The city of Oak Ridge North and the San Jacinto River Authority have agreed to delay the start of construction of pipeline in to the city that would allow Oak Ridge North to receive surface water from Lake Conroe as part of the SJRA's Groundwater Reduction Plan.

City Manager Vicky Rudy said the initial plan was to install a pipeline from the South Montgomery County MUD water plant on Maplewood Drive and west on Robinson Road to the city's water plant. However, the city is working on a concurrent project, which has caused the city and SJRA to reconsider the route.

Rudy said a decision would likely be made in May.

"We're assessing the necessity and whether the location of surface water in Oak Ridge North would best be there," she said.

Rudy said the pipeline was going to be installed at the same time as a storm water project on Maplewood Drive. The project would have helped mitigate development on I-45, but recent discussion regarding the project led the city to decide it was inefficient. The City Council opted for the purchase of a tract of land for a possible retention pond instead.

"That triggered the assessment of the project because we changed what we were doing and [the SJRA] had to evaluate what they were doing," Rudy said.

The city still plans to receive about 300,000 gallons of surface water from the pipeline in the future to supplement the city's groundwater use, but both the city and SJRA are re-evaluating their options to determine the best route for the pipeline, Rudy said.

The 300,000 gallons is a small portion of the 30 million gallons the SJRA's pipeline can pump throughout Montgomery County in a single day.