On April 1, water rates increased about 15 percent for residents in Spring and Klein as the city of Houston and regional water authorities continue to work on projects that will increase the Greater Houston area’s use of surface water and decrease its use of groundwater, officials said. Increases are expected to continue every year, and rates could reach about $5 per 1,000 gallons in the next 10 years.

This state-mandated shift from groundwater to surface water is an attempt to offset subsidence—which is the lowering of land elevation by withdrawing too much groundwater and can lead to flooding—in the Greater Houston area, said Mike Turco, Harris-Galveston Subsidence District general manager. The transition from groundwater to surface water is also necessary to keep pace with the water needs of the Greater Houston area’s growing population, he said.

The HGSD is the state entity that regulates the groundwater usage of the water authorities in the region—including the North Harris County Regional Water Authority, which covers Spring and Klein. Turco said the subsidence district tasked regional water authorities in the Greater Houston area with ensuring that by 2035, surface water will supply 80 percent of the water used in North and West Harris County, with groundwater comprising the remaining 20 percent.

Currently, the NHCRWA pumps 70 percent of its water from the ground, while 30 percent of its water comes from the surface.

“The endgame in [North and West Harris County] is to get to a point where there is no longer appreciable subsidence going on,” Turco said.

Regional projects


One of the major projects that will increase the amount of surface water available to residents is the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project. This project will transport water from the Trinity River in Liberty County to Lake Houston—which serves as a major source of surface water for the Greater Houston area said Don Ripley, Coastal Water Authority executive director.

The estimated $380 million project involves building a pump station on the Trinity River, along with pipelines and channels to transport the water to Lake Houston. NHCRWA President Al Rendl said the project will allow officials to pump up to 450 million gallons of water per day from the Trinity River. Construction on the project started in 2016 and is scheduled to finish in 2019, Ripley said.

The Texas Water Development Board, various water authorities—including the NHCRWA—and the city of Houston will cover the cost of this project, Ripley said.

Surface water pulled from Lake Houston is treated at the Northeast Water Purification Plant, which is undergoing a $1.6 billion expansion, Project Manager Ravi Kaleyatodi said. This expansion will increase the number of gallons the plant can pump from 80 million to 400 million per day. This expansion, like the Luce Bayou Project, is necessary for the Greater Houston area to transition from groundwater to surface water, he said.

Construction on this expansion started earlier this year and will be completed in two phases. The first phase will increase the number of gallons the plant can pump per day to 160 million, and it will be completed in 2022. The expansion to 400 million gallons per day will be completed by 2024, Kaleyatodi said.

The TWDB is loaning the $1.6 billion needed for this expansion to the various entities involved with the project, but the water authorities affected and the city of Houston will share the total cost, Kaleyatodi said.

In addition to the Luce Bayou Project and the water purification plant expansion, the NHCRWA is working on a transmission line that will carry water from the Northeast Water Purification Plant to a new pump station and storage facility on Beltway 8.

The water will be transported from the station through various pipelines to the municipal utility districts within the NHCRWA.

Rendl said all aspects of the project will cost about $1.4 billion in total. The city of Houston will cover some of the costs for parts of the project it will share with NHCRWA, he said.

All of these projects are connected and address the Greater Houston area’s surface water needs, Kaleyatodi said.

“While we don’t have more water today, we need more water today,” Rendl said. “What we are doing is connecting loops in our system … because you have to keep the water moving.”

Increased water rates


As the NHCRWA and other entities work on significant infrastructure projects, the monthly water pumping fees customers pay are increasing to help pay for the projects. NHCRWA’s groundwater pumping fee has increased from $2 per 1,000 gallons in 2015 to $3.40 per 1,000 gallons as of April 1.

In that same time, NHCRWA’s surface water pumping fee has increased from $2.45 per 1,000 gallons to $3.85 per 1,000 gallons.

Rendl said these annual increases are used to pay the money owed on bonds that fund projects within the NHCRWA. Customers will continue seeing increases over the next few years to help pay for the infrastructure, he said.

“Our financial people are saying they think that we can get by with about a 50 cent increase on an annual basis until the rates reach ... the $5 range,” Rendl said.

These pumping fees are initially paid by MUDs, which pass the costs down to customers within their districts based on usage. MUDs also charge their customers a pumping fee to cover the operation and maintenance of infrastructure within the districts, said Gary Craig, Prestonwood Forest Utility District president.

PFUD charges its customers $6 for the first 10,000 gallons used in a month and additional incremental charges if customers exceed that amount, Craig said. Residents must also pay the NHCRWA fee based on how much water they use.

Craig said there are about 700-800 homes within PFUD, which is located near Cypresswood Drive and Hwy. 249. He said many of those homes use less than 10,000 gallons of water per month, while a small percentage use about 20,000 gallons monthly.

The district has not increased its rate in the last seven years but is considering an increase to make up for damage the district sustained during Hurricane Harvey in August, Craig said.

“We have to do mitigation damages from Harvey, [and] our infrastructure is 50 years old,” he said. “We’re realizing some costs in trying to maintain that.”

Subsidence, water demands


The Greater Houston area’s transition from groundwater to surface water will not reverse subsidence that has already occurred, but it should prevent it from getting worse, Turco said. Addressing subsidence is necessary because decreases in land elevation can increase an area’s chance of flooding.

“[The Greater Houston area] is already prone to flooding with the amount of rainfall we get, and any changes in drainage patterns or elevation can have a big impact on ... how much flooding can occur,” Turco said.

Historically, subsidence has been more of an issue closer to downtown Houston. But recently, the district has recorded higher subsidence rates in the suburbs in North and West Harris County—such as Spring and Klein—due to the rapid development taking place, he said. For example, an area on FM 2920 in Spring subsided an average 0.413 inches per year from 2011 to 2016, while the most significant subsidence rate within Loop 610 during that time was 0.102 inches.

“We are moving into areas where water use is changing, and water is in higher demand because there are more people living there,” Turco said.

The NHCRWA currently pumps 70 percent of its water from the ground, but is mandated to cut back to 40 percent by 2025, and 20 percent by 2035, Turco said.

“As those conversions occur, the amount of groundwater used decreases, so the pressure stabilizes and subsidence is expected to ... stop in most of the district,” Turco said.

In addition to mitigating subsidence, the projects being completed throughout the Greater Houston area will increase the amount of water available for the growing number of residents in places such as Spring and Klein.

The water purification plant has not increased its water pumping capacity above 80 million gallons per day since it began operations about 15 years ago. Kaleyatodi said officials decided to increase the capacity to 400 million gallons per day to meet future needs because the Greater Houston area’s population is projected to increase by 1 million people every decade over the next few decades.

“We looked at the demand projections for all of these entities combined [and] the demand projections indicated that we would be looking at maybe 320 million gallons per day by the year 2035,” Kaleyatodi said.

Additional Reporting By Shawn Arrajj