General Elements

Elements of the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District’s (HGSD) 2013 Regulatory Plan, which are applicable to all HGSD Regulatory Areas and permittees, include:

  1. When an alternative water supply is available to a site, regardless of total water demand, permittees will be required to reduce groundwater withdrawals to no more than 20% of their total water demand (10% in HGSD Regulatory Area 1), unless the permittee is in compliance with a certified Groundwater Reduction Plan (GRP).
  2. Permits for irrigating agricultural crops, as defined in the HGSD Rules, are exempted from groundwater reduction requirements and disincentive fees in the HGSD Regulatory Plan. However, all permittees are encouraged to use best management practices to minimize groundwater withdrawals.
  3. A disincentive fee will be applied consistent with specific groundwater reduction requirements in HGSD Regulatory Areas 1, 2, and 3.
  4.  Exemptions from the disincentive fee may be granted for users with a total water demand of 10 million gallons per year or less.
  5. Two or more permittees within the same HGSD Regulatory Area may enter into Contractual Agreements to share costs or cooperate in ways that achieve orderly reductions in total groundwater use and conversions to alternative water supplies. Any such groundwater reduction agreements must be approved by the HGSD’s Board of Directors. Permittees may join with or form new regional entities for the purpose of reducing groundwater withdrawal. Individual permittees will be waived from separate compliance with groundwater reduction requirements when they form part of a group of permittees, within the same HGSD Regulatory Area, that together (as a group) achieve compliance with the HGSD Regulatory Area requirement for that region or group.
  6. Groundwater Credits will be honored for the terms, conditions, and periods prescribed on each certificate. Over Conversion Credits will be honored in accordance with the terms prescribed in the District Rules.

Groundwater Reduction Plans

Permittees within HGSD Regulatory Area 3, with a total water demand greater than 10 million gallons per year, may avoid disincentive fees by submitting and receiving certification of a Groundwater Reduction Plan as long as they comply with the groundwater reduction goals and other milestones in that plan. GRPs must, at a minimum, include details of the strategies and steps necessary for achieving HGSD Regulatory Area 3 groundwater reductions. GRPs must be submitted for certification by the HGSD’s Board of Directors.

Minimum requirements for an acceptable GRP include:

  1. Identification of current and projected total water demand
    • The data must be from a source agreed upon by the HGSD
    • Projections must be for a time period sufficiently into the future to achieve full compliance with regulatory requirements.
    • Reasons detailing any potential increase in groundwater use.
  2. Plans for groundwater reduction
    • Definition of infrastructure requirements to meet permittee’s projected total water demand
    • Timetable showing what infrastructure will be constructed by a specific date to meet projected requirements
    • Explanation of how infrastructure costs will be financed
    • Identification of source for water supply, water provider, and amount of water supply available
    • Evidence (executed contractual agreement or financial commitment) that the water supplier has sufficient water supplies or rights and is willing to meet the permittee’s projected alternative water demands necessary to meet the 2025 requirements
    • Timetable showing when contractual agreements or financial commitments will be executed for alternative water demands for 2035 and beyond
    • Preliminary engineering report of the proposed facilities to be constructed, necessary to meet the 2025 requirements including a description of the proposed project and area maps.
    • Conceptual schematic plans of the proposed facilities to be constructed, necessary to meet the 2035 requirements
  3. Other information reasonably necessary for an adequate understanding of the project.

The HGSD Board of Directors may, during consideration of certifying a GRP, require additional information, milestones or reports as a condition of issuing the certification