City of Houston Summer Water Requirement: 500M Gallons Per Day! (Tribune)

Jan.20, 2009 in Public Works, Water Conservation, Water Industry, Water Management

(Jan. 19, 2009, The Tribune)

– The lake is maintained by the Costal Water Authority –

Montgomery County Commissioner Precinct 4 Ed Rinehart reported, “The growth in East Montgomery County has slowed, but with new projects such as Earth Quest, which is expected to break ground this year, we are expecting population growth in East Montgomery County.”

Sullivan told the group, “The widening of Northpark to Mills Branch is going forward. The cost for the project is $464,000.”

Lake Houston reservoir was created in 1953 when the City of Houston built a dam to impound a reservoir to replace Sheldon Lake, then the primary source of water for the city. The lake is fed by 2,828-square miles of drainage area.

“Lake Houston dam exceeds all flood capacity requirements and the new Texas Design storm guidelines,” said Jerry Berry, manager of the Costal Water Authority during the Transportation Committee meeting at the Humble Area Chamber of Commerce last week. Berry is an Atascocita resident.

City of Houston Mayor White appointed Sullivan to head the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project. The project will bring surface water from the Trinity River Basin to Lake Houston. This additional surface water is needed to meet the projected population growth in North and West Harris County. This project is identified in the adopted 2007 State Water Plan, and is targeted for completion in 2020. The cost of the project is estimated at $300 million.

Houston City Council member for District E Mike Sullivan introduced Autumn Jodzio as new manager for the northern sector of District E.

The Coastal Water Authority is a conservation and reclamation district created in 1967. CWA provides untreated surface water to the cities of Houston, Baytown and Deer Park for municipal purposes.

CWA also provides untreated surface water to some of the petro-chemical industries and a few agricultural customers.

“The lake is a water supply reservoir; it is not designed for flood control,” said Berry. “Normally the spillway gates are closed. The top of the dam is 44 feet high. If the level of the lake rises 46 feet above mean sea level, the gates are opened. If there is something going on upstream from the lake, such as heavy rain to the north or Lake Conroe releasing water, the gates will be opened.”

Record height for the lake occurred in 1994. Water crested at eight feet over the spillway. Recently, the lake level rose to 47.67 feet from Hurricane Ike. The peak discharge from the lake was 138,000-cubic feet per second.

“Currently, the CWA is lowering the level of water in the dam by approximately one foot to allow a contractor to retrieve the debris from Ike that has collected along the top of the dam,” Berry said.

The City of Houston requirements for water usage during the winter months is approximately 360 million gallons a day and during the summer it rises above 500 million gallons a day.

“Surface water accounts for 80 percent of the usage and 20 percent comes from well water,” said Emery Gallagher, manager of the Public Works Operation for the City of Houston’s East End water purification plant.

Henry Quiroga, spokesperson and assistant area engineer for TxDOT’s North Harris County office in Humble, said, “The U.S. Highway 59 project is ongoing and the contractors are meeting their milestones. The construction of the FM 1314 intersection is ready to go. We expect completion of the project in May or June.”

Quiroga reported that two other projects, the closure of the off-ramp from U.S. Highway 59 to FM 1960 is going to be permanent and the extension of FM 1960 has been approved.

(Original Article Here)