President’s Letter February 18th, 2026

Published by President Posting at February 18, 2026

Supporting Documentation

President’s Letter

Since my last President’s letter, we held our Annual General Meeting on January 16. I was pleased with the attendance, the questions, and the feedback about the lake area residents’ biggest concerns. Many thanks to those that made donations to the LCA and those that became LCA voting members or renewed their membership.

The questions and discussions focused mostly on three biggest concerns. They were 2024 flooding and limited SJRA explanations, water wastage due to prerelease lowering and the negative impact on water supplies, and finally the SJRA’s recent tripling of the permitted diversion rate with minimal notice and no public review of the details. The AGM meeting minutes and the slides presented are on the LCA website for those that could not attend.

Before addressing the biggest issue currently facing Lake Conroe water resources, I want to provide an update on the most recent Hydrilla surveys and plans to address the areas with the biggest increase. In short, the latest Hydrilla survey taken in Fall 2025 showed an approximate 20% increase in coverage. Fortunately, it is still limited mostly to the northern portion of the lake, but it is quite bad in some areas. The LCA participated in a review on February 9th with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), SJRA, several homeowners, and several anglers representing multiple fishing clubs. It was a great example of how open discussion on critical issues leads to mutually agreed solutions. The meeting summary and slides will be on the LCA website by February 23rd.

I now want to address the San Jacinto River Authority’s (SJRA) lack of transparency on the increased diversion rate and on recently discovered 2025 communications which prove that the SJRA and CoH is working on plans to continue lowering without any further public review before being implemented.

In the original TCEQ filing the SJRA stated the increased diversion rate will only be used for permitted beneficial use which currently does not include flood mitigation prereleases. Yet in at least three public meetings the SJRA GM has indicated the increased rate is needed for rain event prerelease lowering. Further concerning is another statement made by the SJRA GM in the January SJRA Board meeting that “using the higher diversion rate will not be up to the SJRA but instead will be entirely up to a City of Houston (CoH) decision to initiate prerelease lowering. ”

It could be argued that is why we saw flooding in April / May 2024 as the SJRA did not initiate prereleases on its own (they actually don’t support prerelease if it is their water being diverted) and instead they waited on the CoH to initiate prereleases possibly expecting CoH to worry more about Lake Conroe flooding 30 miles upstream – but apparently it was not a CoH concern.

Late last Fall the LCA filed a Public Information Request of the TCEQ to confirm that the TCEQ had not issued any authorization for prerelease rain event diversions at any time since 2020. We did confirm there is no current authorization for prerelease. In the large file set obtained by the LCA two documents from the PIR provide clear evidence that:

The CoH and SJRA, since at least February 2025, have been asking the TCEQ how to classify rain event prereleases from Lake Conroe as beneficial use to comply with the existing water permit so the permit did not have to be amended publicly and to, take this action without any public review of this major change in water use and, obtain TCEQ confirmation that the prerelease volumes will not be classified as waste. Even though the volumes would not be physically used and would be fully discharged to the Gulf from Lake Houston during lowering operations.

This makes it abundantly clear that the SJRA and CoH are seeking approval out of the public view to make prerelease a permanent option even though they have promised since 2018 that prerelease was a temporary program.

This nonpublic review and approval process is unacceptable for a state or municipal entity. Lake Conroe lowering programs have always had widespread public input due to the conflicting impacts and questionable effectiveness.

We provided these PIR documents to the SJRA Board in late January and are expecting an explanation in the February 25th Board meeting. If we do not get adequate answers we will be asking LCA members to send letters to the SJRA, TCEQ, and the Governor condemning this breach of public trust and due process. Further actions are likely.

Stay tuned for further information.

Kevin Lacy -President of the Lake Conroe Association

[email protected]