8/20/25 – Everyone understands the need for financial audits; they prevent fraud. But what about performance audits? They can prevent waste. Yet how many government agencies routinely audit the implementation of plans they adopt?

Vermont Failed to Implement Half of Priorities in Emergency Plan

In Vermont last year, the state audited its performance in achieving its five-year hazard-mitigation plan. According to the Associated Press story, the plan is developed by Vermont Emergency Management every five years to identify natural hazards facing the state and take steps to reduce risk, including flooding risk.

But an audit released last year after a major flood found that only a third of the 96 actions, and half of the priority actions in the 2018 plan had been completed. Had flood-mitigation measures been completed in a timely manner, the audit says, communities affected by the floods would have been better able to withstand them.

State lawmakers said they were gravely concerned over the lack of progress. “The findings in this report are shocking and deeply troubling,” one said.

The director of the State’s Emergency Management Department called the plan “aspirational.”

But the audit focused on missed opportunities that could have lessened the severity of the floods, such as improved building codes, that would have helped communities recover faster. That sounds pretty practical to me.

Improved Harris County Building Codes Reduced Flood Damage 20X

A study by a former Harris County Engineer John Blount found subdivisions built to new, higher building codes before Hurricane Harvey experienced 20 times less damage than those that weren’t. Building codes are updated internationally every year, but Texas last updated its building codes in 2021.

New Floodplain Maps Years Past Due

Everyone agrees on the need for updated flood maps based on Atlas 14. But Harris County’s are years behind schedule. And some counties still base their flood maps on data acquired in the 1980s. In the meantime, people keep building and buying in floodplains based on outdated information. And one in every five Texans lives in a floodplain. Are we creating the conditions for future disasters?

Plans Without Financial Pathways

Why do we continually build plans that are not actionable? That are so long, no one can read or remember them?

• We spent seven years building a state flood plan. It has a $54.5 billion price tag. But since 2019, the state legislature has allocated only $1.4 billion to the state’s Flood Infrastructure Fund.
• Houston’s Resilience Plan? Just five years after its introduction, it’s now a maze of dead links and appears to have virtually disappeared from the web.
• Harris County’s Flood Bond? Eight years into a ten year plan that’s 40% complete, HCFCD’s executive director claims they are $1.3 billion short already, but has been trying for months to explain why.
• Ike Dike? Hurricane Ike struck Houston in 2008. Congress approved the project in 2022. The Corps estimated the cost at $57 billion in 2023. TWDB is still studying ways to break it down into bite sized chunks.
• Flood Tunnels? In 2022, HCFCD produced a 1,860 page study projecting the cost for eight to be $30 billion. We’re still studying pilot projects on that one.
• In the summer of 2020, the San Jacinto River Authority, City of Houston, Montgomery County and Harris County Flood Control District released a 3,600 page study about how to reduce flooding in the San Jacinto River Basin. At the time, it had a $3.3 billion price tag. So far, the partners have not constructed one recommendation.

We Need More of a Business Mentality in Government

In my opinion, we need less nonsense and more commonsense. Who would accept a position with a job description that’s 3,600 pages long? Or a monumental list of deliverables without any budget?

It’s good to dream. But we need government leaders who know how to produce results on a budget. Just like business leaders do.

Perhaps performance auditors can help us turn that around.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/20/25

2913 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 6183 since Ike

8/17/2025 – Three scientists have summarized more than 100 years of studies about the relationship of groundwater and land subsidence in the Houston region. The study’s title: “A Century (1906-2024) of Groundwater and Land Subsidence Studies in Greater Houston Region: A Review.” The review revealed some stunning facts about past groundwater management practices in the Houston area and their implications for the future.

About the Study

The comprehensive 25-page review of scientific literature is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the history of geologic subsidence in southeast Texas. The review examines its causes, impacts, regulatory remedies, and how it’s measured.

The authors are Michael J, Turco and Ashley Greuter of the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, and Dr. Guoquan Wang of the University of Houston’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. They published their copyrighted article in the July/August 2025 issue of Groundwater on behalf of the National Groundwater Association.

Stunning Facts

In the study, the authors relate some fascinating facts about subsidence in the Houston region. For instance:

• Subsidence has impacted approximately 12,000 square kilometers, encompassing nearly all of Harris and Galveston Counties as well as parts of surrounding counties.
• This led to the irreversible loss of 12 cubic kilometers of groundwater storage – equivalent to 60 times the volume of Lake Houston.
• That equals 8 years worth of water usage for all of Harris and Galveston Counties (at 2023 consumption rates).

That’s significant because groundwater is our backup for surface water during droughts. And who can forget the three-year drought from 2011 to 2013 when you could virtually walk from one side of Lake Houston to the other in many places.

Due to groundwater regulations, the extent of subsidence rates has decreased significantly since 1990. By the early 2020s, the areas seeing subsidence of greater than 1 cm per year had shrunk to one twentieth of the Houston region (1500 square kilometers). And only 50 square kilometers have rates higher than 2 cm/year.

Today, most of the remaining subsidence exists in the fast growing areas to the region’s north and west, which were the last to be regulated.

History of Subsidence in Region

According to Turco et. al., the earliest documented instance of subsidence happened in Baytown’s Goose Creek Oil Field during the 1920s.

From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, rapid subsidence, occurring at rates of up to a decimeter per year, became increasingly pronounced in the southeastern parts of Houston

Declining groundwater levels (GWLs), driven by rapid industrial expansion, resulted in over 2 meters of subsidence in the area along the Houston Ship Channel from the 1940s to the mid-1970s.  By 1979, as much as 3 meters of subsidence had been documented in the Baytown area.

Since the 1990s, as Houston’s population expanded to the north and northwest groundwater pumping triggered subsidence. Areas around Katy, Jersey Village, and The Woodlands experienced subsidence rates of 1 to 3 cm per year as of the early 2020s.

Striking a balance between groundwater resource management, subsidence, urban development, and environmental sustainability is central to the Houston region’s future. The paper explores how regulatory initiatives have influenced current practices and policies as leaders seek to reduce and prevent subsidence.

Evolution of Regulatory Agencies

A large part of the paper deals with how regulatory entities have expanded their geographic scope to keep pace with population growth. The paper includes discussions of:

• The Harris-Galveston Subsidence District (HGSD) in 1975
• Updates to its groundwater regulatory plan in 1985, 1992, 1999, and 2013
• Different regulatory areas within the Houston region
• Fort Bend Subsidence District (FBSD) in 1989
• Seven additional groundwater conservation districts covering most of the counties in the region.

Evolution of Monitoring Technology

Technology aficionados will appreciate the discussion of techniques used to monitor both groundwater levels and surface subsidence.

HGSD, in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey, monitors water levels and pumping rates in 650 wells throughout the region. HCSD also annually monitors groundwater pumpage from all permitted wells within the District (about 7500 wells in 2024).

As more water is extracted, clay layers in the soil become compacted. A former leader of the subsidence district once described it as “squashing a brownie.” Once compacted, it will not return to its former state.

The effects of subsidence are most notable closest to sea level. We can see them in the loss of highways, subdivisions, wetlands, vulnerability to storm surge, and more.

However, even areas a 100 feet or more above sea level can feel the impacts. Differential subsidence can trigger faults, disrupt pipelines, alter the gradient of streams, and create bowls in the landscape that increase flood risk.

Prior to the 1990s, subsidence was tracked through repeated spirit-leveling surveys and extensometers. However, since then, GPS has emerged as the dominant tool for measuring subsidence. It offers greater precision and more efficiency than conventional methods.

HGSD and FBSD operate approximately 114 subsidence measuring stations that use GPS. And they continuously add new stations to areas of interest.

They also use Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to create detailed displacement maps over time. InSAR is especially good at filling in the gaps between the GPS measuring stations to create contour maps.

The scientists also use tidal gages and borehole extensometers to cross-reference data and extend the historical record of subsidence.

Major Discoveries

According to the authors, “Before the 1960s, the connection between groundwater extraction and subsidence was not immediately evident. Other factors, such as oil and gas extraction and local fault activity, were also considered significant contributors.”

They continue, “However, as evidence from ground-water-level measurements grew, and subsidence increasingly led to infrastructure damage and altered drainage patterns, it became clear that groundwater withdrawal was the primary driver of land subsidence.” 

Oil and gas extraction and fault movement were also considered serious contributors at one time. “However, as evidence from groundwater level measurements grew, and subsidence increasingly led to infrastructure damage and altered drainage patterns, it became clear that groundwater withdrawal was the primary driver of land subsidence,” say the authors.

Another major discovery was that subsidence-induced compaction of the soil has led to the loss of groundwater storage capacity.

“The volume of total land subsidence directly correlates with the loss of groundwater storage capacity,” says the paper. “Groundwater is a crucial backup supply for maintaining water security in large cities, and with decreased storage, the risk of water shortages grows, potentially impacting agricultural productivity, industrial operations, and daily life for residents.”

New Focus on Sustainability

In conclusion, the authors state, “As Houston’s population continues to grow, the increasing demand for water underscores the urgent need for sustainable water sources that extend beyond the current groundwater and surface water capacities. To address this, HGSD, FBSD, and GCDs are intensifying efforts in water conservation and exploring alternative water solutions, actively engaging local stakeholders.”

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/17/25

2910 Days since Hurricane Harvey

8/12/2025 – The San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) will hold a special meeting of its board of directors on Friday, August 15, 2025, at 10 AM. It will be held at the SJRA’s Administration building at 1577 Dam Site Road, Conroe, TX.

Directors will consider one item in executive session – settlement of its lawsuit against the City of Conroe. The dispute concerns Conroe’s Groundwater Reduction Plan contract with the SJRA.

To provide public comment, you must appear in person. However, you can still watch the meeting via the Internet here.

Case Began in 2016

The case began nine years ago in 2016.

Several years earlier, SJRA developed a Groundwater Reduction Plan to reduce the demands on the Gulf Coast Aquifer system made by a fast growing population in Montgomery County. Growth was depleting aquifers and lowering water levels in wells faster than water was being replaced.

So, SJRA signed contracts with a number of municipalities to help migrate them to surface water. But that required SJRA to build a surface water treatment plant at Lake Conroe. To do that, the SJRA sold bonds totaling $550 million, which it is now trying to repay.

But Conroe and other municipalities balked at the price of SJRA water. And they began pumping cheaper groundwater while disputing evidence of subsidence.

It’s hard to track developments in this case because it has moved back and forth from Montgomery County District Court to the Ninth Judicial Court of Appeals in Beaumont and the Texas Supreme Court several times.

Many of the appeals are on limited aspects of the case. In 2020, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that Conroe could not invoke governmental immunity against the SJRA. Their ruling provides a good summary of the issues in the case at that time.

Case Still Not Decided in Second Trip to Supreme Court

The litigants later went into mediation. That didn’t produce a settlement, so the parties started appealing various aspects of the arbitration. Eventually, the case circled back around to the Supreme Court of Texas in 2024.

Justice Busby delivered the opinion of the court at that time. In the first paragraph, he signaled judicial impatience. As if speaking to a third party about the SJRA and Conroe, Busby wrote “So far, their taxpayers and ratepayers have been funding only procedural and jurisdictional skirmishes distantly related to the merits of the dispute.”

The Supreme Court sided with SJRA on several limited issues and remanded the case back to the trial court for additional deliberations. Again.

In 2022, various parties owed the SJRA close to $30 million. This is one of those cases where neither side can afford to lose and the lawyers have every incentive to keep it going.

Subsidence Continues as Case Continues

It will be interesting to see what happens Friday.

In the meantime, I’ve spoken to more residents of the Woodlands whose homes and lives are being undermined by subsidence-related faulting. But more on that in a future post.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/12/2025

2905 Days since Hurricane Harvey