Population growth in the Greater Houston area continues to put a strain on groundwater resources throughout the region. Several groundwater conservation and subsidence organizations are implementing a number of programs with the purpose of reducing the dependency their communities have on groundwater. Three of the major water entities in the area include the Harris/Galveston and Fort Bend subsidence districts, North Harris County Regional Water Authority, or NHCRWA, and the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District, or LSGCD. The Harris/Galveston and Fort Bend subsidence districts were created by the Texas Legislature to help reduce subsidence in 1975 and 1989, respectively. Created in January 2000, the NHCRWA works to secure long-term, reliable water sources. In 2001, the 77th Legislature created the LSGCD with the purpose of protecting Montgomery County's groundwater. Where does most of the water come from within your region? Rendl: We have water basically coming from two places. In the ground, where we have been [using water], there have been three aquifers. There was a Chicot Aquifer, which is very shallow, and that's about dry. And there was an Evangeline Aquifer that most of the subdivisions in the north part of the county had been drilling into and that is depleting very rapidly. And, there is the third aquifer, the Jasper Aquifer, that goes down much deeper, but the problem [with the Jasper aquifer is that], when you get that deep you get water that starts to be too salty to drink. Surface water today comes from the San Jacinto River or Lake Houston as well as Lake Conroe. The other water that we do use is reclaimed water, which is water that is taken from the sewer plants, and instead of putting [that water]into a creek or bayou, it is put back into the rivers and lakes. Turco: There's the [NHCRWA] area and if you zoom out a bit and look at Harris and Galveston and Fort Bend counties, a lot of the same sources of water are there. [These sources are] the Gulf Coast Aquifer System, which includes the Chicot, the Evangeline and the Jasper aquifers, [and] the San Jacinto River Basin, which includes Lake Houston and Lake Conroe. Trinity River does supply water to the south parts of Harris County through the Coastal Water Authority canal, which moves water from the Trinity River to the east plant in the city of Houston. The Brazos River provides most of the alternative sources of water to Fort Bend County and Galveston County. And that is an important thing because in the 2011 drought, the Brazos River really was exposed as maybe not being as reliable as we had hoped. Nelson: Montgomery County—I would estimate—[uses] 100 percent groundwater. It has since the beginning exclusively used the Chicot, Evangeline and Jasper [aquifers], with probably the bulk coming from the Jasper now. I think there's one energy plant in Lake Conroe that [uses] surface water for cooling purposes, and that's the only thing that is on any kind of surface water. Although there has been a lot of growth in the region in recent years, there is still undeveloped land in the Greater Houston area. How important is water as a resource to the development of that land? Turco: [If there is] no water, [there is] no development. They have got to go hand in hand. Those areas where you move further out into Harris County—in particular in our district and in western parts of Fort Bend County—they are likely going to be developed on some form of groundwater use because there is no infrastructure in those areas to get the alternative supply that is there. As we have seen happen in the past with development, infrastructure will reach those areas, and we will be working with them to get them converted to surface water and alternative sources of water as that development occurs. But we fully expect in those developing areas [to see] additional groundwater use until infrastructure is in place to provide them with alternative sources of water. It is important to recognize that in our regulatory plan in moving folks from groundwater to surface water over the last 40 years, there has been a great commitment by the regional water providers—the city of Houston, the [NHCRWA] and the West Authority—all the municipalities in the area have committed effort and dollars to infrastructure to support this regulatory plan. Was the Fort Bend Subsidence District successful in converting areas of the county to 30 percent surface water usage by 2014? Turco: Our regulatory plan was updated in 2013, and we have all of our major water providers in the area under a groundwater reduction plan. They have all given us plans on how they plan to deal with the 2014 conversion, which they all have. We also have in those plans [each provider's] plan for conversion in 2025, which is the 60 percent [groundwater reduction mandate]. So everybody has got a plan out there, and they are all making great progress. I can tell you that the leadership in Fort Bend County has been great to work with. They have really followed the model that was seen in Harris and Galveston counties as we moved on the conversion from groundwater to alternative forms of water. The limitation that Fort Bend County has is the Brazos River. The plan is to move water from other basins into Fort Bend County. This is really a regional issue, and everybody is working together along those lines. What is the Luce Bayou Project? Rendl: In the future we will be getting surface water from the Trinity River, and it will be coming to us from a conveyance called the Luce Bayou Project. [It] will be a series of pumps to start with at the river pumping into large-diameter pipes for a couple of miles, then it will go into a channel conveyer to get it into the far northeast branch of the San Jacinto River. This is in the back part of Kingwood to give you some idea of where it might be. And then it will flow through [Lake Houston] to the city of Houston's water treatment plant on the southwest side of the lake. Why is the project so important, and what effect will it have on the Houston area? Rendl: The Luce Bayou Project is an absolute must in terms of our being able to meet the needs of the growing population. There's simply not enough water in the San Jacinto River Basin so we are bringing it from the Trinity River through the Luce Bayou. That project will be bringing about 450 million gallons a day at its peak. The [NHCRWA] will be getting 36 percent of the capacity ultimately, which will be about 150 million gallons that we will have at our disposal after this is completed. What conservation programs have your districts implemented? Turco: We have a program where we incentivize folks who sponsor children in a water conservation program in the schools. In return, they get some groundwater credits that offsets their conversion. So that's part of the equation. We had 70,000 students in our program last year throughout Fort Bend, Harris and Galveston counties. What is the city of Houston doing to help provide water resources to the Greater Houston area? Rendl: I have got my fingers crossed that Houston City Council is going to pass the resolution that will allow for the building of the [expansion] of the water treatment plant. This is something that is monumental. I think you have to look at it in terms of people who have sat in the mayor's chair going back to 1940 and 1950 when they were thinking about, 'Where are we going to get our water?' And they said, 'We've got to build some reservoirs,' because there are no natural lakes in Houston. So they built Lake Livingston, and they're using probably 450 million–500 million gallons or more out of Lake Livingston today in the two water treatment plants that they have outside of Lake Houston. What we are seeing today is a project of almost that magnitude. We're looking at probably in the range of $1.2 billion–$1.5 billion that is being invested by the people in Harris County [and] the city of Houston.