LCA President’s Update & Supporting Documentation – January 2, 2025

Supporting Documentantion

Please find directly below all of the supporting documentations for the January 2nd, 2025 President’s Update.

1. Full LCA Summary of SJRA CoH Req for Increased Diversion Rate and LCA Letters of Objection
2. Highlighted 14 of the most important pages from 73 page SJRA filing for increased diversion rate
3. FINAL LCA MTO Opposing the Incr Div Rate with attachments (1)
4. Tripling Div Rate 73 page application to the TCEQ from SJRA and CoH
5. Dec 11 Letter to SJRA GM to be forwarded to the SJRA Directors for review and action
6. Why did the TCEQ approve the increased diversion rate request despite the LCA objections

Kevin Lacy’s Full President Update

Thank you to those who responded to my most recent letter with donations and questions. Apologies that our website went down Tuesday but it was quickly restarted. With my last letter, you will find two letters from State Representative Will Metcalf now on our website.

In this letter I want to address our concerns about the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) lack of transparency on recent actions and who we have asked to intervene.

But first I want to comment on the unusually low lake levels we are experiencing this time of year and the reasons. It is not due to flood mitigation lowering as thankfully there has been none in 2025 – we are in moderate drought. Today at 199.9 feet msl the lake is only 2.4 inches higher than our lowest level in 2025. We typically recover from low summer levels with November and December rain but not this year. The 2.4-inch level increase compares to 9 inches of level recovery / increase by year end in 2024.

The SJRA withdrawal rate for local water supplies on January 1 was over 16 million gallons a day. This significant volume negatively impacts levels when we have lower than average rainfall. At this daily required water supply volume, which will grow, any future unnecessary waste of Lake Conroe water must be eliminated.

By Jan 5, on our website https://lcatx.org/ will be a summary of the SJRA / City of Houston (CoH) request and related documents to triple the authorized release rate. This increase will not be used for local water needs. It is also not needed for daily CoH water supplies or for any CoH back-up water supplies. All water would be fully wasted once diverted from LC.

Please read the summary and if possible also review the fourteen most important pages we highlighted from the seventy-three-page filing. It is easy to see that:

• The filing had material omissions and no details about the need for a higher diversion rate,
• The SJRA stated the increased rate “has no impact” and no need for public review,
• The SJRA stated the increased rate will only be used for permitted beneficial use and not for flood mitigation lowering.

Without providing disclosures about lack of need, impacts, public concerns, and potential use for lowering then of course TCEQ approved the request as submitted.

We are making this effort to provide summaries and documents so that everyone can benefit from our significant work and verify our statements. We hope to gain full trust in our facts and concerns. It is exceedingly difficult now that the SJRA has taken a nonpublic approach with their plans. The average person hears or reads little compared to 2019/20.

LCA has been patient and professional but it has not worked. The problems of the 2024 ASM and the clear shift by the SJRA Management to not put any plans in writing for future lowering programs has fully undermined our confidence and trust in SJRA Management.

As discussions with SJRA Management have been nonproductive the LCA has asked the SJRA Board to intervene. Attached is a letter that was sent December 11th to the SJRA Board asking them for their attention to our concerns with SJRA Management and recent developments. We anticipate our concerns to be discussed in a nonpublic Board Executive Session in the January 22nd SJRA Board meeting. After the January meeting we will communicate to you about the outcomes and the need for any specific further support.

We will be adding additional documents with summaries to our website covering the LCA formal complaint to the TCEQ regarding the 2024 Active Storm Management (ASM) program, two detailed weather studies regarding the 2024 ASM failures, and most importantly pictorial water use graphics that show how none of the lowering program water diverted from Lake Conroe to Lake Houston during 2018-2024 could have been used for water supplies as has been reported by the CoH.

We are asking that our members and area residents take the time to read these latest summaries about the SJRA actions and LCA conclusions. You will find the above-mentioned documents at https://lcatx.org/ by the morning of January 7th.

As a 501c.3 nonprofit charity we need annual donations to continue our efforts. We have spent half of our reserve fund in 2025 for legal, technical, and meteorological studies. Please become a voting member by donating $100 or contribute any other amount, higher or lower, via our website. Please note you can also donate at https://lcatx.org/.

We need your full support to help us meet our mission, to protect and conserve water resources for future Montgomery County growth and needs.

Kevin Lacy
President of the Lake Conroe Association –
[email protected]