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I agree that it's not very community minded and it seems like a waste of money. The water pretty much stays here and eventually gets reused. We' on ground water.

Any place the water comes from a aquifer would be a problem.

No one knows how long it takes one to refill but the water in them is ancient.

Houston is sinking at a rate of 1/2 inch a year because of ground water withdrawal. http://geology.com/news/2007/01/subsidence-houston-is-sinking.html

Here's a NYT article giving a feel for what that means: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E6D71138F935A1575AC0A964948260

Much comment has been made on another thread:

http://www.tbd.com/content/discussion/549837?startIndex=0

Thanks Brit :)

Here's an article that covers everything you never really wanted to know about Gulf Coast subsidence, focusing on the Houston area (eventually). It's a pretty long article but covers both sides of the argument over man-made (fluid extraction induced) subsidence vs natural basin subsidence pretty well. It's a little biased toward the natural subsidence argument and the author asserts his opinion that the primary cause of the current subsidence in Houston in natural, for example:

I met with Ron Neighbors, General Manager of the HGSD, Tom Michel, Assistant General Manager and Cliff Middleton, NGS Geodetic Advisor to the Subsidence District at their office near Webster in the Clear Lake area.

Neighbors lead off the discussion by saying that he is not happy with Roy Dokka and his claim that Houston has inadequate elevation control. “The HGSD knows more about heights than anyone else in the greater Houston area. Roy Dokka is creating an unnecessary political problem. He is talking about subsidence that is caused by factors other than ground water withdrawal. I don’t doubt that natural geological compaction is a factor, but the Subsidence District is specifically charged with limiting subsidence due to ground water and we have pretty much done that in many areas. There is still major subsidence in the North and West (north Harris and Fort Bend counties) where they are just beginning to meet the HGSD’s requirements to convert from ground water to surface water.”

-and-

'The Houston Embayment is part of the Gulf of Mexico basin (Figure 8) characterized by enhanced subsidence and accompanying sediment accumulation. Normal faults that sole into a deep detachment surface, and salt withdrawal are the principal mechanisms by which the Houston Embayment subsides and accommodates sedimentary fill...

-and-

"The Gulf of Mexico basin is subsiding. That’s what basins do. This basin was subsiding long before man appeared on the planet. Let’s get past acceptance of what is geologically undeniable. Let’s work together to find the resources for the first order leveling and expanded GPS network that is needed so we can plan for the future.

but he does present both sides of the argument fairly well.

http://www.hgs.org/en/art/?691

Cool, thanks brit. I hadn't seen that one either. I really need to keep up *sigh*

All this stupid work lately, I'm soo out of the loop.