Back in 1918, areas in the Houston region began to display surficial cracks, which prompted research into what was causing the land to sink. By the 1940s, studies conducted by local universities, the State of Texas, and the United States Geological Survey identified the correlation between groundwater withdrawal and subsidence. Subsidence is the gradual sinking of the Earth’s surface due to substantial, long-term groundwater withdrawals and has been an issue for coastal cities worldwide, including Houston. It has caused damage to roads and bridges, problems with foundations and underground pipelines, changes in drainage patterns, and increased flooding.
With Houston’s booming population growth, demand for water increased, and the easiest way to meet it was to use groundwater. Increased groundwater use resulted in hundreds of feet of water-level decline in the Gulf Coast Aquifer System, damage to well infrastructure, and aquifer compaction that produced subsidence. Impacts from this subsidence were observed as increased flooding and coastal inundation from devastating storm surges. Local entities began to analyze the severe implications that subsidence could have on potential economic growth and determined that the region needed to reduce its reliance on groundwater to prevent future subsidence.
In 1975, the Texas Legislature created the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District (HGSD), the first district of its kind, to regulate groundwater withdrawal in Harris and Galveston counties to prevent subsidence. Although HGSD is a government entity, it is not funded by taxes; instead, it is self-funded through permitting fees that support the District’s ability to monitor subsidence, regulate groundwater effectively, and implement award-winning water conservation programs to further reduce reliance on groundwater and prevent further subsidence in Harris and Galveston counties.
As of today, there are only two subsidence districts in Texas: the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District and the Fort Bend Subsidence District. While other counties may have Groundwater Conservation Districts to regulate groundwater from a sustainability and availability standpoint, Fort Bend, Galveston, and Harris counties have subsidence districts to regulate groundwater as a means to an end to stop the ground from sinking.