Statewide and local water organizations are spending billions of dollars on projects that will secure a sustainable drinking source and reduce the threat of subsidence and flooding in the Greater Houston area.

Construction began in October on the largest surface water project in the region—the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project and several associated water infrastructure initiatives—a venture that could double or triple residential water bills in the Lake Houston area in the next decade, according to the North Harris County Regional Water Authority.

However, as groundwater sources dry up, the Greater Houston area will not have enough water to keep up with future needs without the Luce Bayou Project, said Don Ripley, executive director of the Coastal Water Authority, an organization that distributes water sources owned by the city of Houston, including Lake Houston.

“Absent this project, and Lake Houston is the city of Houston’s primary drinking reservoir for [much of the region]; if this water is not delivered from the Luce Bayou [Project] there is insufficient water in Lake Houston to meet the demand,” Ripley said.

Reducing Subsidence

The $380 million Luce Bayou Project will siphon water from the Trinity River to Lake Houston, providing additional surface water to the region, including Humble, Kingwood and Atascocita, CWA project manager David Miller said.

Construction includes a 26-mile system of pipes and canals that will bring surface water from the Trinity River to Lake Houston. The CWA designed the project and is constructing it.

The Luce Bayou Project will be completed in December 2018, and additional surface water will start being delivered to water users around Lake Houston in 2021.

The project will help decrease the region’s dependence on groundwater, reduce the area’s susceptibility to flooding and limit the threat of subsidence—the sinking of land that threatens the foundation of homes and businesses, said Yvonne Forrest, senior assistant director of drinking water operations for the city of Houston.

“It goes hand and hand with some of the things you hear city of Houston’s administrators talking about with flooding,” Forrest said. “When the land subsides, some of the areas that did not flood in the past are now experiencing flooding.”

Infrastructure Plans

The Texas Water Development Board approved about $3.9 billion in financial assistance from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas in 2015, of which $2.9 billion will go toward infrastructure associated with the Luce Bayou Project, said Amanda Lavin, the board’s deputy executive administrator for water supply and infrastructure.

The bond money will allow the five regional water authorities that collaborated on the project to finance the Luce Bayou Project with low-interest loans, said Al Rendl, president of the North Harris County Regional Water Authority.

Money from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas will also help fund the expansion of the Northeast Water Purification Plant on Lake Houston, transmission lines and the distribution system to provide additional surface water to water users across the Greater Houston area. Future bonds will help fund the balance of the project, which will be paid off through fees from water users across the region.

The purification plant will receive a $1.2 billion makeover to increase its pumping capacity from 80 million gallons of surface water per day up to 500 million gallons per day for users among the five water authorities when the project is completed in 2023, Rendl said.

Rendl said residents’ water bills will increase substantially in the next decade because of debt service costs associated with the project. Water rates across the region are steadily rising to fund the project, he said. The north and west Harris County regional water authorities raised rates for ground and surface water in January.

The north, west and central Harris County regional water authorities provide surface and groundwater to municipal utilities and individual neighborhoods.

However, water bills within the city of Houston may not rise as it decommissions some of its assets associated with groundwater over the next decade, Forrest said.

Although the costs are high, the projects will protect private property and future water sources, Forrest said.

“Subsidence will affect all of us, and there is no new water on the planet,” she said. “We’ve all got to be aware of how we’re using and protecting our sources.”

Water Conversion

The Lake Houston area, which is serviced by four water authorities, receives most of its water from aquifers, which are an underground layer sand or rocks that contain water.

In addition to the cities of Houston and Humble, which provide water to their respective water users, the unincorporated portions of the Lake Houston area will receive surface water from the NHCRWA and the West Harris County Regional Water Authority.

The city of Houston provides water to the portions of Kingwood located within Montgomery County.

However, the area is gradually converting to surface water purchased from the CWA after the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District mandated that water authorities reduce the area’s dependency on groundwater in 1996, Rendl said.

The mandate was deemed necessary after heavy subsidence was caused by pumping from shrinking groundwater wells and aquifers in the Greater Houston area, he said. Overdependence on groundwater also caused stress on the fast depleting aquifers in the region.

“We feel we’re doing things to ensure we’re going to have an adequate quantity of potable drinking water for now and into the far future,” Rendl said.

Water providers were required to convert 30 percent of their water use to nongroundwater sources by 2010, eventually converting 80 percent of each district’s water use to surface water by 2030, according to the mandate. 

Humble, which receives 30 percent of its water from surface water sources, will be converted to 80 percent surface water by 2030, Humble Public Works Director Barry Brock said.

Summerwood, Fall Creek and all of Kingwood are serviced by the city of Houston. No timetable is in place for the conversion of these areas to surface water use, because the city will convert other areas within its boundaries to meet the mandate, Forrest said.

Atascocita, meanwhile, will be converted to surface water use over the next decade as the NHCRWA and WHCRWA complete infrastructure projects, like water transmission lines, along Lake Houston.

“The [Atascocita neighborhoods] will be converted sometime between 2025 and 2035,” said Wayne Ahrens, principal and COO for Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation, which manages projects for the NHCRWA. “We will run a line up off of the city’s main line coming off the northeast plant, then we’ll convert them.”