Good day Water User Coalition Members,
The North Harris County Regional Water Authority, “NHCRWA” is in total disarray thanks to new board members Mark Ramsey, Melissa Rowell and David Barker playing politics. These board members have continued to vote to cut water rates and stop and or slow current and future construction in spite of the consequences of these actions and against the advice being given by the NHCRWA’s experts. The NHCRWA’s failure to meet the Harris Galveston Subsidence District, “HGSD” surface water conversion mandate will result in a disincentive fee to every water user within the NHCRWA’s boundaries of $12.00 per thousand gallons of water. The possibility of failure to meet debt obligations and breach of current contracts are real concerns and could result in tens of millions of dollars in higher interest rates and legal fees. These short term ill-advised rate cuts will cost everyone a lot more in the very near future; see the graph below.
Most people are for lowering water rates responsibly. The NHCRWA has invested more than a billion dollars over the past twenty four years, to secure a long-term reliable supply of wholesale drinking water while keeping the cost as low as possible for as long as possible. The NHCRWA is building the necessary infrastructure to supply surface water to hundreds of thousands of people for now and the next 50 to a 100 years, all in an effort to meet the HGSD mandate to convert from ground water to surface water to slow subsidence and reduce flooding. The necessity of having a plentiful, precious resource of reliable water in our ever-growing area is so important. We are very fortunate to have the availability of multiple water reservoirs. The first phase of the new North East Houston Surface Water Facility is now in operation, and there is an oversupply of new surface water available to be taken by the NHCRWA water districts and their customers. However, the distribution infrastructure is lagging and the above listed board members are attempting to slow and or stop the vital necessary construction to distribute the water to the 2025 GRP customers.
Please go to the websites for the NHCRWA https://www.nhcrwa.com/ and the HGSD https://hgsubsidence.org/ and consider attending the meetings to become more informed. The Water Users Coalition, is working with the Association of Water Board Directors, to facilitate a Town Hall Meeting in the very near future to discuss the NHCRWA and to meet the candidates running for the 2024 election. More information will follow.
Best regards,
Jerry Homan
