By Andrea Bolt

As dwindling water availability continues to challenge The Woodlands and Montgomery County, Mark Smith, administrator of the San Jacinto River Authority Groundwater Reduction Plan, has partnered with the township and its Going G.R.E.E.N. Sustainability Lecture Series to address those issues and challenges.

Smith will speak at the South Regional Library at 2102 Lake Robbins Drive Sept. 18 where he will also be available to answer questions from concerned residents regarding the plan.

"A lot of the questions I'm getting right now concern traffic and how that will be managed once we start construction," Smith said in reference to new pipe lines that will be constructed along Research Forest Drive.

Smith said much of his talk will consist of explaining the groundwater situation in The Woodlands, the SJRA's projections and its upcoming plans to utilize Lake Conroe as a water supply.

"The plan we have will not succeed if we don't get people's daily, and just general, water usage managed better," Smith said. "We're really trying to educate people on conservation."

He said residents need to partner with their neighbors to keep from using all the water the county has available and to cut down usage.

The lecture series is a program of The Woodlands G.R.E.E.N. (Grassroots Environmental Education Network), which has partnered with The Woodlands Township Environmental Services Department.

Going G.R.E.E.N. coordinator Cinda Hitchcock said about every monththe series will host a new speaker about an environmentally-related topic.