[0:05] Okay, good morning. We're going to go ahead and get started and try to keep this as timely as possible for you all this morning. First, I want to thank everybody for joining us today. We do have a healthy crowd, so I first just want to mention our decor and policy. Leave with a caution and maintain professionalism. Be respectful to our panelists as I understand this is a passionate topic.

[0:30] for a lot of us, I will go ahead and say, you know, if you're not able to maintain decor

[0:37] and you will be asked to leave, we do have consoles in the audience today, I believe we

[0:42] have one that we have slated to show up to make sure everything stays under control.

[0:47] I don't expect there to be any issues at all, but I'd be remiss not to mention, especially

[0:52] with public comment and Q&A. So we do expect to have time for questions at the end. We

[0:58] ask that you sign in. That way, if you do have a question, once we've wrapped up, Tiffany,

[1:04] way is going to, in order to receive, have you line up and ask a question of peace, just one

[1:11] question to be respectful of those that also have questions and then you can always circle back

[1:17] and get to the end of the line time permitting. So again, this is, you know, not intended this event

[1:26] to be a time for grandstanding or making

[1:27] big statements to the district.

[1:29] We do have a space and opportunity to do that in our public meetings.

[1:33] But this is really meant to be a courtesy for you

[1:36] time to utilize our district consultants.

[1:42] And you know, use that time wisely to your benefits.

[1:44] So thank you to Advanced for your cooperation on that.

[1:47] We're really excited to be able to put this together for you today.

[1:50] It's an informational event to hopefully shed some light on some of the misconceptions that both

[1:58] I and our directors have received at other meetings, other public spaces when their language

[2:04] or statements about public water supplier wells and our district.

[2:07] I think that's led to fear-mongering misunderstanding.

[2:11] Whatever the case may be, I'm hoping that with our consultants here, they can use facts

[2:16] and their expertise help us all work better together.

[2:19] As we do our best to manage growth, state water level declines, challenges, et cetera.

[2:25] So with that said, I'm going to go ahead and introduce our consultants and then we can begin.

[2:32] So first I'll start with Miss Stacy Reese.

[2:35] Stacy Reese has our NBT law firm in Austin, where she represents individuals, businesses,

[2:41] governmental entities, and water law with a focus on groundwater law.

[2:45] Stacy's been practicing water law for almost 20 years before starting her own law firm.

[2:49] Stacey worked at a prominent Austin-based firm,

[2:52] McGinnis Lawcredge.

[2:53] Stacey's been recognized by Texas Super Lawyer since 2014.

[2:57] First, I was rising star early in her career,

[3:00] and as a super lawyer since 2020,

[3:02] in addition to practicing water laws.

[3:04] Stacey's also a litigator and served

[3:06] for many years on the board of directors

[3:07] for the litigation section of the Austin Bar.

[3:12] Very small resume, that Stacey has.

[3:15] And then we have Mr. James Beach, PG,

[3:18] As principal and co-founder at Advanced Groundwater Solutions LLC has every 35 years experience

[3:24] in quantitative groundwater hydrology and Texas, the United States and internationally,

[3:29] James Consults with GCDs, cities, river authorities, water suppliers, private landowners,

[3:35] developers, industry, water and power utilities, and other entities.

[3:40] Over the last 26 years, James has worked as groundwater consultant in 10 of the 16 regional water

[3:46] planning areas in Texas has worked in some capacity as groundwater consultant to GCDs and stakeholders

[3:52] in 12 of the 16 groundwater management areas in Texas.

[3:56] He focuses on water resource development and planning, well-filled design and development,

[4:02] groundwater modeling, permitting, brackish groundwater ASR, groundwater quality evaluations,

[4:08] and litigation support.

[4:09] Thanks for being here, James.

[4:12] Chris Drebeck is a professional geoscientist with 26 years of experience in groundwater resource

[4:18] consulting and large capacity water well projects.

[4:21] For most of his career, he's been based out of Houston with LBG Guyton Associates and

[4:25] he's currently a shareholder with advanced groundwater solutions.

[4:29] Experiencing the greater Houston area includes groundwater availability evaluations, well

[4:34] fighting studies, brackish groundwater, ASR assessments, regional water planning, and development

[4:39] of groundwater flow models. He is experienced with drilling, construction, testing of

[4:44] numerous waters, capacity water wells, and in addition to water well rehabilitation to extend

[4:49] the service life of wells and mitigate water quality issues. Throughout Texas, he has experience

[4:56] with brackish groundwater, exploratory drilling, testing, well construction, including the

[5:01] Jasper in the Katahula Aquifers. He continues to work with groundwater conservation districts

[5:05] Cross-Texus and he has provided technical consulting to Lowell and Start Groundwater Conservation District

[5:11] from 2003 through 2017 and again 2020 until the present.

[5:19] All right, and we've got Mike, Mike earned his bachelor's in philosophy 1996 from Oklahoma

[5:25] Baptist University and his master's in geology 2002 from Oklahoma State University.

[5:31] Mike began his career as a hydrogeologist in 2003 focusing on groundwater flow and determination

[5:37] of availability and at the beginning of 2024 he founded KT Groundwater. He is a recognized

[5:43] expert in hydrogeology, groundwater floor modeling, and aquifer compaction. He's been working

[5:48] with Len Star as part of our technical consulting team since 2020 to support our management

[5:53] at the local groundwater resources. Thank you all for being here today, taking the time to drive

[5:58] in from out of town and help us learn a little bit more about what it is we do and how we

[6:04] can serve preserve, protect, and plan for the future.

[6:06] So thanks again so much for being here.

[6:09] That said, I'm going to go ahead and get us started.

[6:12] I was going to kick it off with an icebreaker

[6:14] and ask them all to say something about themselves,

[6:16] but I got bulk from a couple of the team members.

[6:19] That was more pressure than teaching you all about

[6:22] hydrogology and the water here in Montgomery County.

[6:26] So we'll just go ahead and get moving in.

[6:29] So I want to start with Stacey, and we're going to do a summary of GCD regulatory authority.

[6:37] So if you would, just give us a high level overview of GCD's regulatory authority.

[6:44] Let's see, so GCD's are political subdivisions with very limited powers, and that's

[6:52] really important when you're thinking about what a GCD does and can do.

[6:57] And the courts have said that the powers of these districts are measured by the terms of the statutes,

[7:05] which authorized their creations.

[7:07] And even though the preferred method of groundwater management, courts say we must review the water

[7:13] carried to determine if the legislature has clearly authorized the action of the district.

[7:19] Because GCDs can exercise no authority that has not been clearly granted by the legislature.

[7:25] And GCDs have several different statues that pertain.

[7:30] There is the gcd enabling legislation, which is what created the gcd, and those that enabling legislation

[7:39] can vary between gcd's. Then we've got Chapter 36 of the Texas Water Code, which applies to all groundwater

[7:47] conservation districts that are governed by 36. Then you have statutes that are applicable to all governmental entities,

[7:55] like the Texas Open Meetings Act or the Public Information Act.

[8:00] And then some GCDs have other statutes that would apply to them,

[8:04] that are specific to them.

[8:05] Like the Bandera County River Authority and GCD,

[8:09] which is a GCD and a River Authority

[8:12] combined into one governmental entity.

[8:15] And so there are certain exceptions where some GCDs

[8:18] have additional powers beyond a GCD,

[8:21] and you might look to other statutory authority.

[8:23] For example, Chapter 49 of the water code would apply to you Bendira County River Authority in GCD.

[8:30] But loans are is a straight-up, pure Chapter 36 of District.

[8:36] And so what we're going to focus on today is Chapter 36 of the water code and not the Districts.

[8:42] And I've been in legislation or any other statutes that apply to all governmental entities in general.

[8:49] We're just going to hit 36.

[8:51] So when you look at chapter 36, there are many, many spec chapters of 36, and full purposes

[8:59] of this meeting, the ones that I think are the most applicable or key are the purpose,

[9:05] of a GCD, the ownership, rulemaking, coordinating inspections, and enforcement.

[9:12] At least now, we're going to put this PowerPoint online for everybody, correct?

[9:16] Okay, so don't feel like you have to take lots of notes or no pictures.

[9:19] you're welcome to you, but we're going to provide this to y'all on the website.

[9:22] This meeting is also being recorded, so it will also be online.

[9:27] So, starting with purpose, the legislature has said GCDs are the preferred method of crime

[9:32] modern management, and they were designed to protect property rights.

[9:36] That was one of the fundamental principles of why GCDs were created.

[9:40] And then they're supposed to manage the aquifer to meet the state's needs and use the best

[9:47] available science while they're doing that.

[9:48] GCDs may collect any information that the Board of Directors deems necessary, and they

[9:56] can set administrative fees that do not unreasonably exceed the cost of the function of the

[10:02] performing function.

[10:06] With respect to ownership, 36 clearly expressly acknowledges a landowner

[10:11] owns the groundwater as well property. That means when you own the groundwater, you can drill

[10:16] and produce it without causing waste, as long as you're not causing waste, malicious drainage

[10:22] or negligently causing subsidence.

[10:27] And also, when GCDs were created, you have these ownership rights and that means you can

[10:31] produce subject to not causing waste, malicious drainage, negligence subsidence, all and

[10:37] you have to be subject to the reasonable regulation of the groundwater district.

[10:41] When the groundwater district's regulation goes too far, and as unreasonable that's when

[10:46] might be what's referred to as a taking screen, but as long as the GCD's regulation is

[10:51] reasonable and within its own express authority delegated to it, then that is all, you

[10:56] know, that is all fine for a GCD to do and doesn't interfere with the property rights

[11:01] of the landowner. There are certain things that ownership does not entitle only in donor

[11:06] to. It doesn't entitle a landowner to capture a specific amount of water. It doesn't, and that

[11:16] a water marketer and you want to produce a certain amount of water, it doesn't mean you're

[11:20] entitled to do that. You're subject to the reasonable regulation of the district, that also

[11:25] mean in the rules of the district which might limit the amount that you can produce. It also means

[11:29] that if you drilled your wall at a certain period of time and you had a specific water level in

[11:34] your wallet that time, you're not entitled to your ownership rights, you're not entitled to you

[11:40] to maintain that specific water level in your wallet over time. The ownership allows you to

[11:46] use your water and in a way that you want to

[11:50] step into the regulation, but it doesn't give you the right just the civic amount.

[11:54] Or a specific water level in your well.

[11:59] So moving on to wheel making,

[12:02] in 36 there are certain things that GCDs must do,

[12:06] and then there are certain things that a GCD may do.

[12:09] And so through the next set of slides,

[12:11] I've outlined for you the things you have to do on the left

[12:14] and then the things that a GCD may do on the right.

[12:18] I tried to be really comprehensive in these slides for you because I felt like people were going to look at these later.

[12:24] I'm not going to cover everything on these slides, particularly the next few slides.

[12:29] But the just is that a GCD must have fair and impartial rules that consider ownership and rights and that also consider optimal for conditions.

[12:39] And then a GCD may regulate the production of your wells and may regulate spacing.

[12:47] Permitting a GCD has, you know, things that must do and then things that it may do.

[12:53] Most important I think for public water suppliers is that a GCD can ask for specific information

[12:59] in the permitting process.

[13:01] There are, there's a default set of things in 36 that a GCD must ask for on an application

[13:06] or may ask for.

[13:08] And then there's a catch all that says a GCD can ask for anything else besides with

[13:13] this list provided that it's reasonably there's a way about it and it's reasonably related

[13:19] to the GCD's authority and so you'll see a lot of GCD's asked for specific technical

[13:24] information like a hydrogeological report or other cities that demonstrate your right to

[13:30] construct and produce groundwater on the particular area where you're trying to do that.

[13:35] These that document your demonstrated demand for the groundwater and then scientific information.

[13:42] So there's a very standard things that GCDs are allowed to ask for in the application process

[13:47] and typically do.

[13:50] GCDs have a broad authority to conduct inspections.

[13:54] They can enter property.

[13:57] They can inspect wells at very points.

[14:01] They can come out before wells constructed to verify that the wells been constructed in the

[14:06] location that was requested.

[14:07] they can conduct full tests, they can ask you to verify that the information on your pump

[14:15] and may there are consistent with what you asked for, will request it on your application.

[14:22] And they need to abide by the rules of the property for example,

[14:28] but they do have the right to enter the property and they are required to ask for driver's logs,

[14:33] meaning that you owe required to produce the log that shows where you drilled the

[14:40] wall at what depth and the other information on that particular log.

[14:47] Enforcement powers the GCD has broad enforcement powers and the legislature

[14:51] just exceeded days in this last session.

[14:55] So GCDs, as we know, are required to protect the aqua-

[15:04] If a GCD cannot enforce those rules, then a GCD has no power to ensure that they're meeting their statutory duties, because they have to be able to ensure that people are following the rules.

[15:18] So they can enforce, they can assess penalties for violations of their rules, and they can enforce those penalties.

[15:26] And if necessary, they can seek enforcement through a court.

[15:29] And the legislature just increased the amount of penalties that a GCD may impose.

[15:35] It used to be up to $10,000 a day.

[15:39] Now up to $25,000 a day.

[15:41] And each violation is considered to be its own separate violations.

[15:46] And so if you over produce for 60 days out of the year, a GCD has the authority to find

[15:52] you look to $25,000 every day that you're in violation of the rules.

[15:56] Now, those start doesn't do that, but it has the authority to do that if it chose to.

[16:03] Okay, looks, I'm going to, you covered a lot on what we can and can't do, so I'm glad you

[16:09] have slides on this because I want to be more specific if you can, because not all GCDs

[16:14] are the same, right?

[16:14] They all have these authorities and we different boards to stop right differently, but can you say what we're doing specifically?

[16:22] Sure.

[16:22] So, LoneSports obviously doing all the things that it's required to do.

[16:26] And then the things that it has discretion to do, I made a list here for you of the things that LoneSports has chosen to implement.

[16:33] LoneSports has property lines facing, meaning all wells must be at least 50 feet from the property line.

[16:39] And that applies to exempt wells and non-exempt wells.

[16:42] Lonstar has well-to-well spacing based upon the maximum instantaneous rate in gallons per minute of proposed wells per aquifer and that will only applies to non-exempt wells.

[16:57] The spacing rules are really important because they help lessen interference between wells.

[17:03] You hear people talk about what I have, you know, I have been draw down in my wells.

[17:07] Well, if loans start didn't have spacing rules, particularly the GPM spacing rules, you would

[17:12] have potentially more drawdown in your wealth.

[17:15] So, loans start has developed those rules to help prevent less than interference between

[17:19] wells.

[17:20] It also minimizes the reduction of our teaching pressure and helps control subsidence.

[17:26] The spacing is really important.

[17:29] Lundstall also requires a hydro report for certain wells that, you know, the larger type of wells,

[17:37] and that allows for Lundstall to analyze impact analysis by the proposed project in the application,

[17:44] versus the existing wells around it, ones that are maybe even outside of the spacing analysis,

[17:51] meaning they're outside of that buffer that Lundstall put in place.

[17:54] And then, if there are wells that are inside this basing buffer, we can certainly look at those if someone's asking for an exception to spacing.

[18:04] Lonstar has well monitoring network across the district, GPS stations, Lonstar obviously is, you know, using its enforcement power and inspection power, and so many of y'all are familiar with that.

[18:17] And then it's managing the aquifer to achieve the DFCs and has roles in place to do that in a management plan.

[18:24] Thank you, Stacey.

[18:25] I'm going to ask, let's see in the viewers slide.

[18:29] I'm going to come to you.

[18:33] I want to touch more on summary of DFCs, regional long term aquifer management.

[18:38] So if you can give us a high level overview of GCDs and excuse me.

[18:43] I'm asking her on, but I'd like you to provide some insight on the joint planning process.

[18:48] How do you see how districts plan for regional and long-term offer management?

[18:54] Okay, thank you, sir.

[18:56] Back in 1997, Senator One was passed and that kicked off a process of state water planning.

[19:05] And then that first round of planning, the regional water planning groups, you are in Lone Star

[19:11] a part of Region H and Yolfe mostly have heard probably of Region H but there are 16 different

[19:18] regions around the state. And during that first round of planning, basically what happened was

[19:25] the state realized that there was confusion about who was determining how much water, how much

[19:31] round water there was to use for state planning. Some regional water planning groups calculated

[19:38] available groundwater one way and other groups did it another way and the

[19:42] GCDs were sitting there going, wait we're regulating groundwater what about us and

[19:48] so in 2005 they initiated the legislature initiated the process called

[19:54] joint groundwater planning it's in chapter 36 Stacey briefly mentioned that

[19:59] the district has to develop desired future conditions and model the

[20:05] of a groundwater, well that's what this process is all about, and so if you look at G&A-14 groundwater

[20:13] management area, 14 covers the northern Gulf Coast area, if you look at the Texas map, it's a

[20:20] little hard to see, but again there's 16 different regions are management areas across the

[20:26] state, you're in G&A-14, and so within G&A-14 there are five groundwater conservation districts,

[20:35] obviously loan-starred one of those, and there's two subsidence districts.

[20:39] And so together, those districts, you know, cover those 20 counties, and one thing you

[20:46] remember, it's very important is when the legislation was put in place, the Harris

[20:51] Galveston, the subsidence district, Fort Ben subsidence district, they were eliminated from

[20:57] joint planning.

[20:59] So they're not a voting member for GMA-14, and they're not subject to DFCs.

[21:04] They have their own regulatory authority and their own approach to managing groundwater.

[21:10] So when we talk about GMA-14 and how groundwater is managed in the area, there's collaboration

[21:18] with the subsidence of districts and sharing of science and data, but they don't vote

[21:23] on GMA-14.

[21:24] And so the five districts that you see on this map are essentially the dissiders, so to

[21:31] of how groundwater gets managed, and the reason that the state put in place the groundwater

[21:38] management areas was because aquifers, obviously, when you produce aquifers and you produce

[21:44] them heavily, then essentially they don't necessarily stop communicating and having impacts

[21:51] at county lines or district lines. And so the process basically is meant to pull all the districts

[21:58] together and say how are we affecting each other, how are we affecting each other, how is

[22:03] growth impacting each other and come together and have this joint planning process.

[22:10] And so that's what it looks like graphically and then when you look at it from a process

[22:17] standpoint, the GCDs, if you started the bottom, the GCDs within the GMA basically, get together,

[22:24] We had a meeting here yesterday at GMA 14, some of you may have been here.

[22:30] We discussed modeling, we discussed projections for demands and growth, and we look at region H, planning numbers and impacts for models, and the responsibility of the GCDs is to decide on a desired future condition.

[22:47] looking at long term, like ad in 2080, that's a requirement for the state by the state to basically say over that period of time,

[22:58] how much water, how much groundwater is available, the districts get together and say, okay, this is how we're affecting each other,

[23:05] this is how we're responding, this is how growth is happening, this is what state water plan says we need for groundwater surface water,

[23:14] consider all those things and come up with a goal for the aquifers in 2008 and in

[23:22] that's consistent with the state planning for regional water planning.

[23:27] So after those desired future conditions are developed and the in a course we're using

[23:34] the models, the same models that the water development board uses and so we give them those

[23:40] side future conditions, they officially make the calculations.

[23:44] It comes back as a model available groundwater, and so we'll talk about the factors that

[23:50] go into that shortly, but essentially that model available groundwater is very important because

[23:55] it flows into the regional water planning process over at region H, and those groundwater

[24:01] availability numbers are flowing into the regional water planning groups, and that's the

[24:09] available groundwater that is there for developing strategies in region H. And so in the other regions region I in the North

[24:19] part of the North Coast, before and before you move, I need to catch you out there that some of the public might not be familiar with these abbreviations.

[24:27] So if you want something about the water industry, thank you very much, sorry about the plethora of the acronyms here.

[24:37] So the mags are the model of the vagabel groundwater.

[24:42] The TWVV is Texas water development board.

[24:45] The VFCs are the desired future conditions.

[24:48] Those are the goals that we have long term for the aquifer.

[24:53] And so when the model of the vagabel groundwater is determined,

[24:57] then that flows into the district's management plan and all of the ways

[25:03] that they look at management.

[25:04] It also flows to the regional water planning groups and those regional water planning groups are

[25:11] our task with coming up with that same plan over the same time period for strategies to meet all the needs in the regions.

[25:21] And so those strategies are dependent on that model available groundwater.

[25:27] If it's, and you can develop strategies with groundwater, that is over and above the volume

[25:36] of the model available groundwater, but it's not necessarily appropriate for funding.

[25:44] And it won't get funding.

[25:45] It has to be a recommended strategy.

[25:47] It has to be in the mag.

[25:48] And so those models available groundwater volumes are important for developing strategies that

[25:55] are going to be fundable by the water development board in general.

[26:00] So there are some minor details there that I won't go into, but the water development board

[26:05] then can provide funding for those recommended groundwater strategies.

[26:09] And so that's why, and then the process basically continues, every five years, each one

[26:14] is a five-year cycle, they're continually going, and essentially it's an iterative process to continue to plan for and watch

[26:23] rev and watch the changes in the population demands, the needs, consider all the other surface water

[26:29] strategies and availability and conjunctively manage everything together. And so the overall goal and requirement of chapter

[26:39] 36 is basically in a possible tax somehow to balance the highest practical level of groundwater

[26:49] production with conservation and preservation protection, recharging, prevention of waste,

[26:56] of groundwater and control of subsidence.

[26:59] And so I say impossible, but we continue to do it, it's a struggle because obviously those

[27:04] competing objectives and their people in this room and every room around the state basically

[27:10] going, I want more water we need to pump less water and so that's part of the balancing

[27:15] act that the legislature has given groundwater conservation districts and they also said

[27:20] here's the nine factors you must consider to make those really hard decisions and those

[27:26] depend on aquifer uses and conditions the state water plan and what the state says, the needs

[27:34] the demands are, the strategies, and those must be considered, obviously, the hydrogeology,

[27:40] the modeling that the district is funded, the subsided studies, subsided sets to be considered,

[27:47] one of nine factors, environmental impacts, socioeconomic impacts in private property rights.

[27:54] If you look around the state today, I would say that those two, those two factors come to the surface more than any

[28:02] When it comes to hard decisions that have to be made about DFCs and impacts in aquifers and then just the feasibility of the

[28:13] of the DFC can it be accomplished or can you measure that DFC and can you manage the aquifer such that you can meet that DFC

[28:24] any other factors. So some of the features that we're seeing and as we implement the process and as we watch this, we're in the fourth round of planning on the regional level and bringing that down to the local level.

[28:39] The games are the tools that are used, the groundwater availability models.

[28:43] The Lone Star District has worked with GMA-14 and funded the update of the most recent GMA-14 model.

[28:55] And that was based on the Harris Galveston subsided model that they did for their work for TWDV.

[29:03] And then GMA-14 and Lone Star basically funded the update of that model recently.

[29:09] Those games are good tools to look at the future, but they're not perfect.

[29:14] They're just tools.

[29:15] And that's why this is an iterative five-year process where we go through and continue to update the science, update the models, and calculate those mags.

[29:25] And so that's one thing that you should know about the modeling and how it flows into the management in the area.

[29:33] And then the other thing is, there's many different philosophies and approaches across the

[29:42] GCDs in GMIC 14 and across the state.

[29:46] Some people think, well, we should very carefully plan for growth and we shouldn't stress

[29:51] the aquifer in the oil than we have to.

[29:53] Some people take the philosophy of that highest practicable groundwater production requirement.

[30:00] That means that we need to make everything available that we possibly can without, you know, and still keep in mind, you know, conservation, and so they take a more abundance approach, and then there's the approach of we can just use the bare minimum.

[30:15] And so you'll see those different philosophies play out in approaches even within groundwater conservation districts in the same GMA. And so, and obviously maybe in this room, those philosophies exist.

[30:27] And so that's part of the tension that is built into those competing objectives with managing groundwater.

[30:37] And so the GCDs are responsible for making those our decisions and coming up with the DFCs and the mags.

[30:43] In practice, generally, because the models have become such a central part of the planning exercise,

[30:50] The pumping that all the districts around the table are looking at and putting in the model and going we think we can live with that

[30:57] And that's what we need those essentially become the model available groundwater and that's what it flows into the regional water planning process and those philosophies again

[31:07] very different across GCDs

[31:11] There's no official waiting for any of the nine factor you have to shall consider those

[31:17] There's no official waiting, and I think it's inherent that most folks had different perspectives on what's most important in those nine factors.

[31:29] It's seen both as planning and regulatory. There is, and at Stacey didn't go into the details, but there is a compliance requirement in chapter 36 for those DFCs.

[31:40] and the GCDs must have a system in place to monitor,

[31:47] measure, and report on their compliance with the DFCs through time.

[31:52] And so some people see it, well, it's a regulatory process,

[31:56] but then it's also a planning process,

[31:58] because we're going to do it every five years.

[32:00] So it has both perspectives or both, I guess, characteristics there.

[32:06] And it has become pretty contentious around the state

[32:09] in some areas, especially where there's high growth,

[32:12] and where there's people are trying to get

[32:15] surface water supplies in, and they still need

[32:19] groundwater for development and growth.

[32:21] And so in a lot of places, just like GMA-14,

[32:26] it's become somewhat contentious about how much groundwater

[32:29] you use, it burns as much to conserve.

[32:33] And any other questions for me, sir?

[32:36] There's so many things I want to talk about within that,

[32:39] You know, even just some of the, looking at the nine factors, that's been something really interesting too.

[32:45] There's, there's, even different opinions on how you, what each factor means.

[32:50] So, see, you have economic impact, for instance, is more, more about the effect of not providing groundwater.

[33:00] And if we try to slow that down and what those impacts are financially, which, it just depends how you would look at.

[33:08] the economic impact says just add more layers to consider on that so we could sit and talk about

[33:14] just this particular piece all day long but thank you James you had a great job on that.

[33:18] We will move on to the next piece so that's Chris to provide some insight on, you know, the

[33:26] Cardview GCDs versus Public Water Suppliers, some misconceptions that we've heard recently

[33:34] and maybe to bring some specific examples for us that can help us move through this.

[33:39] I know pressure at all with this crowd, bring you to talk about this.

[33:42] Chris, thanks.

[33:43] Thank you very much.

[33:44] Good morning, everyone.

[33:45] Chris Dribba.

[33:47] Just want to start off talking about groundwater conservation and district roles.

[33:51] The groundwater conservation, you know, they're tasked with managing, preserving, and protecting groundwater resources within its jurisdiction.

[33:57] loan-star GCD is Montgomery County, you have the Bonnet GCD off to the west.

[34:02] They have four counties, you know, James, that I'm map showing that earlier.

[34:06] GCDs have certain tools to help achieve this objective, you know, they have their rules,

[34:11] their management plan, and they have permanent, the permitting process, you know,

[34:15] can include, you know, permitting your allocation, and then you also have to have your

[34:19] well registration.

[34:21] Kind of look at the exempt wells with the majority of those exempt wells,

[34:25] serving domestic type uses, and then you could also look at the non-exemp wells, which is

[34:30] what a lot of the large capacity public supply wells fall into.

[34:35] You know, just in these, they're not really involved with the well pump design, well construction,

[34:40] rehabilitation, lowly of pump equipment, or even getting into the details of the well or well-field management.

[34:48] There's a lot of the districts interested in a lot of the parameters.

[34:51] You know, one of the, you know, permitting requirements is the maximum instantaneous pumping rate.

[34:57] I think, uh, spacing mentioned that earlier.

[34:59] Uh, and that's one of the districts like to kind of confirm before a pompous set to make sure,

[35:03] okay, that that well-pomp is honoring that permptate pumping amount there.

[35:08] No, I think that they do not do is the economic analysis.

[35:11] This is kind of looking at your, your welfare, the water levels and detail, uh, to kind of develop a good plan

[35:19] that would help ensure that you can provide reliable water to the customers of that, you know,

[35:24] public water supplier. This could also entail, you know, you're obviously looking at the wells,

[35:31] and any potential need for rehab or additional wells, or even if you're looking at the future,

[35:36] you may want to look at some alternative water resources, except you're going to find out if,

[35:41] you know, maybe surface water or even considering a brackish groundwater resource could be

[35:45] But official, you know, the TCTs is another regulatory entity, and they're being sure of a safe drinking water.

[35:53] Basically, they're their standards that's outlined in 30 TAC, Chapter 290, and TACs, the Texas Administrative Code,

[36:00] and they have recommendations on, like, well-construction materials or requirements for well-construction materials,

[36:06] operation of a water system, and they also do, you know, water quality monitoring to ensure that, you know,

[36:17] take a quick look here at some of the county level management versus the public

[36:21] whileer public water supply well management. GCDs, the responsibilities, that kind

[36:27] of take a broad, wide approach to county-wide management, they're working to

[36:32] manage the aquifer conditions to the GFC, which is kind of what James was

[36:37] mentioning earlier. So they're looking at water levels across the district. They're

[36:41] looking at a county-wide and kind of how that all fits in to meeting the DFC,

[36:45] etc. Well, underage responsibility, it's more localized because you have specific wells and

[36:51] well-field areas. You're monitoring water levels and wells for operational purposes, trying

[36:57] to focus on specific levels, how that interacts with the pump level, your pump settings,

[37:04] how the seasonal fluctuations come into play. If you were going to see higher water level

[37:11] in the summer, whenever it's pumping water, compared to, you know, your lower static water levels

[37:17] that you can see in the winter time there.

[37:20] Let's see.

[37:21] Also, you know, kind of in mind, but that is kind of focusing on the need for well rehabilitation.

[37:26] I know, you know, several entities, monitor their well performance.

[37:30] They check, you know, sand production and wells, etc. That's good to kind of check the health of the well. And, you know, you can check your production rate, your sand production. And, you know, when you start seeing a big drop in production, or if you see, you say, sand showing up in your, you're, uh, one of it's being produced, you know, there could be a structural issue with the well, or you could be having some, some urgent issues. And then also, you know, mentioned earlier kind of, you know, well, owners responsibility as to kind of perform studies to, uh,

[38:00] projected demands, extend well service life, and, or, you know, any potential for alternative water resources.

[38:11] One tool that Stacey mentioned that the district uses is the Hydrogeological Report.

[38:15] You know, these are required by the LundStar rules. They basically provide the district with information addressing the impacts of the proposed pumping of the existing wells.

[38:25] This helps the district also gather data and, you know, have the best available information to help manage the aquers of the district.

[38:34] Oftentimes with these hydrogelological reports, your applicants, their consultants will submit the geophysical locks, if they have any close-by wells,

[38:42] that really helps the district understand a little bit better on a local level of the aquifer system in that area.

[38:47] Another useful tool is the pumping test and houses.

[38:51] You know, the data from the time of construction, you're during the long continuous test.

[38:56] That can be plotted, you know, help verify transmissivity, etc.

[39:01] And, you know, that's really useful information for whenever the district is participating in a groundwater flow model update.

[39:08] You get, it helps you kind of understand the site's specific conditions across the county better.

[39:14] hydrogeological reports are required for an increase in out annual allocation if there's any new

[39:20] wells or increase in well-production rate and then the third requirement could be if there's

[39:27] an exception to the well-spacing requirements and a spacing kind of briefly outlined those.

[39:31] If you're going to load it previously but we'll move in here.

[39:37] When you're looking at the hydrogeological report basically the finished report should include

[39:42] not showing the site specific data where the wells located reference the property lines

[39:47] in the county level location of that map, or well, tables containing information on

[39:54] one-star permanent registered well information, you're also beneficial, they're also required

[39:59] by these hydrogeological report guidelines that are available on the one-star site.

[40:04] This is for wells within a half mile of these wells, or if, say, it's a large capacity

[40:10] well, and the production, well-spacing radius extends beyond a half-mile. It will be that

[40:17] particular radius there. But you're looking at, you know, with that information,

[40:22] you're going to perform a series of interference analysis. This is a typically

[40:27] analytical model, and like it's sold to around this model using calendars from the

[40:32] right now, it's the Hagham whenever the GMA-14 model gets adopted. We may consider moving up to that.

[40:39] But I'll tell you how it renders all over some sites specific data if they have pumping tests and transmissivity

[40:44] You know that could be used as well looking for you know whatever the applicant feels is the best available information at that time

[40:52] You know the impact analysis you'll look at the 24 hours of pumping the well and then you'll look at a maximum production scenario and the same process will be completed with every well. It's

[41:01] well-field

[41:03] basically after that there's a discussion of the pumping effects

[41:08] It's a part of what we look at, you know, it is a little rough, you're kind of showing

[41:12] this as an example for the city of Conro proposed well, 30-2 at the time.

[41:18] So we will look at the geology of the area, looking at, you know, the aquifer extents,

[41:23] we'll look at the proposed screen interval, the wealth, you can see if that fits with the local

[41:26] geology.

[41:27] We also look at static water level data, and this is the water level data that comes from

[41:33] the USGS, they are responsible for monitoring long-stars wells.

[41:38] One star has a between 150 and 200 wells in the number county.

[41:44] The USGS goes out and measures them during the off-peak

[41:48] companies season typically, you know, winter time would be the ideal time to do that.

[41:54] So it's a representation of the system that's not being asked stressed.

[41:59] And we basically compare that as just kind of looking at a general terrain to how that compares

[42:04] to the simulator, water level from the groundwater flow model.

[42:08] That's the green line, which is from the mad ground from the approved DFC cycle.

[42:17] Now, one important point to note to the third component of the hydrogeological report, this

[42:21] is once the well has been drilled and constructed.

[42:24] It's very important that the world's kind of have a requirement that information from

[42:29] Well, intestinal will be provided to the district.

[42:32] You're looking for geophysical logs and water quality data, water level data, and then information

[42:38] of the well and pump material settings are beneficial, helps the district confirm and keep

[42:44] the database up to date.

[42:46] And then again, pump information is very important for the, for God confirming the boundary.

[42:55] Well, I take a look at a quick example here to some of the local geology and some of the

[43:01] levels in the Montgomery County.

[43:03] We're showing some information here from the Montgomery County

[43:05] mode 119 well too.

[43:07] And the center there, you're seeing a visual of a geophysical

[43:10] log.

[43:12] And on that log, you see a series of brown and yellow

[43:16] alternating sequences.

[43:18] Those brown members of that geophysical log there

[43:22] are showing clays or other low permutability

[43:25] summits.

[43:26] And the yellow section is the sand portions from the log.

[43:29] So, what you see is the Gulf Coast has a pretty complex of an alternating sequence of these sand and clay intervals.

[43:36] You know, historically you have the shallower Chico aquifer, and you know, that's above the Evangelonography.

[43:42] And in the upper portions of the Evangelon and Chico, there's been quite a bit of communication between the two.

[43:49] So, you know, there is water that kind of moves between the two formations there.

[43:53] When you get deeper in the advantage,

[43:55] lannacle for, you know, you can see that there's thicker

[43:57] clay sequences that help provide hydraulic separation

[44:00] between all these sand arrows.

[44:03] And so what we're seeing here on the left-hand side,

[44:07] is kind of a well schematic here.

[44:09] Basically, you show and well-tube.

[44:12] What you have here is you have your surface casing

[44:14] that's set down to about a thousand feet.

[44:16] And then you have a screen and blank liner that's installed,

[44:19] You know, from about roughly 900 down to about 1200 feet, this well-screens, sounds in the

[44:25] dump that are all about 10-20 to 1200 feet.

[44:29] And so those things are letting the water eat through that well from those lower centers, if

[44:34] you see on the log, there's the little morning sections, those rivers of the screen.

[44:38] So what you have the water eat through the well and you can see that the water level is rising

[44:43] up in that well.

[44:44] So you have your pressure, which is, you know, the hydraulic pressure of that aquifer.

[44:48] so it's rising up. The static water level was about 488 feet, you know, and this was September

[44:55] of 2023. So that's about you.

[45:00] It was quite a bit above the base of these sands. And if you go through the same aquifer, you can have different pressures depending on how much hydraulic separation is between all this.

[45:11] You know, you know, public complexity of the Gulf Coast, opt for system is as these formations are getting thicker, they increase in depth and thickness as you kind of come down towards the coast.

[45:21] And so it's not the same throughout the whole county.

[45:24] You're going to have different aquifers, different parameters, different water levels and

[45:28] different sections.

[45:29] And you and borrow levels can be, you know, related to, you know, the well construction, which

[45:33] Sandra's screening, the amount of growth and pumping and all sorts of factors that kind

[45:38] of combine into that.

[45:40] Looking at this chart here on the right, it's just kind of looking at some water levels versus

[45:45] This is the, one of us talked about the USGS and then water levels collected by an independent

[45:52] measuring firm.

[45:54] That's, you know, you see, it's pretty close to measure between all of it, you know, you're

[45:58] seeing, you know, basically a static water level there and this is, well, one was measured

[46:03] about 450 feet.

[46:05] This was again in February of 2025, you know, so that, well, you know, has quite a bit of available

[46:12] draw down when you're looking at an 18-inch liner, and then that goes down until your screen

[46:18] section there about, look, see here, it starts about 10, 10, 20 years ago.

[46:23] So that gives you a room if you have a pump in there, it can be lowered if the water level

[46:27] decline is becoming a bit concerning.

[46:29] You know there's a plenty of room to lower the pump, this is an evangelon well, depending on

[46:33] your production rate, you can get pumping levels that are maybe 50 to 100 feet deeper, kind

[46:38] at Pinnon's long seasonal fluctuation,

[46:40] and other weather, water levels.

[46:44] But, you know, so you have where you need

[46:45] to kind of lower the pump here.

[46:48] What I kind of bring up this well to you,

[46:50] the actually one, the one,

[46:51] it was put out to the district

[46:52] that it was undergoing well rehabilitation.

[46:55] The district reached out to get the records from 119.

[47:00] The records indicate that they ended up

[47:02] setting the pump to the, basically the same depth

[47:05] and then the same pumping rate.

[47:07] So, in that situation, even talking about the wreckage request and providing information to the district,

[47:14] you know, district of the wires, the information provided when the characteristic is changed.

[47:20] So, you know, that full pop setting, similar popping rate, actually the same popping rate,

[47:26] you know, did not require mudwind-19 to provide that information to a district here.

[47:30] Another example, too, just kind of a well rehabilitation example, there was another well that the district was made aware of that was undergoing well rehab activities.

[47:40] They're installing a new screen a blank liner within the well.

[47:43] Typically, when you install those liners, your production rate will decrease.

[47:49] And so the importance there, you don't have to necessarily provide the updated data.

[47:53] It's not required by the rules, but it's good to reach out to the district and kind of inform them of rehabilitation activities.

[47:59] Because what will happen is you have your permanent production rate and then you know it's going to be lower

[48:05] Because of you know the liner and the ability to well-to-produce

[48:09] So you want to communicate with the district to ensure that you're preserving that initial

[48:13] Production rate and and make sure that if there's a replacement while in the future or something that that production rate can be honored

[48:25] well and in crisis I just want to

[48:28] touch on that a little bit more before we move on with my care and

[48:33] some of the reasons that we're bringing up some examples of well rehabilitation and what

[48:37] were some real-time data that we're receiving about those well rehabilitation.

[48:42] There is a lot of conversation in some public meetings that we've been in recently,

[48:47] where specific wells have been brought up and there's been some sensationalizing that,

[48:51] you know, there's well failure here, we're out of water, we're at the bottom of the aquifer,

[48:55] and so, you know, I asked Krista, you know, show us what we've received when we actually

[49:00] went to these mud districts and said to get the actual information, and when the paperwork

[49:05] was returned to us, we had the pump in the exact same place, you know, what he said

[49:10] it a lot better than I did, but basically no characteristics had changed.

[49:16] This was just a situation where we were doing well rehabilitation.

[49:22] So we've got to be careful with that kind of language and think things publicly or kind of

[49:30] you know, we're out of water. In some cases, we're either aging out or it is just your garden

[49:35] variety rehabilitation that has to be done. I mean, this isn't titanium. All of these wells

[49:42] have to be repaired. They're going to have to be replaced over time or you might have to go,

[49:46] you know, lower your pump or deal with water level decline. They're not all drilled in the same

[49:51] depth or level or, you know, your your preparations for the future might have to be reconsidered.

[49:56] I appreciate you bringing that up, Chris,

[50:00] and giving some real-time examples on that.

[50:02] All right, Mike, let's talk about water level declines.

[50:06] I've asked you put together some considerations

[50:07] related to future water level declines for the crowd here today.

[50:12] So, sure, in the days, it's laid out really well

[50:15] when we were talking about the DFC process,

[50:17] is our future conditions process, the joint planning,

[50:21] Chris has talked about well construction, well design,

[50:24] looking at some of the factors there with regard to the wells. Both of those tie-in to

[50:30] considerations that we or you need to make. Think about moving into the future and how

[50:38] water-level declines can affect a real practical and physical standpoint. When we're doing

[50:46] the joint planning process within GMA-14, part of that planning process is understanding what kind

[50:52] production may be occurring in the future regionally and when you produce ground water it's

[50:58] just a physical reality that you all know whenever you turn your pump on the water level

[51:03] in your well goes down regionally all of those when you look at long-term production as production

[51:10] continues to increase water levels due to decline that's something we've been monitoring we

[51:14] we know is occurring.

[51:18] We are looking very locally at a well itself.

[51:21] I wanted to start there by looking at,

[51:23] what does that look like as far as water,

[51:25] water all decline and what's one of those considerations?

[51:29] What we've seen up here is something

[51:32] probably most of you are very familiar with,

[51:33] and that is a pump curve.

[51:36] When we, if we were to not change any equipment at all,

[51:40] Chris was just talking about a well

[51:43] Well, where a pump was being replaced, set at the same level, same production rate.

[51:48] Well, if there is no change in equipment, or you're using the same pumping pump,

[51:55] essentially, if you increase head,

[51:58] or essentially that means decreasing your water level, you're increasing the amount of pressure on that pump.

[52:04] There's going to be a decrease in the amount of flow coming out of that pump.

[52:07] That's what the curves here that we're looking at.

[52:10] tiny little dot, but essentially you see as this curves go up towards the, towards the y-axis

[52:17] there, that's an increasing flow because the head on that up is going up. So that's a real

[52:24] practice of practical consideration that we're looking at with water level declines and we know

[52:28] you guys are aware of as well.

[52:31] What does that look like from the cost standpoint? Well, it's very linear. Here is a very simple example

[52:37] that we put together.

[52:41] When you increase when you're increasing your head, so decreasing water levels,

[52:46] the horsepower required goes up in order to maintain the same pumping rate. Just the way

[52:52] the physics work here. This is an example from a, for a, if we're looking at 1,000 gallon per minute

[52:58] well, trying to continue to pump that 1000 gallons per minute, if we were good to go from

[53:03] 100 feet of head up to 1000 feet of head, we're going from about 50 horsepower up to about

[53:09] 350 horsepower.

[53:11] That's required.

[53:12] Now, have we seen 900 feet of head increase anywhere in the county?

[53:16] No.

[53:17] That hasn't happened.

[53:18] This is kind of just a, it was great of example here.

[53:22] But we have seen head increases.

[53:24] What does that mean when we, as far as the change in cost,

[53:26] we can translate that horsepower directly to kilowatt hours. And so we see that those costs are

[53:32] directly, also that we see an increasing cost associated with, in this case we've got electrical

[53:38] requirements there. We've made some assumptions, very standard, very basic assumptions looking

[53:44] at, if this well was a thousand gallon of minute well operating 18 hours a day, so essentially

[53:50] at 75% operational rate. And if it was costing you a 10 cents per kilowatt hour, well you can

[53:56] See how those electrical costs on a yearly basis go from $20,000 to $20,000 a year at $100

[54:03] feet of head to $80,000 a year at $500 feet of head.

[54:10] It is still once again directly tied to the horsepower increase and directly tied to the increase

[54:16] in head on that well.

[54:20] What's another consideration when we're looking at changes in water level or future water level

[54:25] declines?

[54:26] One thing that we always want to think about as well is how can the water quality in the aquifer itself change?

[54:32] One way that it can change is based on low construction.

[54:37] If the screens are set at a level that's relatively close to the existing water level,

[54:43] then as this, if that water level starts to decline into the screen,

[54:47] you're introducing oxygen into the system, into the aquifer system, creates oxidation,

[54:51] can create some different types of chemical reactions that are occurring within your screens

[54:56] on there.

[54:57] So that can create some issues with water quality that are very more of a factor of

[55:01] well construction than the aquiferate itself.

[55:05] Something that's more related to the aquifers, if there's gas in the formations, dissolved

[55:09] gas, as you're increasing those rates, the pressure from the increase in the decreasing

[55:16] water levels can cause a decrease in pressure in the aquifer that allows more of that natural

[55:22] gas in the in the formations to start to escape coming into that water column very relatively

[55:29] easy to deal with and be removed from that water column but that is still can be a different

[55:35] factor to consider. And also that change in pressure that you're creating within the aquifer

[55:40] there it can start to induce flow from other parts of the aquifer where water quality is

[55:45] just higher total dissolved solids content.

[55:49] It just creates that differences in pressure

[55:50] and creates differences in flow throughout the system.

[55:54] So that's just another one of those considerations

[55:56] with regard to water level declines.

[55:59] And then I wanted to go back real quick

[56:02] to the image that Chris was just talking about there

[56:04] with regard to well construction.

[56:06] He already kind of addressed all of these

[56:08] in what he was talking about, but just wanted to reiterate

[56:10] that associated with water level declines.

[56:13] Some things that our considerations are one casing diameter.

[56:19] If there's a lot of level of appliance, you do need to get a bigger pump in there.

[56:22] Can you fit the bigger pump inside the casing?

[56:25] In order to get that, there's a larger bowl and really use that,

[56:29] that may have the most efficient, well possible.

[56:32] So if you have a casing diameter or if you tell a scope the weld down

[56:36] to from a larger casing diameter down to a smaller casing diameter,

[56:41] That's where Chris was talking a little bit about how the wells were completed and you mentioned

[56:46] kind of the area there.

[56:49] It's in gray on these diagrams there.

[56:52] We would call it pinch point or a place where that well gets smaller.

[56:57] So it's harder to get that pump down into that deeper depth at that point.

[57:02] And as I mentioned a moment ago about the screen intervals,

[57:04] if those screens are set relatively close to where existing water levels are,

[57:08] As that water level declines, it can induce

[57:11] some different types of chemical reactions

[57:12] that occur by introducing oxygen into the system.

[57:15] So that's gonna be another consideration

[57:17] that we're looking at.

[57:18] We regard the future water level declines.

[57:24] So there is a constant benefit associated with thinking

[57:28] of these water level declines,

[57:29] and then maybe switching over to alternative supplies.

[57:34] And we know that's definitely a consideration

[57:35] that you all have to think about as you're looking at your wells

[57:39] and continue to meet the public water system demands within your systems.

[57:44] So there's definitely an operational consideration.

[57:47] How would these wells continue to work?

[57:50] How can you bring in this other type of water or this alternative supply versus the groundwater you've been using?

[57:58] Can we still, being able to meet the same capacity requirements?

[58:02] We have to drill new wells, modify existing wells.

[58:06] the rehabilitation Chris was talking about a moment ago, bringing in a different quality

[58:12] of water from alternative supplies is always going to be a consideration as well.

[58:16] So what's the cost of that versus the benefit, what's the customer tolerance for this

[58:21] different type of water, this different quality of water being brought into the system?

[58:26] So definitely some questions to consider.

[58:29] Why, you know, is it needed?

[58:30] Why do you need the alternative supplies?

[58:32] that a well construction issue is a knock for issue is at a water level declines, however

[58:38] looking at it into the future. Is that alternative supply really going to be your most

[58:42] cost-effective option, with regard to dealing with relative to the water level declines?

[58:50] And, you know, which alternative supply is going to be the best option? There's surface

[58:55] waters, one option, brackish groundwater, developments, another option, reuse lots of

[59:01] different options to think about as far as alternative supplies and what we definitely understand

[59:06] it's going to be more of an engineering discussion as to what the cost versus the benefit

[59:10] of those different different alternative supplies are.

[59:16] Mike, before we move on from that I think because that's such a big topic of conversation

[59:22] in which we are about to move into hot topics which that's a hot topic also but I think

[59:27] It's important so there's been a lot of conversation and yesterday at GMA 14 we had a panel of attorneys that Stacey moderated for us yesterday, so if you weren't here or if you didn't get a chance to see that it will be online and it was highly insightful about what we can look forward to in the future as we do continue to grow especially as the Texas miracle or the governor is inviting

[59:53] as many businesses as possible to come to our state so we do have this competing effort for our resources versus

[1:00:00] This is what's coming our way, but to think about water in a different way, meaning, you know, our days of cheap water behind us are one way or the other, you're going to have to look at your cost benefit, whether it's alternative water resources or, you know, we had a different public meeting where they said every four years, I'm lowering my pump now because a water level decline, that doesn't necessarily mean that we've, you know,

[1:00:27] And desaturated the aquifer, but that's a different conversation.

[1:00:33] If you're looking at the storage, what you're looking at is your cost benefit analysis,

[1:00:36] is it a good planning tool for you to continue looking forward to the future to continue

[1:00:41] to lower your pump or to look to alternative water supplies?

[1:00:46] We're here at Montgomery County, and you have Lake Conro, which is at your disposal,

[1:00:51] or they're moving things around to make that possible for you.

[1:00:57] We just are saying, you're going to have to make that decision to look forward on what's

[1:01:00] best for you and your planning purposes moving forward.

[1:01:03] We're not forcing you into it.

[1:01:04] We're giving you the information.

[1:01:06] We're letting you know where we stand on desire future conditions, but you are going to have

[1:01:10] to make those decisions higher your hydrogeologist to figure out what's going to be your best

[1:01:14] move forward for you.

[1:01:17] And one way or the other, do you think it's fair to say, you're kind of kicking the

[1:01:20] can down the road?

[1:01:21] If you don't, you just wait till there's an issue and then you're lowering your pump

[1:01:24] you're dealing with well rehabilitation or, you know, I feel personally like that's when

[1:01:29] the frustration comes to the groundwater district.

[1:01:32] You know, we don't know what decisions you made or your predecessors made when they originally

[1:01:36] drilled your wells or set up for your public water supply and if you properly planned

[1:01:40] out for your growth or what your expectations were going to be or if you made a decision

[1:01:45] when you originally drilled because it was cheaper to the more shallow that you drilled so

[1:01:50] you stopped there, or only one a few hundred feet lower when maybe it would have been

[1:01:54] a better idea for you to go quite a bit lower than that.

[1:01:57] Either way, now you're facing those decisions, and I want to be clear that it's not in

[1:02:05] our regulatory authority, and you may touch on that at some point in the hot topics.

[1:02:10] For us to tell you, hey, we think it's a good plan for you to move towards surface water,

[1:02:15] or we think it's a good plan for you to keep going deeper, or only go your expectation

[1:02:20] and have three to four years deeper or to widen it

[1:02:24] or to tell you what you're up against.

[1:02:26] So anyway, I really appreciate that Mike.

[1:02:28] I think that's important information for this group.

[1:02:34] So who's historical pumping?

[1:02:36] Mike you're up again on that.

[1:02:39] And you know, I've asked that you put together

[1:02:41] some information on historical pumping.

[1:02:43] Give us some insight on that.

[1:02:45] And I love visuals.

[1:02:47] So I've asked them to really make some clear

[1:02:49] or lame-in-term type visuals for me and the public and the screen, so take it away, Mike.

[1:02:57] So, right, switching into the historical pumping there, really one of the things that we looked at here was,

[1:03:04] what we could consider from a hydrogeological perspective is some relatively recent historical pumping.

[1:03:08] This goes back a few decades, of course, from our perspective on looking at it, that was really looking at the growth of Montgomery County.

[1:03:18] As I mentioned and started off talking about the water level declines, you can't have any time

[1:03:26] you pump groundwater, water levels are going to decline, so understanding how that

[1:03:30] historical pumping has grown, looking at how it's grown at a time that helps to inform

[1:03:37] our understanding of why the water levels are changing like they are,

[1:03:46] and what's really

[1:03:47] Under here in Montgomery County, the growth has been quite a bit of development and growth

[1:03:53] within Montgomery County.

[1:03:56] I put together these two maps real quick.

[1:03:58] They just kind of give an illustration of the amount of growth that has occurred within

[1:04:02] Montgomery County and focus on in 2010.

[1:04:09] So these are some maps developed showing the change in development over the county from 2010 and

[1:04:16] another snapshot in 2024.

[1:04:19] Everything that's in kind of a reddish color, the darker the red means the more density

[1:04:24] or the higher developed areas and the lighter reds or the pinks are lower density development

[1:04:30] that still represent development that's occurred.

[1:04:34] The takeaway that really to just illustrate here is just how much more reddish color there

[1:04:40] is in the 2024 map relative to the 2010.

[1:04:44] And so that's just a really gives kind of a snapshot look at how much growth has occurred

[1:04:49] and to meet a lot of that, of course, that growth requires water.

[1:04:54] It requires water from some source.

[1:04:57] And most of that source here has been through the development of groundwater resources to meet

[1:05:02] those public water supply demands.

[1:05:05] We look at that growth over time.

[1:05:08] These are the pumping records from the groundwater conservation district.

[1:05:11] So, we're starting over here, looking at the starting in 1984, that's data from the water

[1:05:18] development board.

[1:05:19] So, before the district was in place, going through 2002, we're the water development board

[1:05:27] estimates.

[1:05:27] So, right about here is where the water development board is, where the groundwater district

[1:05:32] came into place.

[1:05:34] Groundwater conservation district has been monitoring groundwater development, groundwater

[1:05:38] production since that time, and we can see the growth that's occurred. We did see

[1:05:41] then kind of a spike in groundwater production in 2011. For those of you around,

[1:05:49] that was a very hot, very big drought here, record number of 100 degree days, all

[1:05:54] of that. And then we see a drop off in that in the amount of groundwater

[1:05:59] production as conditions and a drought lesson. We had another drop off around

[1:06:04] 2015 when some surface water supplies became available, but the growth is continued and we've

[1:06:10] reached into another drop period there towards the end of that.

[1:06:13] Those last few bars there in 2022, starting in 2022.

[1:06:18] That's been another drop that's been ongoing and so we've seen some more groundwater production

[1:06:23] though it has been pretty stable the last three or four years there.

[1:06:26] This is just illustrating how as folks continue to move and the Texas miracle that

[1:06:34] So, I mentioned just a moment ago, that development and growth and more people, they do require water.

[1:06:41] And that's been reflected in the increasing groundwater use within Montgomery County.

[1:06:48] When we look also a little more regionally, we looked our neighbor to the south here.

[1:06:53] And we see what the groundwater production looks like as it's been continued to grow.

[1:06:57] They're also within the Harris Gallery's and Substance District.

[1:07:01] So looking at Northern Harris County there,

[1:07:05] this is just looking at the northern part of Harris County.

[1:07:08] So just looking at essentially what we have highlighted there

[1:07:12] as regulatory area three.

[1:07:14] Well, the groundwater production there has also been two to three times greater

[1:07:19] than what we're seeing in Montgomery County.

[1:07:21] So it's just an illustration of how groundwater and how the groundwater resources

[1:07:26] are being used within the region.

[1:07:30] To meet the growing demands and the growing needs of the populations in the area.

[1:07:36] Well, and I want to add why I asked Mike to bring that slide, because I think it's important to show, you know, we are boarder of Montgomery County specifically.

[1:07:46] We're just geographically challenged by having Harris County below us. That doesn't make them a villain. They had to grow on groundwater. They're just one of them more highly.

[1:07:53] I think I did a little bit of research on it.

[1:07:57] I mean, Harris County is the most populated county in the state of Texas, and it actually

[1:08:01] has more population in Harris County than it was something like, I don't want to give

[1:08:07] wrong number now, it was over nine states in the United States.

[1:08:11] So that's just right against your border, they have different governing laws on what they

[1:08:15] can and can't do with their groundwater, they don't have to answer to a desired future

[1:08:19] condition.

[1:08:20] That's the legislature made that decision, they have different mandates.

[1:08:23] It's specific to stopping subsidence, but as you can see, it's still a great deal of pumping.

[1:08:29] A great deal more than our regional mag allows for presently in GMA-14.

[1:08:36] And so that impact, we're going to feel that over county boundaries because clearly the aquifer

[1:08:42] and all this impact doesn't account for political lines.

[1:08:46] So I just think it's important to see the difference in numbers.

[1:08:50] If there's this fear, when you look at Montgomery County's pumping numbers, it's substantially

[1:08:55] lower than just a portion of Harris County.

[1:08:58] And that's not all the regulatory sections.

[1:09:01] I think their pumping is somewhere closer to 400,000 across Harris County.

[1:09:05] We're just looking at the region that borders us.

[1:09:08] But I think it's important for us to look at that and have a better understanding with

[1:09:14] those of you along the southern part of Montgomery County, some of your impacts are just

[1:09:19] to see the location.

[1:09:21] And by impact specifically,

[1:09:23] a lot of global decline.

[1:09:25] Yes.

[1:09:26] What sort of means there?

[1:09:28] And just something else even,

[1:09:29] noticing on the chart there,

[1:09:30] you can see the same patterns in production

[1:09:33] that are affected by the same climatic conditions

[1:09:35] that we are here in Montgomery County.

[1:09:38] Last three years there have been increases

[1:09:39] in pumping to the south of us just as we've seen

[1:09:43] and even to a greater extent there.

[1:09:46] Thanks, Mike.

[1:09:48] Okay. Are we done with your slides on the pump and?

[1:09:51] You're smart.

[1:09:52] Great. All right. I'm going to move on to Chris.

[1:09:54] We want to look at surface water.

[1:09:58] So I'd like for you to show good overview of current availability of surface water.

[1:10:05] And then I'm interested in the full potential build out of surface water

[1:10:08] as an alternative water resource.

[1:10:11] Again, I really like the visuals because I think this helps us

[1:10:15] Also, before I kick you off on that, another thing that I'm hearing publicly is that this

[1:10:20] is kind of the full-fledged solution.

[1:10:23] If we could just get everyone on the surface water and taking their maximum amount of yield

[1:10:29] from like Conrad, then we no longer have issues with groundwater moving forward.

[1:10:33] And I just think that we need to look at this and deepen that conversation.

[1:10:38] So, yeah, thank you very much.

[1:10:40] And real quick, you're just there before I want to clarify, I will sit along that higher number

[1:10:44] pumping your mission, you mentioned Harris County, that was actually Harris and Delston combined when you were like that total there.

[1:10:49] Thank you.

[1:10:50] Thank you.

[1:10:51] There's a 250,000 acre fee.

[1:10:53] There is.

[1:10:54] Correct.

[1:10:56] All right.

[1:10:57] Looking at the surface water, you know, this is a map basically showing the current supplies

[1:11:01] as it existed.

[1:11:02] This is the blue dots and blue pipeline coming through here.

[1:11:07] New estuary provided a map of future conditions, potential buildout, the fall, you know,

[1:11:12] with their planning potentially, back in August of 2025.

[1:11:16] So this expansion is showing by the red lines and the red squares on this map.

[1:11:22] That's kind of where you can see these pipelines.

[1:11:25] The built and the future are extended towards in the future.

[1:11:28] Currently there are six entities that are receiving surface water in the gunway county.

[1:11:33] Additional water providers have been interested in obtaining surface water.

[1:11:38] You know, as you can see, the 245 potential surface water transmission lines, they constantly

[1:11:43] have the availability of surface water, but they don't reach all areas of Montgomery County.

[1:11:48] And when you kind of look at the water, the man projections, you know, conjunctive needs

[1:11:52] some use in Montgomery County is going to be needed to meet these future demands, combine

[1:11:57] in the surface water and ground water. You know, you can see the areas here. You're kind

[1:12:02] of, you know, extending the pipelines a little bit to the south, a little bit more in the the

[1:12:07] a little bit off to the west, going out towards McMurray there.

[1:12:11] And so the word is not surface water, you're going to have, you have to continue growth

[1:12:16] and you're going to have to continue to provide that water with groundwater or alternative

[1:12:21] water resources.

[1:12:23] Kind of wanted to take a look, mentioning that, kind of looking at some of these area hydrographs

[1:12:28] to kind of show how some water levels are behaving or how they're acting here, historically,

[1:12:37] throughout the county here. This information is based on that of the USGS complex. For the

[1:12:44] Chico Aquifer, we have three maps, three zones, we have one in near Conorow, and the East

[1:12:48] part of the county, and then we also have the Southwest part of the county. And with the Chico

[1:12:52] Aquifer, you can see that these water levels have been relatively stable through time

[1:12:58] here. A lot of that is due to, you know, it's a lot of exempt pumping in the Chico or in the

[1:13:03] crop areas. You know, a lot of the public supply wells are constructed deeper. You can't have wells that are completed in the

[1:13:10] Chico. You can have some that are completed in the Chico and the Evangeline. But if you say if you were to have a Chico well, you would probably see some level of

[1:13:20] while a little fluctuation in a larger capacity well, I'm near that well. We're just don't have any of those that are currently being monitored at this point.

[1:13:30] Moving on to the evangelium, here's four maps showing the West, North, East, and the South

[1:13:35] parts of the county.

[1:13:37] And you can kind of see the fluctuations with time as well.

[1:13:40] We are seeing, you know, as Mike had the graph there on pumping, last few years, between

[1:13:44] the growth and the drought conditions, you know, you are seeing some model over the climbs.

[1:13:50] So, you know, the data has been trimming, showing some declines in these areas.

[1:13:54] If you notice in the soft portion here, the data there for the Evangelion is showing, you

[1:14:01] know, since the clients there in about 2023, 2022, when you have the dryers, 2024, it

[1:14:09] started seeing a little bit more recovery.

[1:14:12] Do you do, you know, increasing precipitation and less pumping in that area?

[1:14:22] On the slide here basically show the Jasper hydrographs, we're going to again,

[1:14:30] you know,

[1:14:30] four areas again.

[1:14:31] You have your west, your central north, that's the Conver area, you have the East area

[1:14:35] and then you have the south central and we're also seeing the clients and the Jasper

[1:14:39] particularly in the Conver area, we're seeing it to continue to climb, we're starting to

[1:14:43] see a little more decline in the East area here and then in the south central, you know,

[1:14:49] we're seeing the continued decline and then some of this for recovery.

[1:14:52] You know, a little bit of history, you know, you can kind of tell the growth and the production and everything else with how easily slopes do change.

[1:15:00] You know, kind of looking from 1990 to about 2000 and that soft part of the county, you know, you're seeing, see, you grow everything out 45 corridor, so you have, you know, while all over the county, but then from about 2010, that line gets a little steeper, and, you know, that indicates, you know, additional growth during that time, and around that time in the Jasper, that's when Harris County started producing modern from the Jasper as well, and, you know, I think they had one well up until about, you know,

[1:15:30] 2000 to you that was constructed in the Jasper, it may be a couple of years plus or minus, but

[1:15:35] you know, this is an increasing production as well. From 2010, going forward to about 2015,

[1:15:42] you know, Griff was continuing, there was more well being drove in the Jasper and Montgomery

[1:15:47] Anne Harris County. So you're also seeing, at that same time, you have the surface of water

[1:15:53] lines are being built out and projects come in on. And so, and both you know, in Paris County,

[1:15:58] North Air is going to reach a water authority, so I'm surprised I'm going to deliver it out.

[1:16:01] You know, Australia is working to build their pipelines.

[1:16:04] So about 15, I believe the surface water started being provided to Australia, then you

[1:16:09] started seeing some other entities in this area to get the surface water.

[1:16:13] So you also see this recovery in the water levels.

[1:16:17] And you know, they came up, looking like everything was coming up in that area to roughly

[1:16:21] about 2018, 2019, and then we started seeing some declines in that area with increased pumping

[1:16:27] and growth. And you know the dryer here is combined with that growth in 2023. You see a little

[1:16:34] steeper decline there and then you know there are some the company points coming up from 24 to 25.

[1:16:41] The interesting to see with a little bit of you know what are you here this year with water levels

[1:16:45] and look like here in early 26. Chris, before you move on from that because that left side

[1:16:53] the bottom left side of that, the central cell, you know, you just explain it well kind

[1:16:58] of the timeline there, but because it's such a shocking visual to look at, I mean, there

[1:17:04] are some gasps in the audience or whatever, about that central cell chart there, can you,

[1:17:10] because I asked these two questions, and I originally saw that, and so I want you to kind

[1:17:13] of drive that home a little bit more if you can, and the development, there's a portion,

[1:17:19] And I don't know if you have your red line or their kind of shell it, and maybe just help us better understand the timeline.

[1:17:27] So maybe, because that was my question originally, too.

[1:17:29] So I feel like the public might want a better explanation if you can have more full explanation of what we're looking at there.

[1:17:35] If that's concerning or if you all, if this was expected with the kind of growth that we saw.

[1:17:42] Yeah, so basically to start off, you know, as Mike said, you know, I mean, you're going to see a decrease in water levels.

[1:17:49] and so that kind of highlights the growth. First part, let's see.

[1:17:54] And it'll hard to get it from behind you, I'm sorry.

[1:17:56] We should probably have a microphone.

[1:17:58] First part of the area, kind of looking between the, you know, 1990 and 2000.

[1:18:05] And then the

[1:18:09] next area of birth, we talked about there.

[1:18:12] And then when,

[1:18:16] you know, that's kind of the incident,

[1:18:18] period when you're seeing these steeper water level declines.

[1:18:20] And then 2015.

[1:18:21] What was built out then, Chris, that dropped that?

[1:18:25] Well, you're seeing high levels of growth in South Montgomery County, I-45 corridor area,

[1:18:31] and you're also seeing growth in North Harris County.

[1:18:33] There's development occurring in Montgomery and Harris County at that point.

[1:18:38] You're seeing a lot of growth, and we're also constructing the surface water lines at that time.

[1:18:44] And then, you know, the 2015 is when the surface water came online.

[1:18:55] Thanks, Tiffany.

[1:18:59] And then you can see the recovery here.

[1:19:01] Yep, we'll never, you know, surface bar is being utilized.

[1:19:04] You know, the production, ground reproduction is left.

[1:19:07] So the water levels did increase.

[1:19:09] And then, you know, they kind of, kind of help study here.

[1:19:12] For a little bit, you know, we've had some slight decline.

[1:19:14] And then when you're looking at this recent year here with, you know, increased drag conditions,

[1:19:20] increased pumping, continued growth.

[1:19:22] You can see it's definitely a steeper decline.

[1:19:24] And then, you know, between 24 and 25,

[1:19:27] you have that indication of recovery in most of these. I believe there's one point here. That's

[1:19:34] Estuary, Well, 13. They're showing a little bit more decline between about 2024 and 2025.

[1:19:43] So, then it's your question, ma'am.

[1:19:46] I think so. I just, from a, I don't just perspective, a state perspective, you're looking at this

[1:19:52] all over the state. Is this, do you gas when you see this decline?

[1:19:57] Well, when you hear your mic change, if you're.

[1:20:01] You need to see if I can get a green light.

[1:20:04] Okay, so any time you have a growth in pumping,

[1:20:07] it's just like putting a bigger kid on a crampoline.

[1:20:10] The water levels are going to continue to drop.

[1:20:12] You solve the graph of the pumping increasing.

[1:20:15] It's the same process that has happened in Galveston in Harris County

[1:20:20] and now it's happening in Montgomery County,

[1:20:22] those pumping levels increase with population and demand.

[1:20:26] And so the water levels are going to drop.

[1:20:29] And they continue to drop and don't stabilize

[1:20:31] as that growth is occurring.

[1:20:33] And so it's a adult gas.

[1:20:36] It's a normal process when you pump a combined aquifer.

[1:20:41] The aquifer is still fully full of water.

[1:20:44] The pressures are dropping in the aquifer.

[1:20:46] And so that's a normal process.

[1:20:48] as we see it in every confined aquifer across the state.

[1:20:51] We got almost a 1,000 feet of ground down in the Dallas area, and that's why they've started

[1:20:56] converting to surface water years and years and decades ago, right?

[1:21:00] And they're still converting.

[1:21:01] And they're still growing on pumping also.

[1:21:03] It's a dynamic process.

[1:21:05] And so I think what's really interesting about the graphs here in, you know, an I-45 quarter

[1:21:11] or in high growth areas is the impact of that surface water coming in and relaxing the system

[1:21:18] a little bit and then the growth picks up again and the water level start to decline again.

[1:21:24] And so I think you've said it very clearly, Sarah, you're all for more surface water.

[1:21:30] And when we look at more conservation and conservation and when we look at the surface water

[1:21:37] availability and the county, I think the district's made it clear that they're very much

[1:21:44] a proponent of more surface water.

[1:21:46] So that we can minimize water-level declines and decrease the impacts.

[1:21:52] Well, I'm going to extend the life of your wells, too.

[1:21:55] When I said earlier, kicking the can down the road,

[1:21:58] if you're not practicing conservation, which I've even heard

[1:22:02] in other public meetings that conservation can only do so much.

[1:22:05] What can do a lot in the aggregate?

[1:22:08] We're moving on quite a few initiatives here in the district

[1:22:12] to try to help incentivize that and you'll hear a lot more about it.

[1:22:15] But, you know, culturally, we're only kind of, I feel like across the state.

[1:22:21] In some areas, they're well ahead of us.

[1:22:23] You know, they have different issues with maybe they have different saturation levels in their aquifers,

[1:22:28] or they were dealing with storage issues.

[1:22:30] We're not dealing with here, but they've done an excellent job getting in fun of that, whereas

[1:22:34] you look at those water level declines. You as public water suppliers know better than everyone

[1:22:38] that your constituent had green grass and the middle of all that. And the legislature is trying

[1:22:43] to figure out some ways to help assist with that, but I think we can assist with that, too, a lot more

[1:22:49] and help extend the life of your well or give you more time on figuring out your options. But, you know,

[1:22:59] But seeing water level decline doesn't, you know, it's the fear, this is the sky's falling and it's happening right now.

[1:23:10] That's not actually the case. We are very blessed with a prolific aquifer and we are in the Gulf Coast off from Montgomery County's very blessed.

[1:23:18] But that doesn't mean, as you're dealing with it now and you're having to make your decisions,

[1:23:23] I can honestly, you don't need to look forward and pay attention and figure out what your best

[1:23:28] step forward is.

[1:23:30] But yes, thank you, that helps me answer that question and kind of draw, because the naked

[1:23:36] eye to that, it's hard to process what it is exactly that you're looking at and where we stand

[1:23:43] as a county.

[1:23:44] Did you have more on that or on to the next, okay, James, no light subject at all, can you bring

[1:23:52] And, you know, it's a hot topic during our last joint planning cycle.

[1:23:58] When the subsidence districts had a great deal of influence over GMA-14

[1:24:01] and our joint planning here in Montgomery County,

[1:24:05] but I've asked that you help us better understand the history of subsidence

[1:24:09] a fuller picture surrounding the conversation of subsidence in Montgomery County

[1:24:15] and GMA-14 as a whole.

[1:24:17] So we've shown this in other meetings at GMA 14,

[1:24:21] but I asked you to bring it back out

[1:24:23] and help us, help us re-look at this, thank you James.

[1:24:26] Yeah, obviously some guidance.

[1:24:29] One of those math factors that must be considered

[1:24:31] when the GCDs are planning for their groundwater management.

[1:24:36] And so for this area, the greater heat scenario

[1:24:41] is seen quite a bit of subsidence over in past decades.

[1:24:45] And so it can be a very substantial consideration, especially when you're close to the coast.

[1:24:52] And what we wanted to go through was a little bit as Sarah said.

[1:24:57] Some of the history of the development of subsidence, the recognition of the impact of subsidence,

[1:25:04] the implementation of the subsidence districts to control that and to give them the ability to move people to surface water

[1:25:13] to decrease groundwater pumping.

[1:25:16] And so if we start just by the measured subsidence

[1:25:20] from 1906 to 1943, you can see that there's

[1:25:24] very little subsidence in Gauberston County areas,

[1:25:29] mainly just kind of downtown area and to the southeast there.

[1:25:33] And then by 1978, and again,

[1:25:36] this is a cumulative subsidence over time

[1:25:39] in the greater Houston area.

[1:25:41] And what you see is by 1978, you're seeing eight, nine feet of water level decline.

[1:25:49] Let me see if I can get the pointer here.

[1:25:51] You've got nine feet of water level, I'm sorry, subsided in the Harris and Galveston County area.

[1:25:59] Up until 1975, I think the district came in a place in 75, Curris, the subsided into district.

[1:26:06] And this was the picture of subsidence when the district came into play.

[1:26:12] And the legislature said, we've got to do something.

[1:26:14] And so this is what the subsidence looks like.

[1:26:20] If you note, up here on southern Montgomery County, you've already got a foot of subsidence.

[1:26:26] What we've placed, we've placed the public water supply wells on this map as well.

[1:26:30] They're a little hard to see, but there's a little red dots.

[1:26:34] then you can see that by 1978 you've got, you've got public order supply wells, a 45,

[1:26:40] you've got them over here in the western part of the county, you know, and a 45 got four,

[1:26:46] four and five feet of water level decline, when the subsidence district came into play.

[1:26:51] By the time you get to 1995, you've got six, you've got different zones here that were highlighting

[1:27:01] as far as the subsidence, districts, management zones.

[1:27:07] If you look that one foot contour has started to extend up into Montgomery County and you've got a lot more public water supply wells there.

[1:27:17] You've got a higher density of water supply wells as a growth occurs.

[1:27:22] And as Sarah has said clearly, you know, Harris County grew on groundwater and then started transitioning to surface water.

[1:27:30] The same thing is happening in Montgomery County now as growth occurs and so even though the supplied

[1:27:39] is district was converting to surface water, it started in the south and it kind of moves

[1:27:43] up to the north and west. There were still a lot of growth on groundwater. You saw that in the

[1:28:04] In the western part of the county, Harris County, you've got two or three feet of subsidence and then by 1995, you've got six or seven, six feet of subsidence and so they've

[1:28:16] the subsidence is increased quite a bit as they grew on groundwater and continue to convert to surface water.

[1:28:24] Now, in Zone 3, that pumping numbers you saw earlier here in the blue, that's what was established, the Zone 3 and in about 2000.

[1:28:34] And so, you see now you've got 7 feet of subsidence in Western Harris County.

[1:28:41] And by this time, a lot of conversion has happened in the South Park in Galveston County, Southeast Harris County.

[1:28:49] and subsided just starting to slow down.

[1:28:52] You don't see 10 feet here, but nine feet,

[1:28:55] everything is kind of slowed down,

[1:28:57] and Harris Galveston has a lot of maps on their site

[1:29:00] to basically document how good they're doing

[1:29:04] with slowing subsidence there.

[1:29:06] But it has continued up in the northwest part of the county

[1:29:09] as growth continued in groundwater,

[1:29:12] production continued to increase.

[1:29:14] And then by 2016, you can see that seven foot

[1:29:19] Now we've got three foot of subsidence on the southern end of Montgomery County and the one foot contour is moved that a little further into

[1:29:30] in the Montgomery County and you see that continued subsidence moving to the west. You see a few more public water supply wells all the way around the greater Houston area.

[1:29:42] And so I think that history is pretty important to understand, and obviously the pumping

[1:29:51] in Montgomery County is causing some subsided and the pumping in Harris County is causing

[1:30:00] 50, everybody is one big system. And the bottom line is it's slowly emanating out. And one of the difficult decisions that

[1:30:08] long-star has to make is they look at roll on management. The future is, as I mentioned earlier,

[1:30:16] subsidence is one of the nine factors that has to be considered. There's no waiting on those nine factors,

[1:30:23] and it has to be put in the thought process with all those other eight factors and looking at growth.

[1:30:29] and making those hard decisions just like everyone else in other districts.

[1:30:36] And so, one of the things that we do want to point out, you know, if you're sitting at

[1:30:42] 5 feet above sea level or 10 feet above sea level and you have 10 footups of patents,

[1:30:48] that's a serious issue.

[1:30:50] And when you come up to the north side of Montgomery County, the elevations almost 400 feet

[1:30:56] above sea level.

[1:30:57] Obviously, it drops your 150 feet by the time you get to spring creek, and then you can see the surface elevation dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping as you go southeast along this red line through downtown Houston all the way to the coast, and obviously, if you're over here, and you've got the same amount of subsidence that you are above sea level, that's a huge issue.

[1:31:22] And so, don't want to downplay the subsidence, but it is different when you're sitting at 400 feet above sea level and a different consideration and possibly a different waiting.

[1:31:36] And so we understand that the subsidence has occurred in the southern part of the county, but we feel like in the board has decided that these facts also should be considered when they make their decisions.

[1:31:51] And so, this is just the graph, as you get closer to the coastline and you can see that

[1:31:59] nine foot of subsidence here, you know, very close to the bottom of what's said division

[1:32:04] in that general area, which is sort of the poster child for, you know, bad impacts for

[1:32:12] subsidence when you're close to the coast.

[1:32:14] And so, we just wanted to share that and I think we're moving on to other things now.

[1:32:20] Can we go back just one more slide at this not that one this one which takes you one

[1:32:27] I'll let you say you're going to say and then I'll say what yeah actually I want to go back one more to the contour map

[1:32:33] This one so what I wanted to point out here is that the subsidence districts are not chapter 36 districts

[1:32:40] Okay, they asked to be out of 36 and 2005 because they said oh y'all are going to do DFCs

[1:32:46] And we're going to have to manage to take a particular aquifer condition, we're out.

[1:32:50] We're not doing that.

[1:32:51] Get it.

[1:32:52] We want to be out.

[1:32:54] And so they don't have to do what groundwater districts do.

[1:32:59] And even though they have full statutory authority and mandate in fact to end subsidence,

[1:33:05] there are still allowing the sidelines to occur.

[1:33:09] They are as they grow on groundwater in areas of high demand until surface water

[1:33:13] at the alternative supplies can come online.

[1:33:15] And you can see this illustrated very nicely

[1:33:18] on this contour map.

[1:33:20] In this exciting statistics,

[1:33:22] do not even know they have the main take to end subsidence.

[1:33:24] They don't manage to a subsidence metric at all.

[1:33:27] They don't manage to a aquifer condition at all.

[1:33:31] They say, we want you to try to convert to surface water.

[1:33:35] And we are going to allow you to do that over a certain amount

[1:33:38] of time.

[1:33:38] And you have to decrease your groundwater production,

[1:33:41] based upon your total water demand.

[1:33:43] which is allowed to increase every year.

[1:33:46] And I tell you all of this not to criticize

[1:33:48] what the subsatins districts are doing,

[1:33:50] but you need to understand what they're doing

[1:33:53] and why they're doing it

[1:33:54] and they're not even doing what some people are expecting

[1:33:57] one start to do, which is any subsatins.

[1:34:00] They're not ending subsatins.

[1:34:01] They're slowly curving it.

[1:34:03] And they don't have a subsatins metric

[1:34:04] and they don't have an opera for condition

[1:34:06] that they're managing too.

[1:34:08] So that's, and when you look at what got launched or in trouble,

[1:34:14] what we'll talk about in a minute, with their statutory mandates or lack of the

[1:34:19] subsidence district have all the authority in the world to do whatever it is

[1:34:24] is necessary to insubciidence but they're growing on groundwater as needed.

[1:34:29] Thanks, Casey.

[1:34:30] I wanted to just look at the next slide.

[1:34:34] This one was really helpful for me, so hopefully it will be helpful for you as well

[1:34:38] because for me, you know, when I saw the poster tall photo of what the Brownwood subdivision and it's now a nature preserve and that we need to have these same concerns and Montgomery County to really have a visual of the difference, you know, we're looking at if you see there at the 55 downtown Houston is roughly 55 feet above sea level and they grew and they're great.

[1:35:05] we're talking about downtown Houston. So if we're looking at

[1:35:08] subsidence as a reason to not move forward on growth in Montgomery County,

[1:35:13] I think we need to be reasonable about that. Look at the history of the

[1:35:17] only district that we have that is comparable and extraordinary growth, much

[1:35:22] more extraordinary than we're facing now. And just be reasonable with how we

[1:35:26] are looking at that factor. And you know, I look at on located right there in

[1:35:34] feet above sea level. We're not going to manage subsidence the same as we did in downtown

[1:35:38] Houston in Willis. That's not reasonable to manage it. And then to recognize, you

[1:35:44] showed that seven foot contour line or that growth. I mean, I think that was Jersey Village.

[1:35:49] That was allowed to grow out, post the origination of a U must stop subsidence district.

[1:35:57] And so I just, I think that's all really good information for us to process as we're looking

[1:36:01] to join planning and all questions to that and you can like, I see the hands coming up.

[1:36:07] But so I appreciate that visual, a lot, that was very helpful for me, and then we're

[1:36:15] on to the last topic that we're going to talk about, and then we will have that space for Q&A.

[1:36:21] So this is Recharge, Stacy, like you to close out with Recharge and then touch on property

[1:36:28] rights for us too.

[1:36:30] Sure, so the definition of recharge in 36 is the amount of water that infiltrates to the water

[1:36:36] table of an aquifer. And GCDs are supposed to consider recharge. They're supposed to do that

[1:36:43] in their management plan. It's baked into the models that James and Chris and Mike talked about

[1:36:49] that are used to develop the DSC. But there is no authority in chapter 36 to manage the aquifer

[1:36:56] to recharge. And if you recall, Lone Star had a reduction rule in place that purported to

[1:37:05] manage the aquifer to what it said was the recharge rate. And Lone Star got suit over

[1:37:09] that. And the court said, you have exceeded your authority. Lone Star, you cannot, that

[1:37:14] rule is invalid. And it's like it was never there from the beginning. And I told you all

[1:37:19] about the, at the beginning we talked about how GCDs have these limited authorities. And

[1:37:24] can only do what's expressly.

[1:37:30] 36, for the evening legislation. And when the court looked at that, recharged pumping cap effectively said,

[1:37:37] hey, you don't have authority to do that. And so I've been asked a lot, and these consultants have.

[1:37:43] And so his Sarah, why are we not managing to recharge? And that's the answer why is because the court said you don't have

[1:37:50] have accessibility to do it. And when you search for recharged in chapter 36, it's in there, but it's not in a way that says that you can

[1:37:59] manage the aquifer to that type of condition.

[1:38:02] It says that you need to consider it and address it in your

[1:38:05] management plan, but there's no express authority to do that.

[1:38:10] And sustainability, likewise, is not a management standard in

[1:38:14] Chapter 36. The word sustainability is found nowhere in

[1:38:18] Chapter 36. The legislature has tried or considered,

[1:38:22] people have tried to get the legislature to put

[1:38:26] sustainability into chapter 36, but it is that this efforts have been unsuccessful for several

[1:38:32] legislative sessions now. And I personally think that's because the legislature has said,

[1:38:38] you have to manage the aquifer and have this desired future condition that is the balance

[1:38:43] between the highest practical level of production and these other factors. And so by default,

[1:38:50] you cannot manage to what some people consider sustainability or recharge because you have to have

[1:38:55] balance of making sure that you have the highest practical level with these other factors.

[1:39:01] And if you only look at recharge or you only look at sustainability, you're completely

[1:39:04] on the other end of the spectrum.

[1:39:06] Likewise, we don't manage to towers, which is the amount of water in storage that is the

[1:39:13] other end of the spectrum.

[1:39:15] We've got recharge sustainability only produce what comes into the offer to make sure that

[1:39:20] it stays in the status quo condition that we want it to be in.

[1:39:24] Or, let's, you know, manage to toast.

[1:39:27] We've got a 100 million, 80, 100 million, 180 million.

[1:39:31] No, thank you.

[1:39:32] Take your feet in Montgomery County in the Gulf Coast

[1:39:34] office, or we're not managing to that.

[1:39:37] Although you should know that 36 does allow a GCD

[1:39:39] to manage to depletion.

[1:39:42] And if you go back and look on my slides,

[1:39:44] you'll see that listed there as an appropriate management

[1:39:48] strad or management method.

[1:39:51] And that loans start doesn't do that, but it's authorized.

[1:39:53] And there are GCDs that do that in that Oga Allah, that manage that and they say we're going to manage

[1:40:00] to 50% storage.

[1:40:02] They're depleting the saturated thickness of that aquifer.

[1:40:05] That is not what Moonstar is doing.

[1:40:07] With their DFC, they are managing to the remaining available drawdown in a well.

[1:40:14] That relates to the water level in a well, not to the saturated thickness or storage of water in aquifer.

[1:40:20] So there runs dog could go all the way to Depletion, but it's not doing that, and looking

[1:40:26] at storage is taking approach looking at a water level, which takes into consideration

[1:40:33] socioeconomic impacts, and that factor, because if you have water level declines, you're

[1:40:36] going to have to spend more money rehabilitating your well, perhaps, drilling a new well.

[1:40:42] So, and that's a region only, can we clarify that?

[1:40:45] It's not just Montgomery County, that's across GMA-14.

[1:40:48] across the state.

[1:40:51] Yeah, well, GCDs have different metrics, but in terms of having when there's water level decline and you have to

[1:40:59] rehab your well or drill a new well that is across the state.

[1:41:03] So we don't manage to recharge for a number of reasons, but we do consider it.

[1:41:10] I'm pretty right.

[1:41:12] Are you done with?

[1:41:13] Yes, I do.

[1:41:14] Have anything else to talk about recharge?

[1:41:17] I mean, I think that you covered it, that's again, there's a lot of conversation that I am being approached pretty regularly.

[1:41:25] Well, if you are, you know, what we're taking out has to match what's coming in, or we're going to have a problem,

[1:41:31] which that does make sense if that's all you say, but if you're not looking at storage, that's you're not really giving a full clear picture.

[1:41:40] I love my analogies, I give analogies all the time, I don't know that they love that but I do

[1:41:45] it helps me understand it's like saying you know you have a job at this much money and so I can't spend more than that much money

[1:41:50] I make let's say 60,000 a year I can't I can't spend more than 60,000 a year that makes perfect sense and so people are

[1:41:56] equating water and recharge to that

[1:41:59] Except you have $180 million in the bank so you're not you don't want to manage to a hundred and eighty million

[1:42:05] but you're not gonna manage to 60,000

[1:42:07] are going to find a balance in there that's more reasonable for your groundwater.

[1:42:13] And there's conversation about that 180 million, we don't bring that up often or

[1:42:16] tours because there's such a fluctuation in that even if it's up to 25% of that,

[1:42:22] which 40 million I think is what 25% is.

[1:42:26] That's still to manage to recharge at 64,000 acre fee would be extraordinarily

[1:42:31] restrictive for your groundwater resource, not reasonable.

[1:42:34] that is not a reasonable expectation.

[1:42:37] That's all I have to say about that.

[1:42:39] Private property rights.

[1:42:42] OK, so this is, I think, our last slide

[1:42:44] before we get into questions.

[1:42:46] So property right that is protected and regulated

[1:42:49] under Chapter 36 is groundwater.

[1:42:52] It's not any other property right.

[1:42:55] I've heard people say or ask questions about,

[1:42:59] well, I want you to manage the aquifer

[1:43:02] so that there is zero subsidence because when subsidence happens my house shifts and you have

[1:43:07] to protect my property rights.

[1:43:09] It's like, okay, well, the groundwater district has no ability to protect your real estate or

[1:43:16] your home.

[1:43:17] They only have the ability to protect groundwater in the aquifer.

[1:43:22] And in the woodlands, in particular, the residents of the woodlands, you know,

[1:43:27] know exactly the dividing boundary but those landowners do not have any groundwater

[1:43:31] rights at all. Because when the developer developed the woodlands, he severed the groundwater

[1:43:37] rights from the land, from the surface of state. And he retained those as a developer.

[1:43:41] And so all the people in the woodlands bought their land without groundwater attached to it.

[1:43:46] So there are no rights in the wood property rights in the woodlands of any of those residents

[1:43:51] that the groundwater district can protect because they don't own them.

[1:43:55] Esther A has all the rights to the water in the woodlands and Esther A has 38 wells that it owns and operates in the woodlands.

[1:44:04] And it is the entity that provides all the groundwater to everybody in the woodlands.

[1:44:10] And so when we're talking about protecting property rights for the groundwater in the woodlands, it relates to Esther A and the one who has 38 wells.

[1:44:19] And the landowners who are affected by that pumping in the woodlands who want there to be zero subsidence,

[1:44:29] they have a course of action under the law.

[1:44:32] Chapter 36 specifically says that if you have a right to sue your neighbor or the pumper,

[1:44:40] if they're negligently causing subsidence.

[1:44:42] And so that's in the under the common law and that's been codified in Chapter 36.

[1:44:47] So if people want zero level of subsidence, which I don't think is something that this cloud motor district is targeting to manage to, but if you want that, then one.

[1:45:00] Groundwater in the woodlands. And then you also have recourse against the pumper, who is estuary. And so it's this tension, and push back and forth between, I want this level of subsidence, and I want you groundwater district to do something about that. When there isn't full support in the law to do that. And then there is recourse for the particular landowner if they don't like that. Now subsidence is James said is something that the groundwater district has been

[1:45:29] districts are required to consider, absolutely, and that's been taken into account, but you've

[1:45:34] also seen what the subsidence districts who are supposed to be ending subsidence, which

[1:45:40] is a different mandate than you should consider at DCD, that what they've had to do to deal

[1:45:45] with their growth that's unprecedented and while they're waiting for supplies to come online.

[1:45:52] And they have the legal authority to force groundwater users to convert to service water, which

[1:45:58] something that Longstar does not have, Longstar tried to exercise the ability to do that when

[1:46:04] it put the recharge rule in place and it was invalidated by a court because they recharges

[1:46:09] not an authorized method of management under 36 and groundwater districts do not have the

[1:46:14] authority to force you to convert to alternative supplies. The site and districts do have

[1:46:21] that authority specifically and expressly and they're doing that but they're doing it in a

[1:46:25] different way than groundwater districts or addressing subsidence.

[1:46:31] So we just have to really make sure that we understand what that property right is that

[1:46:36] groundwater districts have the responsibility to protect and who has it and that there's

[1:46:45] not a constitutional right in a certain water level and a well.

[1:46:48] We talked about that 36 makes it clear that you're not entitled to a specific amount of water.

[1:46:53] You have this right that the groundwater district will protect and they're protecting your right and the aggregate with everybody's rights.

[1:47:01] They have to manage the aquifer as a whole. Sometimes they can look at management of the aquifer and subparts or subdivisions of an aquifer,

[1:47:09] but they are not managing the aquifer on a well-to-well basis through the DFC.

[1:47:14] The way that impacts on an individual, well, locally or addressed, are through permitting.

[1:47:19] and we have well-spacing rules in place that help minimize impacts and then you have the

[1:47:26] ability to oppose someone's permit application.

[1:47:30] If you think that that particular well is going to, you know, unreasonably affect your

[1:47:35] well or your water level and your well.

[1:47:37] That's your recourse when you don't want when you're having local effects in your well by

[1:47:42] someone else.

[1:47:43] Through the groundwater district, you have recourse if they're, you know, causing waves

[1:47:48] or malicious drainage or negligent causing subsidence, but the recourse with the district is

[1:47:55] if they're causing unreasonable impacts through that proposed application, you can come

[1:47:58] and protest that application. And then they'll be a whole process to evaluate that. But I think

[1:48:05] there needs to be an understanding of what the GCD can do, aquifer-wide when it's managing the

[1:48:10] whole aquifer for the, you know, according to its mandate versus local impacts on an individual

[1:48:15] well and what the district can do about that.

[1:48:18] Those are two separate things that have, there's interplay between them too, but they have

[1:48:22] separate statutory authority and ability with respect to those separate things.

[1:48:29] And I'll end with regulatory taking's claims.

[1:48:32] So those are, those are things that, that occurs when regulation goes too far, where if a

[1:48:40] mental entity imposes restrictions that are too unreasonable. Then, the person's whose property

[1:48:48] right is being unnecessarily restricted has the ability to sue the groundwater district

[1:48:53] for a regulatory taking. First, you have to be someone that has the property right that is

[1:48:59] being affected by the regulation. So if you don't own groundwater, that is not the regulation

[1:49:05] is not unrestricting your property right because you don't have the property right of groundwater.

[1:49:10] And then it's not something that the taking claim does not occur from the lack of regulation.

[1:49:17] It has to be that overreaching by the government that unnecessarily restricts your property right that can give rise to this taking's claim.

[1:49:28] Let's see.

[1:49:30] I think those are all my notes on that.

[1:49:32] Okay. I appreciate that.

[1:49:33] And I'll wrap it up pretty quickly so that there's time for Q&A.

[1:49:37] We want to respect that for you all, but I also just wanted to say, you know, kind of

[1:49:42] been closing for us and for me on the way that we're looking at this moving forward is there

[1:49:52] is an assumption that you have to have a regulation to choose surface water.

[1:49:56] And I think the SGRA is doing a lot to navigate whatever the situation was previously

[1:50:04] perspective of that, they've said publicly, if you want to choose surface water come to

[1:50:08] them. And so I think we should know that there are other areas of the state that did not rely

[1:50:14] on a regulation from a groundwater district to force them into surface water. You can make

[1:50:18] a decision as a public water supplier and economic decision or you're lowering your pumps

[1:50:23] in your wells or you're having to make rehabilitation or deal with water level decline to

[1:50:28] go toward alternative water resources. Not to kick the can down the road, we understand that

[1:50:32] expenses are going to be quite a bit different, if you move towards an alternative water resource,

[1:50:39] but no, that that is the way of the future, no matter how you look at it.

[1:50:43] And that's something that I had heard at one point as well, you know, we don't want to pay for it.

[1:50:48] When they have the problem later down the road, then they can pay for it.

[1:50:51] Well, you know, the dams were created, we benefit from them, somebody paid for it at some point.

[1:50:57] It was, you know, we have to expect that as we want to use this resource, it's going to be more expensive.

[1:51:03] We do have a lot more people coming and population grows businesses grow.

[1:51:06] They want the same rights to be able to grow in ground, or that we have, that our ancestors have.

[1:51:11] So, I want to grant the same much longer on that.

[1:51:14] But all to say, it will be more expensive to utilize alternative water resources.

[1:51:19] But it is a way of the future and you're going to have to consider it.

[1:51:22] And while the yield is still available, you can make your decisions without coming to us.

[1:51:27] asking you to make it for you, asking us to make it for you.

[1:51:30] I think I said what I'm trying to say there.

[1:51:32] So all right Tiffany, she's got you written down in order or signed up, is how we'll

[1:51:38] operate this.

[1:51:39] So I'd ask maybe three, I don't know how many people have signed up to ask questions, Tiffany,

[1:51:50] but well, she can still give you the chance too, but we've asked that you come to the podium

[1:51:55] use the mic.

[1:51:56] So Tiffany, if you want to maybe ask the first three people to stand at and then you can

[1:52:00] some more sign up while they're asking their question.

[1:52:24] If we have anybody else signed up.

[1:52:30] Okay, I don't know your name. I apologize if you would go to the podium. That way you can use the mic and it's on the recording. Thank you.

[1:53:00] Director at mud 67, I'm also a father and grandfather of my family living here in Montgomery County,

[1:53:06] so the future of our water resources are very important to me.

[1:53:10] I have one comment and one question.

[1:53:12] The comment is simply on the subsidence.

[1:53:16] It's a little disingenuous to worry about elevation above sea level.

[1:53:20] Most flooding, flooding events are local.

[1:53:23] And my one concern about subsidence in the Montgomery County is the reactivation of faulting.

[1:53:30] We have significant faults, especially in the woodlands, and there are sagues, and the subsidence continues.

[1:53:36] We get flooding, so relative height above sea level is not important, it's a local event.

[1:53:41] The second thing I thought of you guys were, I want to thank you, the presentation was really good.

[1:53:45] I'm still learning, and I found it very informative.

[1:53:47] My one interesting note there was that, I noticed that there was a definite non-use of the word

[1:53:53] depletion of the reservoir, very careful everything was water levels.

[1:53:58] Pretty sure from looking at your slides and the conversation of water level droppings, we

[1:54:02] have depletion of these aquifers, I don't want to emphasize that, I appreciate the balance

[1:54:07] you're trying to achieve between depletion and the resources that we need to use economically.

[1:54:13] However, my question then is, given that the reservoir is depleting, do you have this

[1:54:20] mag thing?

[1:54:20] Was it a model of the topogram?

[1:54:23] Yes, is there a, is there a, when you build bad model, do you have an expected rate of

[1:54:28] depletion that we're going to live with over time?

[1:54:31] And that's it.

[1:54:31] Thank you.

[1:54:35] I'll jump in first, the model does predict a draw them on, you know, we can do it on my

[1:54:43] on my basis, we can do it at any level.

[1:54:46] The DFC is generally presented as an average

[1:54:48] across the district.

[1:54:50] And so in 20, 80, the goal of the district currently

[1:54:55] is to have 70% of remaining available drawdown.

[1:54:59] And when we consider all the wells in the county

[1:55:03] and across GMA-14, and so that is the metric,

[1:55:06] and that is the rate of decline.

[1:55:09] that is projected now on an annual basis. I'm not sure if I know the number of water

[1:55:17] of feet of water level decline that that equates to, I don't know if you guys do.

[1:55:23] Now, as far as the modeling right now, I don't recall what that rate looks like, but

[1:55:30] to James's point, that is something that we do during joint planning and that we do

[1:55:39] So we were able to look at as part of this current round of joint planning more so than looking

[1:55:45] retroactively to the last round of joint planning.

[1:55:49] When you all did your tracking achievement report, the most recent one that you did,

[1:55:54] the goal was no less than 70% remaining available drawdown and what was the district at currently?

[1:55:59] It was high 90s, I can't recall.

[1:56:01] Like 97 or something?

[1:56:02] It rounded up to 97%.

[1:56:06] Yeah, one quick comment on those water levels too, all that historical water level data goes into these models, so it's important, you know, that's, that's, we got GMA 14 update, so, you know, the, I think that model is based on the Gulf 23, which went through 2018, so all the historical patterns were used to, you know, help with the model calibration period, so that information is being considered.

[1:56:31] And you didn't technically ask a question about the fault that it was more of a statement,

[1:56:35] but I ask a lot of questions about that when I came into the district because it was brought

[1:56:39] to my attention.

[1:56:41] So I do think it's, you know, on the legal side, what our regulatory authority is on that

[1:56:47] and Stacey can help speak to that, but subsignants and faults are two totally different things.

[1:56:54] You might have one exacerbating the other, but faults existed before the origination of whatever

[1:56:59] properties for bill, and I worked in land development as well.

[1:57:04] So some of my questions were surrounding what does groundwater, what is our responsibility

[1:57:10] on handling a natural fault where construction or homes were built as awful as it is

[1:57:17] that those homes were built kind of like homes built in a flood zone, to limit your ability

[1:57:22] to utilize the groundwater or your neighbor's ability to utilize the groundwater because

[1:57:26] homes were built on a natural fault, I think that you run a fine line and saying, you know,

[1:57:33] that would actually be asking us to manage groundwater to a subdivision or to a street or

[1:57:39] to a certain homes, which is in my experience so far with groundwater management, very reasonable

[1:57:45] expectation, like managing to a well or to a specific house or street. On something that was

[1:57:52] naturally and existence before the homes were built.

[1:57:55] I don't know if there's anything legally that you want to add to that

[1:57:58] Stacey or not, your mic's not on a fewer.

[1:58:01] Yeah.

[1:58:01] I think you covered it.

[1:58:02] Can I get a kind of occasion?

[1:58:04] How could the work of the patients were ready for them?

[1:58:06] We're not all in here.

[1:58:07] We need a microphone.

[1:58:08] I don't know water.

[1:58:14] And that's right.

[1:58:15] Can I get your microphone?

[1:58:16] Thanks, James.

[1:58:20] You've got a clarification.

[1:58:21] Did you mean actual depletion of the water in the aquifer?

[1:58:26] It's not a level reduction, but if you actually made a decision of what I'm just trying

[1:58:30] to get clear.

[1:58:37] So he's talking about the watering of the reservoir versus pressure.

[1:58:44] The district's not managing to depletion.

[1:58:48] That's a standard that is authorized under 36, like I said they're doing not in the Ola,

[1:58:53] and that actually is they are doing, they're intentionally saying we're managing this

[1:58:56] refer to 50% of the water that is in the storage of the aquifer at the end.

[1:59:02] And they're aggressively looking for other supplies and that is not what Lone Star is doing.

[1:59:06] I don't know any other areas of Texas where they manage to depletion like they do with

[1:59:11] the oligoyle.

[1:59:11] Do you guys know?

[1:59:13] No.

[1:59:14] They don't.

[1:59:16] So I think that the difference that John wanted to point out was that water levels are above

[1:59:27] So James, thank you for using the mic.

[1:59:29] Okay, sorry.

[1:59:30] So our water levels are above the top of the aquifer.

[1:59:34] And so we are reducing pressure out to 2080,

[1:59:39] but the aquifer, where the wells are screened,

[1:59:42] the advantage of the japs per here, in this case,

[1:59:45] is going to be completely full.

[1:59:47] And so it may be a subtle nomenclature difference,

[1:59:50] but it's a decrease in pressure,

[1:59:52] not a depletion of the aquifer,

[1:59:54] like we see in the Oguala where water levels are.

[2:00:00] The question is draining, so I think that's a subtle difference, but an important difference that we're that Jim was trying to make.

[2:00:06] Thank you, James.

[2:00:07] I ask why the water pressure is lacking in that.

[2:00:10] We're going to have to use the mics or it won't show up on the recording.

[2:00:14] I know that makes it difficult and conversation, but if you want to remain up there, you've got the mic.

[2:00:20] That might be helpful.

[2:00:25] Can you explain to me then just so myself that I can understand?

[2:00:29] And to me, the question is, why is the water pressure dropping if it's not through

[2:00:35] depletion?

[2:00:37] I think if you wanted to call it a pressure depletion that would be appropriate or a pressure

[2:00:42] reduction, but the volume in the aquifer is staying the same.

[2:00:48] No, it's not.

[2:00:49] It's impossible.

[2:00:51] You have a container, and as you understand why you don't want to manage to recharge, I don't

[2:00:56] disagree with that.

[2:00:57] But we all, that those graphs tell us, clearly, that you're drawing everybody's drawing out more water than going into that reservoir.

[2:01:06] It's a simple physics.

[2:01:07] And so, that would explain the pressure drop. You want to call it a water level drop. That's fine. It's the same thing.

[2:01:13] But we're depleting it. I'm not against depleting it. My question for me was managing the depletion or the water level drop.

[2:01:21] So that I know what we have to look forward, not just tomorrow, but we have many more

[2:01:25] years ahead of us, and as you're saying, seeing what we have to develop, that's okay.

[2:01:29] I just want to understand what's happening to this reservoir or this water aquifer over time.

[2:01:35] Thank you.

[2:01:37] Have you guys done an estimate of the depletion of storage that production has caused in Montgomery County?

[2:01:45] Do you have any point of reference from which you've done that and looked at that?

[2:01:51] But has there been any depletion of the actual storage, and if so, to what degree?

[2:02:00] I would say that I know that there's something that we did look at as far as the water balance.

[2:02:04] When looking at the GMA-14 model,

[2:02:08] I don't recall an exact number, but as far as a percentage-wise, it's less than a tenth of a percent.

[2:02:16] Of the storage of the water and the aquifer.

[2:02:18] That's correct.

[2:02:19] of that 180 million acre-feated, less than one percent.

[2:02:43] My name is Kent Niagara, and I'm from mud 46, our 36 in the woodlands.

[2:02:48] And my background is only gas reservoir engineering.

[2:02:52] And people are confused about water in place and recover the water.

[2:02:59] And it's John pointed out, in this gentleman, he's absolutely correct,

[2:03:04] when that water pressure, that reservoir goes to zero, if still got 100 and whatever number

[2:03:11] of which is wrong. But anyway, they end up in recalibular water or recalibular, and all

[2:03:19] in place are two different numbers.

[2:03:24] So you're not being realistic and saying that, well,

[2:03:30] I don't know, I'd deplete, well, it isn't because it's going to be full of alerts.

[2:03:36] It's not going to have any pressure.

[2:03:40] But I got a question about your Jasper modeling.

[2:03:44] As you know, the USGS classifies the Jasper as a combined reservoir, right?

[2:03:52] Has no minimal outcome.

[2:03:55] So what's there is there?

[2:03:57] And it's not going to recharge.

[2:04:00] The yes, the U.S. Yes. So my question is, if you've done any history match modeling of just the Jasper at Lone Star, that's fairly common modeling technique.

[2:04:16] You've got 30 or 40 or 50 years history. You've got a lot of production data and you should be able to do history match modeling and tell us

[2:04:27] because we use mostly the Jasper and the Woodlands how much capacity or how much preserve we have left.

[2:04:38] Have you ever done any history-match modeling just of the Jasper?

[2:04:42] So with regard to your question, the Jasper is included as part of the GMA.

[2:04:48] How was my question?

[2:04:49] Have you done any history-match modeling with Jasper as a separate entity?

[2:04:55] Well, what it is, as I was responding to you, it is included in the GMA 14 model.

[2:05:02] And it is specific matching to the Jasper, as well as to the Evangelon and the Chico.

[2:05:09] So it is included because this is a complex aquifer system where leakage occurs between the units, both the Bursal and the GMS.

[2:05:19] Yes, as it says, it's a combined reservoir.

[2:05:22] What's the shale section between the Jasper?

[2:05:26] Yeah, but anyway, you've got a confining shale geologically

[2:05:32] that says there's no communication.

[2:05:36] Now, getting back to these models.

[2:05:39] I mean, well, I guess, rather than we're

[2:05:41] engineering, they would just combine all these aquifers

[2:05:45] And the one model is questionable at best.

[2:05:50] But anyway, the answer is, I assume no,

[2:05:53] because we would really like to know in the Willands,

[2:05:57] because we are primarily using the Jasper as our water source.

[2:06:03] And if somebody could tell us what the long term potential

[2:06:09] of the Jasper is, we'd appreciate it.

[2:06:11] So if it wasn't clear in Mike's answer,

[2:06:13] We have history matching on the JASP, where it was required by the water development board.

[2:06:18] The USGS built the model that you say should be separated, they decided to put those together.

[2:06:27] That's been a historical, you know, modeling approach by the USGS with Harris Galveston's approval for the last 30 years.

[2:06:36] And so we took that model in GMA4Tune, continued and improved the history matching in the

[2:06:43] Jasper, and this plot right here, is this an updated or is this a haggone data?

[2:06:48] This is a 21 data, so this is a haggone, this is what the haggone, this is what the haggone,

[2:06:55] the heirs, Houston area, groundwater model from the last round of planning, what the

[2:07:01] the Harris Galveston district that had developed with USDS. Time and time again predicted

[2:07:07] out to 2080. I think the projection from the new GMA-14 model, which is based on the Harris

[2:07:15] Galveston Society model, in large part, has a similar projection for the Jasper. Now,

[2:07:22] If you come to GMA working in New York City, you'll see in the future, how...

[2:07:30] Any different scenarios to look at projections? In the Jasper Evangelion Chico, and so all of that will be available and you can come to those meetings and see the results of different scenarios over the next, you know, through May.

[2:07:46] Okay. I want to make one of the comment about this 180 million

[2:07:50] haker feet that has been floating around. Do you know how much water that is?

[2:07:57] That's a lake 250 feet deep covering Montgomery County.

[2:08:03] At least one I calculated, of course I used the internet. So, you know, the internet is like,

[2:08:07] for all my square miles of Montgomery County. So, to say that there's 180

[2:08:15] the main and acre fee is completely, I have no idea where that number comes. I mean, if

[2:08:22] you just clithered in the rock, what do you use 25% porosity for sandstone? Just to answer

[2:08:28] your question, the water development board calculated that, no, I understand where it came from,

[2:08:33] but I'm just calculating, I said, geez, that's a lake, 250 feet deep covering all of my

[2:08:39] we're counting. So I have no idea where they come up with that number. I mean, it makes no sense.

[2:08:48] So recoverable water versus water in place is just like oil and oil and recoverable oil.

[2:08:57] So the point is that hopefully people will quit using that 180 million acre feed because

[2:09:03] there's not anything close, the recovery will maybe, you know,

[2:09:09] can't the 1% of that number.

[2:09:11] Well, what I go with that, I agree with you, 100%.

[2:09:16] That water, that aquifer will, it'll be completely full,

[2:09:21] but there will be no pressure to produce it.

[2:09:23] Steve, I'll let you respond to that,

[2:09:25] but I think we have answered the question,

[2:09:27] I want to make more room for additional questions.

[2:09:30] Yeah, you made a comment that I wish people would stop talking

[2:09:32] about terms, well, chapter 36 requires the districts to consider

[2:09:36] hers, the total estimated recoverable storage from the aquifer

[2:09:40] when they're developing DFCs so you're always going to continue to hear

[2:09:43] that at least the reference to that because the GCDs are required to

[2:09:46] consider it. Also the water development board calculated what they consider

[2:09:51] to be the recoverable range, which is 25% to 75%. So while you may disagree

[2:09:58] with that science, the water development board, is the state agency in Texas who is required

[2:10:04] to calculate that.

[2:10:05] And so perhaps maybe you disagree with their science, but that's a science that we're required

[2:10:09] to consider.

[2:10:11] Do we have any additional questions?

[2:10:13] Were there any hints in the audience?

[2:10:17] I've got one here.

[2:10:21] I don't have anything prepared, but pre-flow.

[2:10:25] My name is Laura Norton, and I'm from Mud 47.

[2:10:29] One of the comments I almost felt was directed at me was, you know, the, the fall thing in the woodlands is not the fault of lone star and it most certainly is not.

[2:10:44] I definitely blame the Woodland's land development company for building homes on

[2:10:51] a seismic faults, which become more on the spectrum of seismic when subsidencing

[2:10:58] creases because of the assets and most of the homes that are on fault lines in the

[2:11:05] Woodlands are north of a million dollars or they're at least in a million dollar

[2:11:08] neighborhoods and now they've been valued at maybe just $100,000.

[2:11:13] Because of that, though, they haven't installed, they being

[2:11:17] University of Houston has installed core stations,

[2:11:21] stands for continuously operating reference stations.

[2:11:25] So there is a line of core stations through the woodlands

[2:11:28] that show evidence that we have an area,

[2:11:33] a grob and a bowl that is sinking faster than the area around it.

[2:11:39] So they are the panther branch fault and basically the Jones fault and we are indeed experiencing

[2:11:44] flooding during heavy rain events in the woodlands.

[2:11:49] So the woodlands turns around and spends $15 million on a flood mitigation project in that area.

[2:11:55] What I heard here this morning is then the woodlands should sue SJRA for using ground water.

[2:12:06] And I also hear from scientists that groundwater extraction south of us is causing our subsides.

[2:12:14] Well, S.J.R.R.A. is an in-here-risk county pumping groundwater.

[2:12:19] To my knowledge, maybe they are for the creek side, but they're on 100% groundwater.

[2:12:24] Anyway, I don't have any questions.

[2:12:29] I've just learned that residents in Montgomery County are really S.O.L.

[2:12:36] And we've had a lot of acronyms, but I think we all learned that one before we got involved in groundwater.

[2:12:41] Thank you.

[2:12:43] Did you want to clarify anything on the side?

[2:12:48] There are things that can be done.

[2:12:51] What you'll point that you were talking about the faults is really parallel to the point

[2:12:55] that I was talking about about why GCDs don't manage the entire aquifer based on an individual

[2:13:01] or an individual situation because we all know that all properties are not created equally.

[2:13:07] You should watch the property rights presentation yesterday.

[2:13:10] were all the lawyers unanimously agreed that the aquifer should not be managed to

[2:13:14] to the shallow as well.

[2:13:16] There are other things that can be done from a permitting perspective to address that.

[2:13:21] There are things that can be done, but I think what people are asking is we want to start

[2:13:28] put a reduction in place to prevent this stuff from happening to my property that is happened

[2:13:33] to be built on a fault.

[2:13:35] And that a reduction in groundwater can occur in the absence of a mandate by the groundwater

[2:13:39] district. No one is asking or forcing people to produce groundwater in the

[2:13:44] women's. And my understanding when the meds in the women's water agency

[2:13:49] were, you know, faced with, do we want to take more surface water or more or

[2:13:54] maintain at the current level of groundwater, there's muds all voted to maintain

[2:13:58] at the current level of groundwater and not take more surface water. So these

[2:14:01] were decisions that are made by the people who are providing you public water and

[2:14:05] people who are providing new ground water.

[2:14:08] And so there are things that can be done that one star has a limit to the ability to

[2:14:13] accomplish, you know, zero subsidence in the woodlands.

[2:14:17] I'm not saying there weren't things that other things that can be done though.

[2:14:19] Well, I think it's also important to this touches on the culture within the county for conservation.

[2:14:27] I don't know the stats on the public water suppliers and the woodlands are a much

[2:14:31] type is being utilized. If any, I know there are a couple that deserve that recognition that

[2:14:38] are conservation forward and I don't know about your particular public bar suppliers or higher

[2:14:44] handling, rainwater harvesting barrels or systems or purple pipe or if you're taking advantage

[2:14:49] of any of that low-hanging fruit to help mitigate effects of continued groundwater use or like

[2:15:00] Head of Water Supplies are convincing the constituents within your region and your area to consider

[2:15:05] alternative water supplies and understand that that's going to be more expensive and make that

[2:15:09] decision to help lessen the really unfortunate situation of those homes that have been built

[2:15:16] on a fault that I think those are good conversations to bring up and I think they are local within

[2:15:21] your public water supplier to really bring those to the forefront, which I imagine you're doing, but

[2:15:26] We hope to be helping as well in the conservation front, so hopefully we'll see on the aggregate

[2:15:31] some assistance even on a small scale with that.

[2:15:34] And I do think that conservation is powerful and probably under appreciated, you know,

[2:15:41] I'm not a big fan of the first or the GOP that, I'm not a fan of the rule that required

[2:15:48] people to join a GOP because it was invalidated by a court, I think that's my position

[2:15:53] on that is clear that one thing that did come out of all of that is that, you know, there

[2:15:58] were, I can't remember how many 42 different GOPs or 36 different GOPs that were created

[2:16:05] and not just the S.J. or A.J. or P and that many of those single or double GOP participants

[2:16:15] were able to achieve the 30% reduction by sheer conservation. Like some golf courses got together

[2:16:22] and said we're going to make a two-person GOP and we're going to meet the 30% reduction because we're

[2:16:27] going to put in better irrigation. And so it can be accomplished, it's expensive, but they decided

[2:16:34] that it was cheaper to do that than to join another GOP that was going to make and pay GOP pumping

[2:16:38] fees for groundwater. So I can't remember how many of the original GOPs that were created

[2:16:45] accomplished the reduction by share conservation, but it was more than one.

[2:16:52] Mr. Baron?

[2:16:53] Good morning, thanks for the presentation, Phil Barren, my summary resident.

[2:17:01] I had a term that you folks are fighting the negligible or negligent subsidence, and that implies

[2:17:17] that there is a responsible subsidence, and I just wondered if you could draw a distinction

[2:17:24] or do you have a definition of one over the other?

[2:17:28] Good question and the law doesn't define

[2:17:31] negligently causing subsidence, but what we do have

[2:17:35] and this is why we continually compare

[2:17:36] to the society's districts.

[2:17:38] What we do have is the history of the society's districts,

[2:17:42] and we certainly don't think that they've been negligently

[2:17:44] allowing subsidence to occur.

[2:17:46] And so that's really a good benchmark from our perspective

[2:17:49] because there isn't any law on what that is,

[2:17:51] but what we do know is that there required

[2:17:53] and mandated by law to end subsidence, and they've done that in a way that they

[2:17:58] think complies with the law and then we've seen the contour maps.

[2:18:02] I think that also, Mr. Baron, as there, chapter 36, I think at Leaves Room, in my opinion

[2:18:11] on some terms, there's a lot of conversations surrounding waste as well, and what's wasteful,

[2:18:16] and what's beneficial use. And this is my first legislative session to participate

[2:18:21] But I can tell you there's a lot of contention on that word as well, which some consider

[2:18:26] low-hanging fruit, some things that could be considered waste and then some, I mean, a great deal

[2:18:31] of battle on that.

[2:18:32] So there's some holes in the definition that makes it in multiple words across this that we're

[2:18:38] supposed to understand and manage by, that make it really complicated for us to navigate.

[2:18:44] There's a great area in a lot of those terms.

[2:18:47] And that's I agree, right, or what's negligible subsidence, I don't know of any GCD that's

[2:18:53] allowing anyone to maliciously cause subsidence, but what does that look like, what does

[2:18:59] that mean?

[2:18:59] I think that's a fair question, similarly to waste.

[2:19:02] Well, the negligence standard is defined under the law like in other contexts like in

[2:19:08] in tort law, and the reasonable person's standard is what that is.

[2:19:13] So if you're doing something different, then what the ordinary person would do under the same

[2:19:18] or similar circumstances, then you're considered to be negligent.

[2:19:22] So that's really the only guidance we have on what negligence means, and that's a definition

[2:19:30] that's borrowed from tort law.

[2:19:34] So it's would, you know, in same or similar circumstances, and that's when we get to what

[2:19:38] is Harris Galveston doing, when they have tremendous growth, and they're supposed to be

[2:19:43] sending subsidence and GCDs are supposed to consider subsidence but not end it.

[2:19:48] So I look at them as what would a similar similar person do under the circumstances?

[2:19:57] I do.

[2:19:57] I do just want to drive home.

[2:19:58] I know we're talking about here as county a lot, simply because it is a benchmark for us

[2:20:03] to look at.

[2:20:04] It's a big history lesson for us, so I want to be clear that there's no intention to pick

[2:20:11] on them in any way.

[2:20:11] They've grown tremendously and they've had to grow on groundwater as the rest of the state is having to do so.

[2:20:18] It's just, it is directly blows and packs us.

[2:20:20] We impact them and it's our history lesson.

[2:20:24] So I don't know where we are on time.

[2:20:26] I think we're a little bit over but I want to give if there's any more questions.

[2:20:29] I want to give you an opportunity to ask while we have the consultants and the specialists here.

[2:20:35] We did bring them here for you.

[2:20:43] But seven down the woodlands, what does I thank so much to on the start, pulling this meeting together,

[2:20:51] and being very transparent, I think you've all been very direct.

[2:20:56] But I just would like you guys to confirm your direction and make sure there's no misunderstanding on what's important to you and where you're going.

[2:21:06] So I don't know whether you'd like to provide a summary, you'd like me to do Q&A and test what I heard.

[2:21:12] Well, I think I would be the one to answer that question for the district and I want to be easy with it because I'm speaking for the board.

[2:21:21] My understanding of where this board wants to go is to follow the best available science to really work within our budget to make sure that we increase our science.

[2:21:31] There are initiatives for aggressive conservation efforts and dollars to be spent on that as well as more GPS stations and a software potentially that we could within district utilize.

[2:21:42] to have real-time data on subsidence to continue to work with our technical consultants and make sure they have the information that they need to help us understand a lot of level decline and our well-monitoring network and to really the direction I've been given as to follow the science.

[2:22:01] Whatever we need to do from Montgomery County is what we will need to do, but we're going to follow the science.

[2:22:07] So you have a great board of directors that's then, you know, they're very open in conversation with me.

[2:22:14] They don't leave me in any particular direction. They ask more than they tell.

[2:22:19] And so, you know, my goals and initiatives for the District in 2026 is A.

[2:22:30] Aggressively move into conservation action and grab the low-hanging fruit and mitigate what we can and create a better culture of conservation in Montgomery County.

[2:22:40] Even though we have a prolific aquifer, again, that's why we don't talk about storage often because it can lead to a misconception that you don't need to conserve and that's false.

[2:22:51] We want to keep having more public conversations with you being out, more transparent, allowing

[2:22:57] more spaces like this to answer these questions and just keep improving the science.

[2:23:05] I think that would, I feel confident saying that's the direction that the board wants

[2:23:09] to go.

[2:23:10] We're not slowing down the growth of Montgomery County if that's the question.

[2:23:15] If that's part of what you're asking there.

[2:23:18] I don't know, that's not in our regulatory authority.

[2:23:21] We don't offer, or operate offer off of groundwater availability certificates in this county

[2:23:27] and that's a legislative decision that was made in some areas.

[2:23:31] They have to go through the resources first and Montgomery County, the Commissioner's Court

[2:23:36] is going to approve development before an application ever hits my desk, which is a route

[2:23:41] of the problem in my opinion.

[2:23:44] But

[2:23:50] I'm not sure you mean by that, I'm not trying to be, I have no, I'm here.

[2:23:55] Did you want to give her a microphone so that it can be on, can't we have Ms. Norton,

[2:24:02] we don't know anything. I'm sorry, speak over me.

[2:24:05] I was just recognizing if we could go through a recording of what just transpired is you

[2:24:12] We're starting to anticipate what he was going to say and I think we could just let him say it.

[2:24:20] I'm sorry.

[2:24:21] I did not really mean to interrupt, I just, I've been sitting here, I'm really cold and

[2:24:26] I forgot my salt pills and I just wanted to move it along and it has been sorry.

[2:24:31] I can get chat in, I apologize for that, that's true, and that's the only one I should

[2:24:35] As far as what I think I've heard, the movement of science, the amendment to conservation is conservation part of your legislative priority, or preview, are you able to dictate conservation?

[2:24:49] I can't force you into it now.

[2:24:51] Right.

[2:24:51] It's not something you're going to implement.

[2:24:54] No, that's not true.

[2:24:55] We are going to implement it.

[2:24:56] It's not forced.

[2:24:58] You mean by regulation?

[2:24:59] No.

[2:24:59] I will not be coming to the public water suppliers and saying you must institute for a pipe.

[2:25:03] So let's talk about what you do implement, which is the desire of the future condition.

[2:25:08] So everything I heard today, applied or was pretty transparent,

[2:25:13] but you expect to have unknown the pump thing going forward in the government County.

[2:25:17] Is that true?

[2:25:20] Unlimited pumping is not, I know.

[2:25:24] We have hydrogeologic impact analysis and we have spacing restrictions.

[2:25:31] You expect the VCF to come down the future?

[2:25:37] I didn't understand the question, do I expect the pumping to slow down?

[2:25:41] No, the DCF become down.

[2:25:43] Yes.

[2:25:43] The FMVF, sorry.

[2:25:45] No, I imagine population will continue to grow and we're gonna have to continue to look

[2:25:51] at the state.

[2:25:52] Just as the state is doing, we follow similar patterns and GMAs.

[2:25:56] The state water plan, they are constantly looking forward, I think, between 20 and 25 years

[2:26:03] and it's always with an expectancy of growth.

[2:26:05] and finding strategies to manage more and more water usage.

[2:26:10] As far as I know, the state is not anticipating any slow-down and population growth in the state,

[2:26:16] and we are not either in this county.

[2:26:18] I think that answers you.

[2:26:20] Well, you mix overall water growth with groundwater growth,

[2:26:25] which is what your responsibility is, groundwater only.

[2:26:29] To expect groundwater usage to continue to grow in Montgomery County,

[2:26:33] Unlimited for the foreseeable future.

[2:26:36] I do expect to grow on groundwater in the foreseeable future in Montgomery County. Yes.

[2:26:43] Both yesterday and today there was a lot of talk about managing to the shallow as well.

[2:26:50] I would like to say, I think within Montgomery County, you need to realize it's not a matter of a single shallow well.

[2:26:57] It's a matter of widespread wells that have significant drop in the sheet and level.

[2:27:05] So, you know, feedback right here for me guys is, if you're well-levels dropping, that's

[2:27:10] not a problem.

[2:27:11] If you have some guidance, that's not a problem.

[2:27:14] Our primary goal is to boost every gallon of groundwater that's requested of us.

[2:27:21] And I appreciate you being transparent and understand that.

[2:27:25] So, thanks so much.

[2:27:27] Thank you.

[2:27:30] Okay.

[2:27:30] We're wrapping up on time here, but I don't want to limit anyone if you have any additional questions.

[2:27:38] Does it look like there's any more hands?

[2:27:40] First, I just really want to say thank you to our technical consultants and our legal consultant who do not have to do this by the way.

[2:27:48] And they have been very gracious to offer their time and hopefully answer some questions and provide some clarity on

[2:27:58] the direction of the district and how we evaluate DFCs and all kinds of other things.

[2:28:03] So thank you so much for taking the time and being here today for this county.

[2:28:07] Again, this will be recorded online.

[2:28:10] So if you want to go back and look at this presentation or these conversations.

[2:28:15] And thank you again for taking time out of your day to join us and attend.

[2:28:19] And we really appreciate it.

[2:28:20] We hope that this was beneficial to you in some way.

[2:28:23] Thank you.

Sep 18, 2025 Open Forum for Public Water Suppliers - Lone Star Groundwater Conservation

Agenda

Transcript