LCA President’s Update – September 12, 2025

Published by President Posting at September 12, 2025

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We recently came to conclude that one of our biggest ongoing concerns since 2019 is becoming a reality. That concern is that the promised “temporary” periodic lowering of Lake Conroe, started in 2018 for flood mitigation, is now becoming permanent.

Notice: All applicable documentation can be found at the bottom of the update.

The lowering program in its various forms has wasted almost 50 billion gallons since 2018 and no longer exists as an agreed written protocol since January 2025. Our conclusion is the recent filing by the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) and City of Houston (CoH) with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is step one of a non-public effort for approval to continue lowering indefinitely as a year-round Active Storm Management (ASM) program. Lowering Lake Conroe via prerelease for flood mitigation still has no supporting technical basis nor any written guidelines on how and when lowering for flood mitigation will be initiated. Any release for non-authorized flood mitigation is a violation of the existing water permit. The recent SJRA / CoH filing states all diverted water, at the much higher rate, would be beneficially used – that is physically impossible.

Several relevant questions for you to consider:

Did you know the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) has filed a request with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to triple the release rate from 700cfs to 2000 cfs from the Lake Conroe dam when the lake is at normal pool level (201’)?
Would you be concerned if you knew the increased release rate was so large the Lake Conroe water level would drop by 6” in 42 hours? That is 1.3 billion gallons per day.
Would you be concerned if you knew the volume released in one day at this new higher rate is 18 times greater than the average daily municipal water withdrawal at Lake Houston? So how can all this water released be used, and not wasted?
Would you be concerned if the SJRA and CoH request to the TCEQ was made with no intent to hold any public reviews or hearings on the requested change?
Oh, and one unrelated but important development – did you know if you own property on Lake Conroe or near the lake at an elevation of 207’ or below you may have to spend $2000-3000 to rectify an SJRA easement encroachment before selling your property?

If any or all these things concern you, please read further as the Lake Conroe Association is in action on these issues on your behalf and needs your support.

No progress with the SJRA and CoH has been made in 2025 about our concerns regarding the 2.4 billion gallons of water released by the 2024 Active Storm Management (ASM) Program. The LCA met with the TCEQ about these concerns on April 8th. Our presentation to TCEQ focused on how the LCA concluded that none of the 2.4 billion gallons were used beneficially (1) and therefore was a permit violation. The LCA then filed a formal complaint with TCEQ on July 25 about the 2024 ASM releases (2).

On July 17th, the SJRA and CoH submitted to the TCEQ (3) a request to amend the Lake Conroe Certificate of Adjudication No. 10-4963 for a higher release rate of 2000 cfs. This certificate allocates the surface water owned by the State of Texas via an annual water use permit to the SJRA (1/3) and CoH (2/3) for 100,000-acre feet (32.6 billion gal) to be used exclusively for four beneficial uses – municipal, industrial, agricultural, and mining. Any other use such as releases for flood mitigation is a violation of the 10-4963 water permit.

This SJRA / CoH request for the higher release rate was not subject to any public notification and the LCA sent a letter of objection (4) to the TCEQ on July 25th.

The basis of our objection is this higher release rate is not needed as the current maximum daily release rate of 700 cfs already provides the CoH six times the daily water use intake at Lake Houston. A tripling of that rate to 2000 cfs would result in a volume eighteen times
the daily water use intake at Lake Houston assuring 95% or more would be wasted. The most relevant pages of the filing (5) and the 73-page document (3) is on the LCA website.

In our view the COH and SJRA are requesting this increased rate to be able to rapidly lower the lake as part of a yet to be documented or approved flood mitigation program that would continue to violate the existing water permit and State water law.

Finally, in the SJRA July 24 Board meeting a proposal to settle encroachment issues – intentional and unintentional – by landowners was approved. Nothing is found on the SJRA website but one of our Board members requested the SJRA presentation to help residents
get the information they need to see if they are affected and then what to do if they are (6).

All documents noted as 1-6 in this letter can be found below:

Lastly, we appreciate your support. All that we ask right now is that you become familiar with the issues we are addressing. We do expect to hold several LCA Townhalls soon and when next actions are clear we will ask for your participation in support of our efforts.