The Fort Bend Subsidence District (FBSD) was created in 1989 by the 71st Legislature to regulate the withdrawal of groundwater within Fort Bend County to prevent subsidence, which contributes to or precipitates flooding or overflow of the FBSD, including rising water resulting from a storm or hurricane.
FBSD has adopted three regulatory plans beginning in 1990. The initial plan focused on collecting water usage information, water demand projections, water-level data from water wells, and subsidence data within Fort Bend County.
The 2003 Regulatory Plan divided FBSD into two Regulatory Areas and one subarea. The requirements contained within the 2003 Regulatory Plan were based on the most current data at that time. These data were used to develop projected water demand, aquifer water-levels and predicted subsidence throughout the FBSD. The plan provided permittees organizational flexibility in meeting the regulatory goals and designated the timing and conversion requirements throughout the FBSD.
In 2010, FBSD began a Regulatory Plan Update Project to 1) update population and water demand projections and 2) update and recalibrate the parameters in the groundwater models and subsidence models. The updated data and models were then used to evaluate the regulations in the 2003 Regulatory Plan and make any necessary changes to the regulations for the upcoming decades. The FBSD was able to use the conversion plans contained within certified Groundwater Reduction Plans to more accurately represent where groundwater reductions would likely occur. FBSD was able to incorporate the 2010 U.S. Census data and more accurately project population growth. Once projected water demands were determined for the updated population growth, multiple groundwater pumpage regulatory scenarios were evaluated in groundwater subsidence models developed for this update. The results from the groundwater model and subsidence models for each scenario of potential regulatory changes were compared back to a baseline scenario that used the regulations from the 2003 Regulatory Plan. Consideration of the projected subsidence rates throughout the District were weighed against the feasibility of obtaining alternative water supplies necessary to meet the proposed groundwater reductions. This 2013 Regulatory Plan is the result of FBSD’s analysis and replaces the 2003 Regulatory Plan for all Regulatory Areas within the FBSD boundaries.
In 2013, the FBSD Board voted to retain the 2003 Regulatory Plan as the result of FBSD’s analysis and replaces the 2003 Regulatory Plan for all Regulatory Areas within the FBSD boundaries. Later in the 2013, the FBSD amended the 2013 Regulatory Plan to allow for one additional year before reductions in groundwater use were required.