The Region Set Its 2080 Groundwater Goal on Monday. For Montgomery County It Is Still 70 Percent, and This Time It Says Nothing About Sinking Ground.

In June we wrote that the real lever on groundwater in this county is a long-range target called a "desired future condition," and that the next version could tighten it or loosen it. That story is here. The next version was signed on Monday, November 9.

Five groundwater conservation districts make up Groundwater Management Area 14, which covers 20 counties from Walker and Montgomery down to the coast. The Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District, which regulates wells in Montgomery County, is one of them. Their representatives signed a resolution adopting the targets through 2080. Sarah Kouba signed for Lone Star.

The number for this county

Montgomery County: "no less than 70 median percent remaining available drawdown."

Available drawdown is, roughly, how far the water level in a well can fall before it reaches the top of the water-bearing layer. Keeping 70 percent of it in 2080 means planning for water levels to use up no more than about 30 percent of that room, measured as a median across the county.

Seventy percent is the same figure the county had in the last round, in 2021. A few of the neighbors, from the same resolution:

• Walker: 70 percent
• Waller: 72 percent
• Grimes: 75 percent
• Harris: 67 percent
• Fort Bend: 56 percent, the lowest of the 20
• San Jacinto: 87 percent

What changed

The 2021 round set one statement for every county in the area: no less than 70 percent of available drawdown remaining in 2080, or no more than an average of one additional foot of subsidence, the ground settling, between 2009 and 2080. The word "or" was itself a late change; an earlier draft said "and."

The resolution signed Monday sets a separate number for each county, and every one is a drawdown figure. It does not mention subsidence.

That is close to what Lone Star asked for in 2021. Its general manager then, Samantha Reiter, argued for measures that fit each county, and said that for Montgomery County "the limiting factor in all of the model runs is always 70% remaining available drawdown," not the one-foot subsidence figure. Her motion failed 2 to 3 that year.

State law lists subsidence among the things the districts must consider when they set these goals, and they have to send the state an explanatory report with their reasoning. The resolution itself does not say why the subsidence measure is gone. We have not seen that report, and we will read it when it is posted.

What happens next, and the window to challenge it

• First, the Texas Water Development Board reviews the resolution and the explanatory report and tells the districts whether the package is administratively complete.
• Then, Lone Star adopts the Montgomery County goal at one of its own public board meetings.
• From that adoption, anyone affected has 120 days to file a petition with the district asking for a hearing on whether the goal is reasonable. The petition has to bring evidence. The hearing would go to the State Office of Administrative Hearings.

If you do nothing, nothing about your water changes this week. A well keeps pumping and a utility bill stays what it is. The goal works over decades: it is the planning line that pumping permits and management plans are written toward, and the reason it matters to growth here is that new subdivisions almost all draw on the same aquifer.

Things to check if this matters to you: Lone Star's board agendas, for the meeting where it adopts the goal; the water board's page of petitions over desired future conditions, which lists earlier ones involving Lone Star; and, once posted, the explanatory report.