Until the 21st Century, most residents who lived in Harris County, but outside of the City of Houston city limits, got their water from wells tapping into underground aquifers. This water has been delivered to homes and businesses by hundreds of individual MUDs and when the faucets were turned on…water came out. People were blissfully unaware that the aquifers that had provided what seemed like an endless supply of drinking water were beginning to decline. We are moving to surface water because the underground water supply we have traditionally relied on is shrinking.

In addition, as the county has grown, the underground water has become so depleted in some areas that the ground above it has begun to sink, a process known as subsidence.