Conversion to Surface Water Continues

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Conversion to Surface Water Continues

While the West Harris County Regional Water Authority continues pushing pipeline west to more new water districts, equally important work goes on behind the scenes, to meet long-term needs for a reliable surface water source, and to build the system that will bring it to homes and businesses of the region.

While their efforts may not be as visible as bulldozers and truckloads of water pipe, West Authority engineers, surveyors and lawyers have been hard at the detailed work of acquiring easements and planning future distribution lines.

“As far as construction goes, we’re moving ahead as fast as we can – closing loops and adding to the system,” says West Authority board president Bruce Parker. “But in addition to those efforts, there’s a tremendous effort underway with our regional partners.”

West Authority engineer Wayne Ahrens of Dannenbaum Engineering describes it as “a lot of planning, surveying and negotiating.” He adds: “In addition to current construction, we’re continuing to work on acquiring easements for future lines out in the Authority and in connection with our Second Source Water Line.”

The West Authority is under mandate from the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District to reduce groundwater usage, converting 60 percent of usage to surface water by 2025. Subsidence – the compacting of ground layers caused by excess pumping of groundwater – can damage the aquifer and lead to increased flooding and foundation problems. An average of 35 percent of the West Authority’s total annual demand is now being met with surface water, which is provided by a 28.25 million gallons per day (MGD) contract with the City of Houston. Perhaps the biggest behind-the-scenes task of interest to West Authority rate-payers, says Ahrens, are negotiations with the City of Houston regarding a supplement to the water supply contract. This agreement would involve expansion of the city’s Northeast Water Purification Plant near Lake Houston.

“During the winter months we have sufficient water supply, but during the summer months we run up against the limits of our current water supply contract,” explains Ahrens. “That means that we have adequate water supply taken over a year to meet the subsidence district’s requirements, but during the summer – when everybody is watering their yards –the demand is for more water than we have under contract. That means that some districts have to start using their water wells in the summer time.”

The planned plant expansion would serve the City of Houston and several regional water authorities, including the WHCRWA. WHCRWA BOARD

OF DIRECTORS

Bruce Parker, President

Precinct 2 Gary Struzick Precinct 7 Stacey L. Burnett, Ass’t V.P. Precinct 4

“Cam” Postle, Secretary

Precinct 6

Eric Hansen, Asst. Sect’y

Precinct 3

Karla Cannon, Director

Precinct 5

Johnny Nelson, Director

Precinct 9

Larry Weppler, Director

Precinct 1

Mark G. Janneck, Director

Precinct 8

Legal: James A. Boone Alex E. Garcia

Alia Vinson

Allen Boone Humphries Robinson LLP

Engineer: Wayne Ahrens Melinda Silva

Dannenbaum Engineering

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2 3 While the first 80 million gallons per day (MGD)

increment of the planned 320 MGD plant expansion is not expected to be complete until the fall of 2021, it demonstrates the West Authority’s commitment to keeping ahead of regional water needs, and of subsidence district requirements.

The planned expansion will coincide with the West Authority’s 2025 deadline for 60 percent conversion, and will carry a total price tag of $1.2 billion. “That’s billion with a ‘B,’” Ahrens notes. “It will be a big, jointly funded project between the Authorities and the city.”

Parker says the West Authority is being prudent in working with its partners, such as the North Harris County Regional Water Authority and the North Fort Bend Water Authority – on this expensive project. “Our partners need the water too. And it’s more cost effective to work together than to try to accomplish this independently.”

As the other major goal leading up to the 2025 deadline, the West Authority continues to acquire easements for the new 96-inch “Second Source” cross-town pipeline that will bring surface water from Lake Houston to west Harris County. As with expansion of the Northeast Water Treatment Plant, the West Authority is partnering with another water authority on this massive project, which also involves installing distribution lines to bring the water into neighborhoods of west Harris County.

The West Authority expects to acquire about 690 new easements and widen approximately 600 existing easements. And the process involves meeting requirements set by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“These things aren’t done overnight,” says Parker, noting that construction of a re-pump station near U.S. 290 and West Little York Road, and a central pump station on Fry Road north of Clay Road, also must be constructed in time for the 2021 deadline. “All of these things have to mesh together like gears.” Yet another significant gear is the Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project, which will bring water from the Trinity River to Lake Houston. Through the Coastal Water Authority, the West Authority is participating with its partners on this crucial pipeline and canal project. A contract for design has just been approved, after all real estate issues were settled, Parker said.

Meanwhile, West Authority engineers are also moving ahead with the relatively smaller construction projects that add new customers to the surface water system, and improve the system’s reliability. One of these projects in the vicinity of Fry and Clay roads adds Ricewood MUD and Mayde Creek MUD to the West Authority’s surface water system. Others in the Towne Lake and Bridgeland areas ensure that water will continue to flow to various districts even if a particular line is down for maintenance. Several similar projects are in design.

A lot of these districts are out at the end of long water lines extended to them, Ahrens explains. “We’re in the process of going back in and constructing some loops, so that if a line gets broken we can get water to them from two different directions, for reliability in the system.”

Other similar projects are just completing design and set to begin construction in the spring. “We’ve only got so much water, so until we get the second source of water, we don’t want to tie on too many districts,” Ahrens says. “The game plan would be to connect enough districts to use the total amount of surface water that we have available in the winter months, then supplement with (groundwater) wells during the summer. That way we can maximize the total amount of water for which the WHCRWA now has a contract.”

The West Authority also continues to encourage water conservation by offering incentives to individual water districts that find creative ways to reuse water resources, or find other alternatives to groundwater pumping. Various West Authority districts receive credits for using treated effluent to fill their amenity lakes or water their golf courses. Others receive credits for obtaining permits to use water pumped straight from nearby creeks for their lakes and irrigation. Credits also go to districts that reuse water captured from stormwater drainage systems.

“Definitely the West Authority continues to be very, VERY interested in water conservation,” Parker says. “And rate-payers should be too!”

The current groundwater pumpage fee is $1.90 per 1,000 gallons, and $2.30 per 1,000 gallons for surface water. These fees typically are passed along by water utility districts in addition to their own consumer water rates.

“Our interest is to keep our rates as low as possible, and to run a lean operation as we work toward our long-term goals,” Parker notes. S

Conversion on schedule...

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Why does the cost of water keep go-ing up? What can we do to stretch supplies? What are we doing to prepare for future demand... when the population of Texas is expected to nearly double. Where will the water come from then? What kind of legacy will we leave for our children...and our chil-dren’s children?

It is the role of the West Harris County Re-gional Water Authority to address these and other critical water issues. The Authority was created in 2001 by the Texas Legislature to act on behalf of the water districts within its boundaries to develop a regional approach to water supply, and to negotiate for a secure, long term supply of potable water for our community.

Another challenge faced by the new agency was to adopt and implement policies to comply with the groundwater reduction mandate issued by the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District. This meant constructing an entirely new infrastructure to deliver surface water to our neighborhoods to avoid irrepa-rable damage to our aquifers from over-pumping groundwater. This compliance meant reducing our reliance on groundwater to 70 percent of the total consumption by 2010, with further reductions to 40 and 20 percent in the decades ahead.

Thanks to cooperation by the many mu-nicipal utility districts and water well owners within the Authority’s boundaries -- and the collection of pumpage fees or surface water fees that are passed through to all water users -- the groundwater reduc-tion goals of the initial mandate have been met. The challenge continues, however, with some of the biggest hurdles still ahead.

In the final analysis, we all have a role to play in assuring adequate supplies of water for the future. It begins with a commitment to use water as efficiently as possible and to end wasteful practices such as excessive residential turf irrigation. The cost of water will continue to go up as the needed water infrastructure facilities are designed and built.

Water conservation -- or using water wisely -- is something we can all do to curb the rate of growth in demand. The water we don’t use is the cheapest water we’ll ever have!

The Rising Cost of Water

and Other Critical Issues

Q. What are the Authority’s current ground – and surface water pumpage fees?

A. As of July 2013, the groundwater pumpage fee is $1.90 per 1,000 gallons and $2.30 per 1,000 gallons for surface water.

Q. How often does the Authority increase the fee?

A. There is no set time for fee increases; they are imposed only as necessary. Since the WHCRWA has no taxing authority, funding for construction projects comes from pumpage fees and water sales. It is anticipated that another half- to three-quarters of a billion dollars will be needed to pay the Authority’s share in projects to meet the next conversion deadline, so while there will be more rate increases in the future, the Authority is com-mitted to keeping the price as low as possible for as long as possible.

Q. Why is the WHCRWA fee a different amount every month?

A. The fee that appears on your water bill each month is based on the amount of water pumped by the district’s wells or the amount of surface water the district receives from WHCRWA. The districts in turn charge their individual customers for the water they use. The more water a cus-tomer uses, the higher the fee will be.

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ONLY RAIN IN THE DRAIN

Twenty five years ago, most of the “point-source” pollution -- the kind where you can readily determine where it came from -- was eliminat-ed when industries and wastewater treatment facilities cleaneliminat-ed up their discharge to public waters in compliance with the Clean Water Act or faced crippling fines. Today, most water pollution comes from far more benign causes...pastures and animal feed lots (6), construction sites (1), parking lots, lawns and driveways (2), household chemicals (4), and trash (5). Since pollution comes from so many diverse sources that may also vary by season, it is often difficult to determine the exact point of origin. Perhaps the most startling fact about this sneaky kind of pollution is who causes it...that’s you and me, doing things we do every day. We don’t set out to pollute...we just do it out of carelessness; not thinking of the bigger picture. But the impacts are very bad. Seventy-six percent of our waterways are too polluted to fish or even swim in safely. Forty percent of water pollution is from automotive fluids (3) washed off paved surfaces from normal rainfall. And, here’s an eye-opener. Americans own approximately 75 million dogs. An estimated 40 percent of pet owners don’t clean up their animal’s “deposits” at home (2) or when out in the neighborhood for a walk. These piles don’t just disappear... unscooped poop is washed into storm sewers which drain into local rivers and bays.

Grass clippings and leaves get swept (or blown) into storm sew-ers by lawn maintenance crews where they not only clog the sewsew-ers, but also carry excess nutrients -- fertilizers and herbicides (7) -- into the waterways. Likewise, sediment from improperly managed construction sites (1) and eroding stream banks can negatively harm aquatic habitats, storm drain infrastructure, and water quality.

Do you know the difference between a storm drain and a sewer? Storm drains collect water from outside our homes and commercial establishments and take it -- untreated -- directly to streams, creeks and rivers. Sewers, on the other hand, collect water from inside homes and businesses and carry it to treatment plants, where it is cleaned before being released back into nature.

Everyone knows that clean water is important to all of us. Not only does it supply a habitat for marine life, but clean water provides recreational opportunities, drinking water for our homes, businesses and manufacturing, as well as providing the method to generate electricity. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that non-point source (or storm-water runoff) pollution ultimately becomes the top pollution problem in the country! Much of it can be prevented with old fashioned common sense! Please make a commitment to do everything you can to minimize the risk that your activities will endanger the environment. S

1

7

6

5

4

3

2

Illustrations by talented local artist Daniel Shaw.

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Michael J. Turco, born and raised in South Omaha,

Ne-braska, earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Geology and a Master of Science in Hydrology from the University of Nebraska. He began his career with the U. S. Geological Survey in 1996 at the Water Resources Division field office in Council Bluffs, Iowa and subsequently became the Chief Hydrologist of the Gulf Coast Program Office in Houston in 2004. Mike had the responsibility to oversee the USGS scientific research and data collection in the gulf coast region, including hurricanes Rita and Ike and subsidence in the Houston region, so he is no stranger to the mission and responsibili-ties he will manage at the helm of the Subsidence District.

“In the 40 years since the Subsidence District was created, the region has witnessed the impact of massive tropical storms and hurricanes, a record-breaking drought, and dramatic incidences of subsidence. One such case was in a coastal community near Baytown where almost continual flooding due to subsidence caused an entire subdivision to sink and the area to eventually be abandoned. Subsequently,” he continued, “the management of our groundwater resources has proven to be effective in curbing subsidence in the areas where it has been applied.” Turco cites the areas of Texas City and NASA where groundwater reduc-tion strategies began in 1977, with regulatory procedures associated with their first groundwater regulatory plan. By converting industries on the Houston Ship Channel to surface water supplied from the then new Lake Livingston reservoir, subsidence in the Baytown-Pasadena area was dramatically improved, and has since been largely halted. Water levels within the Gulf Coast Aquifer are projected to rebound by as much as 125 feet through the implementation of the HGSD’s groundwater reduction plan.

“Looking forward, it will be the District’s priority to monitor complex scientific measurement tech-nology; collect and maintain reliable well measurement data in concert with the USGS and the National Geodetic Survey (NGS); and to evaluate water use data and patterns, climatology, population growth and demand in the region. From this body of evidence and wealth of data,” Turco said, “we will develop updates to the Regulatory Plan that are not only grounded in good science, but are both reasonable and realistic. And we will make regulatory course corrections as warranted.”

Another area the new general manager is passionate about is providing the best possible customer service when it comes to dealing with the District’s stakeholders and permitees. “We will make sure that our communications are clear and consistent, and that we are accessible and ready to assist our ‘custom-ers’ with regulatory issues or interpretation of the rules. Water supply issues are not going to go away, so we’re in this for the long haul. We can be much more productive if we keep communications channels open and share data and trend information.”

Alternate water resources technology is rapidly evolving, with methods such as desalination, reverse osmosis, broader use of brackish water, and Aquifer Storage and Recovery Sysems (ASRS) being explored and applied. “The key factor in evaluating new technologies will have to be what impact they might have on subsidence,” Turco explained. “It will be critical to determine if a particular option would ‘cost’ more in subsid-ence than it would benefit in supply. Again, this is part of our commitment to careful, consistent and scisubsid-ence- science-based regulation. And,” he emphasized, “always in the background is drought. We have observed the human response to lack of rain...and it involves increased use of groundwater -- the antithesis of all our objectives. As we look to the future, we realize that stewardship of our most precious natural resource will become even more important. We will continue to expand our efforts through collaboration with our partners and outreach through education and programs that underscore important conservation messages in the community.” For additional information about the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, visit www.subsidence.org.

Meet Mike Turco...New GM

of the Harris-Galveston

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6 7 Fifty years before the Harris-Galveston

Subsidence District (HGSD) was formed to combat

developing subsidence issues in the region, the idea of a project involving the transfer of water from the

Trinity River Basin to its smaller but strategically

important counterpart, the San Jacinto River Basin, was already being considered. During the Great

Depression era, Houston had become the state’s most populous city, and Harris County, its most populous county, creating concerns about the area’s growing thirst…and about early evidence of subsidence. Several turn of the century factors had stimulated the region’s growth, not the least of which was the discovery of oil in east and southeast Texas, and a devastating hurricane that crushed Galveston’s dreams of regional dominance, prompting the accelerated development of a deepwater Houston port.

In the late 1930s, planning for Houston’s first water supply reservoir and early evaluations of a means to access Trinity River water were being bandied about to address the region’s rapid growth. In 1954, Lake Houston rose on the San Jacinto River’s East Fork; Lake Livingston became a Trinity River reality in 1969; and in 1973, Lake Conroe first gathered the waters of the San Jacinto’s West Fork. Today, more than eight decades later, another of these early ‘30s ideas may finally come to fruition. The massive Luce Bayou Interbasin Transfer Project (LBITP) could soon tie Houston’s major water sources together in an efficient network of pipelines, canals and treatment plants. Its completion will make readily available an important long-term source of surface water to our rapidly growing region. And as a belated supplement to HGSD’s ongoing 35-year groundwater-to-surface water conversion require-ments, the LBITP will provide additional relief from the area’s reliance on groundwater.

In May 2005, the City of Houston (COH) requested that the Coastal Water Authority (CWA), a governmental body charged with the planning, design and construction of the LBITP, proceed with the development of the project to convey a portion of the city’s existing raw water supply from

the Trinity River Basin to Lake Houston in the San Jacinto River Basin. Since 1970, the COH has owned significant water rights in the Trinity River and Lake Livingston, sating the thirst of millions of people in the region. Impacting 3,600 square miles of high-growth territory…and estimated to be the home of 11 plus million people by 2060*…the LBITP water supply strategy has been a key element in the Region H Water Plan since 2001.

Infrastructure & Routing

As currently conceived, the proposed $350 million LBITP, a 300-foot wide corridor, will begin in central Liberty County along Capers Ridge at the Trinity River and terminate in northeast Harris County near the confluence of Luce Bayou and Lake Houston. It will ultimately transfer 450,000 acre-feet per year or a peak of approximately 500 million gallons per day (MGD) of untreated water through 3 miles of dual 108-inch underground pipeline mains from the proposed 35-acre Capers Ridge Pump Station on the Trinity River (to a 20-acre sedimentation and storage basin), and then via 23.5 miles of gravity-flow canal to a discharge structure that will outfall into the backwaters of Lake Houston along the northeast shoreline downstream of the confluence with Luce Bayou. The Capers Ridge Pump Station and an equipment maintenance facility will be located 10 and 6 miles, respectively, north of Dayton, Texas. The pump station property was acquired for the LBITP by the COH in 1980 and conveyed to CWA in 2009.

Once transferred and treated at the COH-owned Northeast Water Purification Plant (located on the western side of Lake Houston), LBITP water would then be delivered to the COH, North Harris County Regional Water Authority

The Luce Bayou Interbasin

Transfer Project...

50 Years in the Planning

Luce Bayou, main canal

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(NHCRWA), West Harris County Regional Water Authority (WHCRWA), Central Harris County Regional Water Authority (CHCRWA) and North Fort Bend Water Authority (NFBWA).

When completed, LBITP deliveries will serve as Houston’s primary backup untreated water supply, a role currently filled by their two-thirds ownership of Lake Conroe water. The Luce Bayou Project will provide the necessary water supply to meet the various contract demands identified by the COH. In short, hundreds of municipal water districts and millions of residential customers in the northern and western Houston metro area and northern Fort Bend County will reap the benefits of a dependable, long-term supply of treated surface water provided by the LBITP.

Events Influencing the Project

In the 1960s, the city of Houston built a pumping station and canal system to send some of the Trinity water to purification plants on the east and southeast sides of the city, but it never fully utilized its rights to Trinity water. In the early 1980s, the LBITP resurfaced as a potential means of moving water into the San Jacinto River Basin, but the project stalled when a sagging economy temporarily disrupted Houston’s pattern of rapid growth.

Since then, utilizing Luce Bayou’s natural channel to flow Trinity water to Lake Houston was eliminated as an option. The surge of water through the channel would have resulted in serious flooding, severely impacting the pristine natural features along the bayou’s path.

As primary steward of the nation’s wetlands, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) carefully studied the LBITP’s potential environmental impact. The USACE held a public hearing in November 2012, in Dayton, Texas to collect comments. Staff members from both USACE and CWA attended to answer questions and speak with the public and interested parties to address concerns and issues. According to a USACE environmental study -- which has been completed -- the LBITP footprint will encompass approximately 1,050 acres in Liberty and Harris counties, affecting 203 acres of existing wetlands. As of January 2014, CWA has acquired 100% of the project’s right of way and 100% of the property required to fulfill permit mitigation requirements. Mitigation will be met by transferring title of about 2,900 acres currently owned by CWA

to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Environmental Impact Studies

According to CWA general manager, Don Ripley, the USACE permit

for LBITP was received by CWA on February 4, 2014. “The last step in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process, the TCEQ water quality certification approval is complete,” he said, adding, “The permit requires CWA to do some additional archeology investigation

and to begin a monitoring plan for zebra mussels.” In addition to confirming completion of right of way acquisition and USACE permitting, Ripley mentioned that final design for the LBITP will commence during the 2nd quarter 2014 beginning with the Capers Ridge Pump Station. “Final design on some portions of the project will not be completed until the middle of 2016,” he said, “but construction is scheduled to start in June 2016, and hopefully, be completed by July 2019.”

Funding

The $350 million project has received $33 million in financial assistance from the Texas Water Development Board’s Water Infrastructure Fund (WIF), which provides funding for geotechnical and environmental studies, surveying and preliminary engineering design. An additional $28.8 million has been approved by TWBD from their State Participation Program (SPP) for additional design, construction and archeological investigations. Acquisition of right of way and mitigation property was funded by $20 million from the City of Houston and the participating water authorities.

Ripley also disclosed that there are ongoing efforts to access the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) to complete the LBITP. He expressed his gratitude to the TWDB staff for their past and current valuable assistance in every stage of the loan process.

The Luce Bayou project -- a recommended water management strategy for the last 50 years -- is about to become reality. The project’s 3-year construction period is estimated to begin around mid-2016 with an anticipated completion date of mid-2019. S

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Here comes the turf growin g season...

HERE ARE SOME

OUTDOOR WATER

CONSERVATION

STRATEGIES THAT

REALLY WORK!

Reduce irrigation

run time by 2

minutes – saves 80

gallons daily.

Use a broom instead

of a hose to clean

driveways and

sidewalks saves

22 gallons each

time.

Repair at least one

pipe leak or broken

sprinkler head...

saves 20 gallons

daily.

Replace 10,000 sq.

ft. of high water use

landscape with a

low water use

landscape and save

40 gallons daily.

Source: Texas A&M AgriLife Exten-sion Service, Water Resources Institute

TX H₂0, Fall 2013

According to Dr. David Chalmers, professor emeritus in the soil and crop sciences department at Texas A&M University, “[Turf] is not simply there for people to look at and say ‘wow’, that looks beautiful,’ it actually serves very important functions. Turfgrass stabilizes soil and dust, acts as a biological filter, cools land and buildings, makes safe recreational spaces possible, and provides sociological benefits to communities.” These benefits are yet another reason why using our water resources efficiently for lawn and garden makes sense.

Native grasses like St. Augustine are DORMANT during the winter months, and need no more water than Mother Nature provides. This is a good time to get ready for the growing season by taking a close look at your irrigation system...from the controller settings to the piping to the sprinkler nozzles and heads. And don’t forget the rain sensor or smart controller...is it in good working order?

Water efficiency enemy number ONE continues to be overwatering! The unnecessary application of water encourages turf to grow shallow roots which cause the grass to stress if water isn’t available. Reports based on actual irrigation system evaluations in Montgomery, Harris and Ft. Bend counties have demonstrated that at least 90 percent of residents who have sprinkler systems water too often...and 43 percent of that water runs off into the gutter and ultimately into the storm drain. Don’t waste drinking water on grass that isn’t thirsty!

There are a number of things that you can do to maximize the use of your irrigation system and avoid wasting water and your money. As the price of this precious commodity continues to go up, it is important that your irrigation system is not needlessly “bubbling” water up from underground or running away through leaky pipes or heads. Maybe an area of the yard stays wetter than any other spot, even if the controller is turned off? Water running off the yard and into the street might signal that a pipe is completely broken. Here’s the bad news about a broken pipe...a typical residential water meter will flow about 13 gallons of water a minute. Do the math...a broken pipe leaking all day while you’re away from home could waste over 6,000 gallons (and $$$) down the drain. Leaks...find ‘em and fix ‘em...FAST.

In addition to adopting a water-efficient watering schedule, set the system controller to complete the watering cycle before 4:00 am to avoid the peak morning demand for other household uses. This is a great time for a technique called “Cycle and Soak”. This method

applies water slowly so the soil actually can absorb it. Each lawn has different components -- soil quality and content -- but the key here is to water only as long as it takes to get moisture down into the soil, and that is usually a maximum of 20 minutes. It will take at least 30 minutes for the water to percolate into the soil, so set the timer to come on again after an hour, to deliver a similar amount of water. Technically, you may be watering more often, but the system is delivering the same amount of water...only it is being utilized more efficiently! S

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Harris County Household Hazardous

Waste Collection Facility

What do you do with leftover paint, fertilizers, and motor oil that are hanging out in your garage? Take them to Harris County’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility located at 6900 Hahl Road on the

northwest corner of Gessner and 290.

Household Hazardous Wastes (HHW) are items that can become dangerous to your family, pets, and the environment when they are old or no longer wanted. This facility disposes of them in a safe and environmentally responsible method. Approximately

70% of the materials collected at the facility are recycled or used for energy recovery.

Items that are accepted at the facility include

household cleaners, yards products (pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides), automotive products (oil, antifreeze, gasoline), pool chemicals, paint and paint related products, batteries, aerosol cans, small and BBQ size propane cylinders, tires and items containing mercury (thermometers, thermostats, CFLs). Items not accepted include electronics,

waste from businesses, ammunition and firecrackers, household appliances, municipal trash, and medical/biological/radioactive wastes.

This service is free, and the facility is open for collections on Wednesdays from 9 am – 3 pm and the second Saturday of the month from 9 am – 2 pm. Collections are also held on the fourth Saturday of the month (location schedule for the 4th Saturdays is online: www.eng.hctx.net/watershed/hhw_home. html. The website also offers information about how to transport hazardous

household waste to the facility safely.

The facility is closed the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the week after Christmas. Do you have additional questions? Call 281-560-6200. S

SALT WATER

97.5%

Do you know how the earth’s water is distributed?

FRESH WATER 2.5%

Of the world’s fresh water,

nearly 70 percent is bound

up in permanent ice and

snow – in glaciers (including

the polar icecaps) and on

mountaintops.

A bit more is in the atmosphere.

SOURCE: UN - Water

If all of the planet’s

waters were

represented by a

standard five gallon

water cooler bottle,

the fresh water

available for our use

would amount to

about a tenth of

an ounce...

Only a little more than one-half of

1 percent of that freshwater is

available for human use.

GLACIERS

68.7%

PERMAFROST 0.8%

GROUNDWATER 30.1%

SURFACE AND

ATMOSPHERIC WATER

0.4%

_{less than a teaspoon.}

SOUR

CE: Global W

at

er Security: In

tellig

ence Community Assessmen

t, F

ebruar

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10 11 Since the dawn of time people have

always needed certain things to help them stay alive – easy access to water, sources of food, clothing and shelter. Geographical locations with these resources are likely to have been populated over and over again throughout time, which makes them logical places to look for relics and artifacts from previous habitation.

In Texas, this access spans more than 15,000 years and countless cultures. The more we know and understand about patterns and changes in human behavior, the better we understand our cultural heritage…and that’s a legacy far too valuable to lose. Archaeology isn’t just about digging up rocks and artifacts, it is all about people. The decisions we make in the future are predicated on what we have learned from those who were here before us.

“Today, modern computer/digital technology has become an invaluable tool in mapping and recording the artifacts…even creating models of how people looked from just skeletal remains,” explains Nancy Little, Director, Education Coordinator, the Gault School of Archaeological Research. “The work we are doing in Texas – at the Gault site, for example – is changing what we believe about the first Texans. Not only is this research hugely exciting it is also critically important to solving these mysteries.”

A new education program...

Who were the first people to arrive in Texas? Where did they come from, and how did they get

here? A new 4th and 7th grade level social studies program -- Digging Up History – is offered by

the Authority to local educators to help address some of these questions. The program includes a series of videos, information on how to build a classroom “dig box”, a student “Dime Novel” (Journey to the Land of the Mammoths), and an educator’s guide for supporting classroom activities. Underlying the important archaeology/ paleontology/anthropology curriculum, this program emphasizes the role of water in Texas through the ages, and the critical need to use water resources efficiently.

For more than a decade, the West Harris County Regional Water Authority has sponsored water conservation education programs for area students that are aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills guidelines (TEKS). These programs are offered at no charge to the schools in grades 2, 4 and 7, and address multiple disciplines – science, social studies, language arts, and math. The new Digging Up History Kit is a component

of the “Learning from our past to influence our future” water conservation education

program that has been in use by schools in Harris, Montgomery, and Fort Bend counties since 2010.

Primitive stone weapons and the people who made them...

In the “First Texans” video, “Texas Smith”

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Filming the “Digging Up History” video about the Gault site with Nancy Little and “Texas Smith” -- a.k.a. Steven Baird, archaeologist and the 2011 Texas History Teacher of the Year. CLOVIS POINTS

Texas Smith and Don Esker at the Waco Mammoth Site

cornerstone theory that these first people walked over a land bridge called Beringia and subsequently settled in the area we now call Texas. This theory revolved around the Clovis Mammoth hunters tracking the huge mammals as they followed sources of food and water while crossing the continent. (“Clovis” refers to Clovis, New Mexico, where the initial stone-age weapon or point was discovered in 1929, and is used to describe a whole culture of the Paleo-Indians.)

Mounting evidence now suggests that not only could there have been multiple routes that brought these first Americans to this continent, but that some of the people arrived much earlier than previously thought.

Mammoths in Texas...

Did you know that Texas has one of the largest mammoth graveyards in the world? Another video in this new program records a visit to the extraordinary Waco Mammoth Site.

The scene of at least four quick flashfloods that quickly killed and buried an assortment of Ice Age animals -- including several large Columbian Mammoths -- sits on over 100 acres near Waco, Texas. The National Park Service says of this venue: “The nation’s first and only recorded discovery of a nursery herd of Pleistocene mammoths.”

(Waco Mammoth Site, 6220 Steinbeck Bend Drive, Waco, Texas 76708. Visit their web site http:// www.waco-texas.com/cms-waco-mammoth/).

In the “Mammoths in Texas” video, “Texas

Smith” and his paleontologist friend Don Esker walk the floor of this impressive site among the skeletal

remains of the giant animals, and take us back to a time when mammoths populated this earth. These two experts discuss how these animals lived, what dangers they faced, and how they met their demise in the flood waters of a creek in Texas.

New Mobile Teaching Lab

Following a year of collaboration, research and design -- working with a team of Katy ISD educators led by Carrie Lentz (Elementary Language Arts & Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator) and Jonathan Maxwell (Elementary Mathematics & Science Curriculum Coordinator) – the new Lab is available to educators for on-site school visits. The exhibits follow a timeline and emphasize “Learning from our past...to impact our present...to influence our future.” While inside the Mobile Lab, students use interactive exhibits to explore Conservation, Reuse and Technology as options for future water supply. There is a comprehensive Teacher’s Guide that contains background information on the topic as well as suggestions for classroom activities. S

For additional information about this program, please visit www.whcrwa.com/education and/or send an e-mail to [email protected].

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