The Courier of Montgomery County reports for failing to accomplish the terms of a 2025 settlement with the San Jacinto River Authority, the city of Conroe is negotiating with them over an unbudgeted $2.6 million invoice.
On October 22nd and last Thursday, the council had not paid the invoice twice.
Reducing groundwater pumpage and using surface water, according to Mayor Duke Coon, was the authority’s goal. The mayor said while he gets what the agreement is about, he was hopeful the city could lessen that cost as the city had lowered the water pumped from the aquifer.
The authority’s spokesperson, Heather Ramsey, said the $2.6 million is “their agreed upon minimum amount of pumpage.”
They were required to pump at least 4 million gallons according to the August 2025 agreement. In 2026 the city only pumped 2.9 gallons of groundwater.
Director of Public Works Jason Miller said, “We had six wells down this year” which meant they were “out of groundwater at that point.”
