Does anyone know this water bill fee? (Houston, Galveston: 2013, lawyers)

[optimumx]

Hi all.. I'm new here. Looks like a nice community .

I was wondering if someone could explain, in plain english, what the 'North Harris County Regional Water Authority' (nhcrwa.com) does.

Does the RWA fee that shows up on the water bill refer to them? And how is that fee calculated?

I would really appreciate your responses. Thanks.

[elnina]

Effective January 1, 2010
the groundwater fee is $1.75/1,000 gallons and
the surface water fee is $2.20/1,000 gallons

You can call/email them with your question:
North Harris County Regional Water Authority
3648 FM 1960 West, Suite 110
Houston, Texas 77068
Phone: 281-440-3924 - Fax: 281-440-4104
NHCRWA - North Harris County Regional Water Authority - Houston, Harris County, Texas

Well Pumpage Fees - NHCRWA - North Harris County Regional Water Authority - Houston, Harris County, Texas

[crone]

A decree went out that due to subsidence and the draining of the aquifers, we should switch to surface water. No more sticking a pipe in the ground to get water. There was an election and the NHCRWA was created. They sell bonds to install a water distribution system to get water from Lake Houston as far west as 290. The cost of paying for this is what you see on your water bill. The cost inched up a little at a time until it reach something noticeable on our bills. My water was $15, sewer $8 and the NHCRWA tax was $75.00. When your water district can no longer provide water and you switch to these guys, your own MUD bonds will still be need to be paid. I calculate that we are paying around $200.00 a month for water and sewer. And those folks in Houston are B-- about water bills going up. We do get to elect a person to their board. DH calls it the Jon Lindsay tax.

[optimumx]

Originally Posted by elnina

Effective January 1, 2010
the groundwater fee is $1.75/1,000 gallons and
the surface water fee is $2.20/1,000 gallons

You can call/email them with your question:
North Harris County Regional Water Authority
3648 FM 1960 West, Suite 110
Houston, Texas 77068
Phone: 281-440-3924 - Fax: 281-440-4104
NHCRWA - North Harris County Regional Water Authority - Houston, Harris County, Texas

Well Pumpage Fees - NHCRWA - North Harris County Regional Water Authority - Houston, Harris County, Texas

Are you kidding me? They're literally right around the corner from me. Thanks for your response, elnina.

Originally Posted by crone

My water was $15, sewer $8 and the NHCRWA tax was $75.00.

Thanks for your response, crone.

Does everyone pay the exact same fee amount, regardless of water usage? For example, your water was $15, your NHCRWA fee was $75... our water was $66, and NHCRWA fee was also $75.

[tdhg566]

Originally Posted by crone

A decree went out that due to subsidence and the draining of the aquifers, we should switch to surface water...

This is happening all over. I live in Spring and my MUD (Rayford Road) just joined the San Jacinto River Authority effort to replace some ground water with surface water. A small tax (nothing close to $75) will be levied starting in August and passed through to consumers. Each authority has a different implementation strategy, costs, etc. The strategy here is to equalize the additional/new impact (not the actual water bill the consumer pays) on the West and East sides of I-45 so that the West side will use more surface water, theoretically leaving more ground water for those still using wells. Future phases will expand the surface water delivery to more areas.

[crone]

The NHCRWA tax is based on usage. I rounded up. It varies along with the amount used.

[Colliefeathers]

The RWA fee doesn't seem to vary according to the water usage. My water usage was the same. March, April and May of 2013 and the RWA fee went from $3.70 to $20 within those months. So from what this forum is saying, I can expect this to go even higher. Wow. I'm in Katy.

[War Beagle]

The subsidence business started in Harris and Galveston counties but is now moving into the surrounding ones too. It's now well entrenched in Fort Bend County.

While there is definitely subsidence going on, the way the subsidence districts and water authorities are run don't always pass the smell test. Sometimes it seems that a more plausible explanation is that certain business interests lobbied the legislature to pass laws that make water more like other tradeable commodities. Can't make as much money when any old schmoe is allowed to dig a hole in the ground to access water.

[crone]

Originally Posted by War Beagle

The subsidence business started in Harris and Galveston counties but is now moving into the surrounding ones too. It's now well entrenched in Fort Bend County.

While there is definitely subsidence going on, the way the subsidence districts and water authorities are run don't always pass the smell test. Sometimes it seems that a more plausible explanation is that certain business interests lobbied the legislature to pass laws that make water more like other tradeable commodities. Can't make as much money when any old schmoe is allowed to dig a hole in the ground to access water.

Those MUD guys needed another source of income. Another way into our pockets for the lawyers, engineers and accountants.

[nervouslaughter]

While some of the information in this thread is helpful, other pieces are inaccurate. Despite what you may think, MUDs are not pocking the fees related to the regional water authority fees. Those fees go to protect your water supply for the future, and the MUDs turn around and write giant checks each month to the regional water authorities.

My information relates to the North Fort Bend Water Authority, but all of the regional water authorities are structured in a similar fashion. The state of Texas made a mandate that the Houston area decrease its reliance on groundwater due to the subsidence it was causing (look at Jersey Village for instance). Please note that this mandate was unfunded, so cities and MUDs have to comply without any funding from the state.

In order to facilitate this process, the legislature created subsidence districts such as the Fort Bend Subsidence District as regulatory entities. The Fort Bend Subsidence District requires entities (cities and MUDs) within its boundaries to implement a groundwater reduction plan and convert to a percentage of surface water by certain dates. If they do not, the people within their boundaries will face penalty fees of $6.50 per 10,000 gallons used on top of their other water charges (this penalty is an ever-moving target that continues to rise). Given that the current surface water rate in North Fort Bend Water Authority is $2.15, failure to convert would be much more costly and multiply your bill by approximately 3 times what you see now.

This conversion requires building expensive distribution systems and obtaining surface water from other entities. The process is incredibly expensive, costing millions upon millions of dollars. MUDs are not set up to handle such a financial burden, so the water authorities, including North Fort Bend Water Authority, were created by the state legislature to group entities together so the Authority could build the system and have the cost efficiencies of working on a larger scale.

While water rates have unarguably sky-rocketed and it hurts everyone's pocketbooks, the reality is that in order to comply with the law, this is the most cost efficient way to do so. Since the legislature did not provide money to complete the transition, that burden falls on taxpayers. Further, Texas just does not have enough water given the state-wide population projections. It is a finite resource, and the days of cheap water are gone. In order to plan for the future, upgrade horribly outdated systems, and comply with government mandates, the MUDs and cities are merely doing their best.