Part 1 and 2 of the Water Table Truth Interview
Laura Norton, StopOurSinking website's developer and Jim Spigener - an elected director on the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District Board are interviewed by Billy Graff.
This is the first of 2 interviews on the subject and video number 1 covers issues like the Conroe rate case, subsidence and the recharge rate.
SOS's favorite parts (and you have to listen to Jim for the context) start at 8:22, the response at 10:35. Then economics of water at 24:20 is also good.
And for a link to the second interview....
The sections below on this page include 3rd party information and back-up for the claims Laura makes in this interview.
Recharge rate in Montgomery County
This link takes you to a fact sheet (summary) of a 2013 study by US Geological Survey. In this study, environmental tracers were used to determine our aquifer system's recharge rate. The greatest recharge occurs in the shallow Chicot aquifer - an aquifer largely relied on for private domestic use.
Very high volume groundwater users (like The Woodlands and municipalities like Conroe) in Montgomery County use the Evangeline and especially Jasper aquifers for municipal supply and the recharge rate for the Jasper is only an inch a year at best.
Bottom line, if the county as a whole is pumping more than the recharge rate (64,000 acre feet of water per year), your county's well owners are collectively doing negligent damage to your property. Demand they move toward surface water solutions.
Compaction Happens in the Jasper Aquifer
Land subsidence and aquifer compaction in Montgomery County Texas
- Some folks believe that subsidence can't be happening from Jasper aquifer extraction, science and data show otherwise. (See the text under Figure 14 a and b if you're short on time and the corresponding figure 15 that highlights GPS monitoring stations in Conroe, Porter and New Caney areas).
- Subsidence doesn't happen uniformly, as if we're all on a table and our flood waters will just tilt towards Harris County; this science-based document shows uneven land surface deformation and that subsidence will cause localized flooding. It already has. We shouldn't contribute to making it worse when we have a solution with the surface water plant.
- This document shows overwhelming evidence that there is a direct relationship between groundwater pumping, water table drops and subsidence. (Plus, it just makes common sense that pulling something out of the earth, as aggressively as we do, might make us sink).
Know your aquifer
This website was built through a partnership between South Montgomery County MUD, WCID 1, The Woodlands Water Agency and The Woodlands Township called "The Regional Groundwater Science Project". The project included 1. guidance for monitoring land subsidence and 2. this site that shares information about the aquifers and the effects of over-pumping.
Will Fort Worth residents jump at the chance to pay the citizens of Conroe to water their petunias?
A: No, and they won't be forced to.
This link to section 6.114 of the Texas Water Code outlines the state's "default remedies and enforcement". https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/water-code/water-sect-6-114.html As holder of more than 80% of the bonds on our Surface Water Treatment Plant the state won't sit idly by while Conroe and Magnolia refuse to pay up.
Look at section (a)1 D especially, and rest assured that if you do live in Texas but not in Montgomery County, your state won't be giving the citizens of Conroe and Magnolia "big checks" off the backs of folks from say Dallas, Lubbock or Waco.
The state board will remedy the fact that the cities have breached the terms of the contract; this code section even outlines that the cities will have to give up all the money in escrow during a proceeding in a Travis County district court.