As area stakeholders continue to discuss future management of water resources in Montgomery County, questions have surfaced regarding the regional and local implications of Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District mandates.

The LSGCD mandates that beginning in 2016 Montgomery County use no more than 64,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year from the Gulf Coast Aquifer, on average, and supplement additional water demand through alternative sources. Because the Gulf Coast Aquifer is shared regionally—yet managed by several different management districts—the distribution of shared resources has been called into question.

The LSGCD has also established local groundwater reduction mandates as a countywide goal, leading to the cost of groundwater use reduction efforts being divided among all qualifying entities throughout the county—even though the largest water level declines have occurred in The Woodlands and Conroe.

By collaborating countywide, though, LSGCD General Manager Kathy Turner Jones said the reduced strain on the Gulf Coast Aquifer allows for further development in growing regions.

"If you look at that I-45 corridor, there was the most significant drawdowns in groundwater levels and a large population base," Jones said. "By over converting [those entities to surface water], that conversion allows groundwater pumpage to occur in other areas that are growing [in population] as well."

Montgomery County management

In Montgomery County, most of the water level declines occur along the I-45 corridor—where a majority of the county population resides. From 2000–13, Jasper Aquifer water levels dropped between 120 feet and 220 feet in parts of The Woodlands, and between 80 feet and 140 feet in parts of Conroe, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.

Still, the LSGCD mandates reduced groundwater use throughout the entire county, and the financial responsibility for reduction plan projects is shared between all participating entities and the residents they service.

San Jacinto River Authority General Manager Jace Houston said the countywide approach is in the overall best financial interest of the county, especially for smaller entities that have fewer residents to pay for those expenses.

"The people [who] are hurt the most by these continued declines [are the ones who depend on] the smaller entities," Houston said. "The bigger you are, the more ability you have to absorb these economic consequences. If you are a small entity relying on one well or a small city relying on two or three wells, you have a lot smaller customer base over which to absorb these costs."

Jones said the LSGCD initially considered breaking the district into different zones to mandate that high-population areas reduce groundwater use first.

However, Houston said that approach would have created winners and losers in Montgomery County, and that it financially benefits smaller entities more to work alongside large entities as a region.

"If we bust this county up into zones, you lose the efficiencies of scale," Houston said. "You create winners and losers, and the cheap water is taken up by the people who go first, and the people who have to go second have the more expensive water. It is just cheaper when everybody works together."

Regional resource management

While the LSGCD manages groundwater throughout Montgomery County, the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District manages groundwater use in Harris and Galveston counties. Even though the districts manage groundwater from the same sources, each district allows for different amounts of groundwater to be used and also take different approaches to meet their sustainability goals, said Gabriel Eckstein, a professor of law at Texas A&M University who specializes in natural resource law and policy.

"The way that water code is set up, in terms of the creation of these districts, it gives some guidelines, but it gives the districts the right to come up with their own approach of how they want to do it," Eckstein said. "Each district is authorized to have different rules, different approaches and different strategies."

Because the LSGCD mandates that Gulf Coast Aquifer groundwater use be reduced to 64,000 acre-feet in Montgomery County starting in 2016, a coalition of cities has questioned the fairness of the mandate. The coalition points to water use in Harris and Galveston counties, which combined used about 244,000 acre-feet of groundwater in 2013. In contrast, Montgomery County used 75,497 acre-feet of groundwater that year, according to the LSGCD.

However, the northern and western portions of Harris County—which will not reach final groundwater reduction goals until about 2035—accounted for about 198,000 acre-feet of groundwater use in 2013, HGSD General Manager Michael Turco said.

"Aquifers know no geopolitical boundaries," Turco said. "Of course, any changes in water use along the boundary of a county can have impact within the [districts]. So we work with [the LSGCD] and we try to share as much information as we can."

Houston said that direct comparisons between the districts might not be accurate, however. He said that because Harris County surface area covers more of the aquifer and also has more productive aquifers because of its geographical location, the HGSD can allow for larger groundwater amounts to be pumped while maintaining a sustainability goal.

Houston said that HGSD groundwater use reduction initiatives have already led to a rise in groundwater levels throughout a majority of Harris and Galveston counties, including north Harris county areas that border Montgomery County and have not yet met their long-term groundwater use reduction goals.

"Most of north Harris County has done it," Houston said. "They have stabilized their water levels. But guess who is sucking the water down still? We are."