As The Woodlands copes with sinking ground, flooding risks and continued growth, stakeholders in the suburb north of Houston are reconvening a task force to delve into water-related issues and help ensure future sustainability.
The Woodlands Township voted last week to appoint a representative to the One Water Task Force, which it initially created in 2016 in the aftermath of two major flooding events. The group subsequently expanded in size and scope, to cover matters related to subsidence and water supply in addition to drainage, before the town’s elected board of directors allowed it to lapse at the end of 2021.
As a new Atlantic hurricane season begins, there is a renewed interest in reconstituting the task force among township leaders and the Woodlands Water Agency, which oversees 10 municipal utility districts (MUDs) that serve about 120,000 residents. There are no urgent problems that need to be addressed, according to Woodlands Water general manager Erich Peterson, who said the idea is to be proactive and “work together as a community so we can solve whatever issues come around when they come around.”
“The focus now in my view is to look at water as a whole, not just drainage and flooding but water source,” he added. “Of course, water source translates to ground surface water, which translates to subsidence, which some have linked to drainage issues with greater subsidence.”
Those issues are not directly under the purview of The Woodlands Township or Woodlands Water, with statutory authority over drainage and groundwater systems vested primarily in the MUDs, the San Jacinto River Authority and the governments for Harris and Montgomery counties, according to the township. Each of those entities was part of the previous version of the One Water Task Force, which at one point included more than 60 members representing 40-plus organizations.
The task force helped lead to the development of the San Jacinto Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan, the Spring Creek Flood Control Dams Feasibility Study and state legislation related to flood mitigation and flood infrastructure funding, according to The Woodlands Township. The new version of the task force is being coordinated by Woodlands Water, which wants the group to focus on public education, long-term water supply, collaboration on aquifer management and promoting regionwide solutions.
Peterson said it’s early in the process of putting together the new task force, which would theoretically include the aforementioned stakeholders as well as others. The Woodlands’ board of directors also discussed the possibility of eventually enlisting an advisor with both water and political expertise who could serve in a lobbying capacity, with director Brad Bailey saying during last Wednesday’s meeting, “There’s nothing more political than water, so having an advisor on that is probably a very, very good idea.”
Cindy Heiser, the director for District 7, was appointed as the township’s representative for the reforming task force in a near unanimous vote. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who served as alternate chair on the previous task force, abstained from voting, saying she wanted more information.
Heiser said her role on the task force will be serving the interests of The Woodlands residents.
“Our community is aging, too, so I’m sure there will be some discussion about updating infrastructure and communicating with residents why certain thing are being done,” she said.
Along with the Houston region as a whole, The Woodlands experienced significant flooding during the Memorial Day flood in 2015, the Tax Day flood in 2016 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The Woodlands also was found to have sunk by 9 centimeters between 2016-20, according to a 2022 geographical analysis by the University of Houston.
Heiser said flood-mitigation initiatives since those aforementioned events figure to have alleviated some of the risk, and another major drainage project already is in the works. The San Jacinto River Authority, a government agency tasked with developing and conserving water resources in Montgomery County and parts of six other counties in the region, announced in February it had received federal grant funding for a $5 million plan to rehabilitate the Bear Branch Dam and reservoir.
“We believe it is important to increase public awareness and interest in the areas of water supply, flooding, drainage and subsidence,” Peterson wrote in a March 18 letter to The Woodlands Township Board of Directors. “It is of the utmost importance that local agencies and private interests work together for the common good of the community and take responsibility to develop solutions for funding and develop political support to assist with these efforts. We recognize that no one entity has direct authority itself to accomplish these goals alone.”
