

“They’re all very big projects, and they all have to be done to provide a system that will supply the water,” said Wayne Ahrens, an engineer with the West Harris County Regional Water Authority.

Expected Rate Increases[/caption]

The WHCRWA will invest $1.1 billion between 2015 and 2019 in revenue bond funding to complete four projects that will get more water to a growing population. All municipal utility districts in the authority’s boundaries will be affected by rate increases of 20 cents per 1,000 gallons of water per year for the each of the next two years. The authority’s boundaries cover the Katy area north of I-10 and some area south of I-10, extending west along the interstate past the Grand Parkway and into the city of Katy.

The North Fort Bend Water Authority, which covers the Katy area south of I-10, has yet to finalize its rates for 2016, but an increase of as much as 30 cents per 1,000 gallons of water is expected to help pay for an estimated contribution of $625 million toward water projects, said David Oliver, the authority’s legal counsel.

“The rates will go up for next year and then the following year, it just depends on what the needs are,” he said.

Future projects

Water Authority Boundaries[/caption] Surface Water Supply Project[/caption]

The water projects the WHCRWA and the NFBWA will invest in are the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project, an expansion at the Northeast Water Purification Plant, and the Surface Water Supply Project. Lastly, each authority will construct its own distribution system stemming from the Surface Water Supply Project. While all of the projects affect the flow of water to the Katy area, only the Surface Water Supply Project and its subsequent distribution systems will have a physical presence in Katy.

“From the West Authority standpoint, the second source line (Surface Water Supply Project) will be the most expensive project of all of them,” Ahrens said of the 39-mile-long pipeline carrying water from the Northeast plant to west Harris County.

“It is going to be our primary source of water,” said Larry Weppler, vice president of the WHCRWA board of directors. “That project is estimated to cost about $680 million. It will be shared with North Fort Bend Water Authority. We have a 55 percent share in that. That cost is $375 million.”

Growing need

All of the projects are necessary to meet demand for population growth but also to meet goals mandated by the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District for the WHCRWA and the Fort Bend Subsidence District for the NFBWA.

Subsidence is the result of pumping groundwater, which exists below ground and is pumped from anywhere between 1,000 to 300 feet below Earth’s surface, Ahrens said.

“[Subsidence] causes problems with drainage, [and] also causes problems with physical facilities,” he said. “[In Jersey Village], some areas have subsided as much as 8 feet,” Ahrens said. “As flat as it is, you can imagine that there’s that much less difference in the elevation for the storm water to flow from that area to the Gulf [of Mexico]. It exasperates flooding problems.”

Surface water conversion

To prevent subsidence, the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District mandated in 2010 that water authorities, which are wholesalers that manage the distribution of water to MUDs, convert to 30 percent surface water in 2010.

“We have achieved this goal and are currently running about 36 percent conversion,” WHCRWA board President Bruce Parker said at the October meeting.

Surface water comes from above ground sources, including lakes and rivers. It does not cause subsidence.

The next mandate is for the water authority to convert to 60 percent surface water by 2025. By 2035, the mandate is set at 80 percent.

“That percentage may increase further down the line, but there’s a certain amount of groundwater that can be used and not cause subsidence, so I don’t think they will ever quit using that volume of groundwater,” Ahrens said.

Oliver said that in 2014, the NFBWA was mandated by the North Fort Bend Subsidence District to convert to 30 percent surface water, and in 2025 the mandate is 60 percent.

Water projects[/caption] Water usage in Harris County[/caption]

Paying for the projects

To pay for the four projects, water authorities, including the WHCRWA and the NFBWA, will raise rates to MUDs. The WHCRWA has 118 MUDs in its boundaries.

“The water authority will charge the district on a fixed rate, whether it’s the groundwater rate or the surface water rate so much per thousand gallons that they sell to the district or that the district pumps,” Ahrens said.

A water authority has no taxing authority and is strictly fee-based. MUDs have their own rates and may include other costs on the bill, including trash and wastewater management.

“The district will pass that through to their residents so then it’s a matter of whatever that authority’s rate is times however much water that resident uses,” Ahrens said.

Rates for MUDs using groundwater and those using surface water are each expected to increase by 20 cents per 1,000 gallons of water in 2016 and another 20 cents per 1,000 gallons in 2017 for the WHCRWA. The NFBWA had a budget hearing Dec. 17 to discuss increasing rates up to 30 cents per 1,000 gallons.

“If the water authority raises the cost of water 20 cents per thousand gallons, [with] what they would normally use in a month [it would] probably amount to one beer that increase in price,” Ahrens said.

But Ahrens said water is a cheap utility compared to the price of gas, for example, and by conserving it, costs can be kept down.

“How [conservation] really helps is people use less water, waste less water, then first off we don’t need as much water so it means our water supply will last longer,” Ahrens said. “It reduces costs. We don’t have to treat as much water, don’t have to transport as much water clear across town and so it helps everybody by making the water supply go further.”