North Harris County Regional Water Authority postpones water rate increase to July

“We have an additional $1.69 billion of debt that we are taking on to convert 60% of all the water that’s used in the North Harris County Regional Water Authority to surface water,” Rendl said in March. “And in order to pay for that, we have to increase the fees, ... and we will probably go up in the range of 45-50 cents [per 1,000 gallons] for the next three or four years before it’ll start to level off.”

Starting in 2003, the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District mandated the NHCRWA, among other entities, reach at least 30%, 60% and 80% surface water reliance in 2010, 2025 and 2035, respectively.

Rendl said as underground water sources known as aquifers begin to dry up, the ground’s surface has gradually settled downward, a process known as subsidence. This led to the subsidence district’s formation in 1975 and later the mandate that if not met by 2025, water authorities will pay a penalty of around $9 per 1,000 gallons of additional groundwater used, he said.

“We’re doing it to meet the subsidence district mandates, but we’re doing it also because if we do not do it, we will not have water in the future,” he said.

Read more about the authority’s latest projects here.