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When someone tells you who they are, believe them, and that is the case with Texas House Representative for District 15, Steve Toth. It is abundantly clear that Mr. Toth has no idea about flooding and its impact on the region, but what is worse is that rather than learn about flooding and its issues, he would rather talk over with constituents who try to educate him on the matter, going as far as to delete their posts that explain the situation to him.
He speaks on the issue as it is a one-time event. He casts aspersions on the people who have worked for years to stop the loss of life and property due to flooding.
Toth claims to be conservative, but his voting record and his behavior are anything but. Here is an initial list, and unfortunately, it gets worse every day.
- He is trampling on the First Amendment rights of the people he wants to represent by deleting social media posts that attempt to explain the situation to him. In other words, he engages in cancel culture against his very own would-be district.
- He espouses using the power of the federal government to bully local governments, lamenting why Congress wouldn’t help him fire an SJRA administrator, a violation of the 10th Amendment. He says the congressional office won’t help because there is a staff member who was on the SJRA at the time, rather than it being against the law.
- He meets with constituents, but then disregards what they are saying to him about their issues and keeps on with the sad narrative that dredging is not a temporary band-aid for Lake Houston Flooding to obfuscate his vote against the dredging district that had broad bipartisan support from all local leaders who have been trying to solve Lake Houston’s Flood issue. This is part of a plan that civil engineers developed. More about this particular point later
- He is constantly citing think tanks as the genesis of his vote rather than voters and their concerns. Think tanks are another word for lobby groups.
- Rather than embrace flood leaders and learn what we have learned over the years about our situation, he tries to educate them on the existence of the SJRA, as if we do not know who they are. And he is trying to blame them one event as if that is the only thing out there.
The Background:
There is a deep divide between Kingwood, a North Harris County Houston Suburb, the Lake Houston watershed, and its neighbor to the north, Montgomery County, concerning the causality of flooding issues in the region.
Harris County:
This story begins on the Harris County side in 1953 with the completion of Lake Houston Reservoir, which became the primary water source for the growing city of Houston. It sits approximately 4 miles north of Sheldon, which was the previous reservoir for Houston.
There was a concrete dam and spillway built as part of the Lake Houston project in 1953, which met the necessary specifications. It was built for 10,000 cubic feet per second. For 2025, however, the current flow rate of about 65,0000 cubic feet per second is inadequate. [1]
There is a plan in the process of being approved that will see 11 gates added adjacent to the present structure, whereas it cannot be added on to safely. And thanks to the efforts of Congressman Dan Crenshaw, he has been working with the city to fund this project since he won the seat after Ted Poe decided not to seek re-election.
At the epicenter of the issues is Kingwood, a master planned community developed by Friendswood Development Corporation, a then division of ExxonMobil Corporation, in 1972. It sits in the northeast corner of Harris County, which borders Montgomery County and on the banks of Lake Houston, where the east and west forks of the San Jacinto River converge. It is approximately 10 miles from George Bush Airport. It has an approximate population of 60,000 and was annexed by Houston in 1994.
Kingwood continues to be one of Harris County’s premier communities to live. With its historically great schools and low crime, it has always been a great place to raise a family, and many residents age in place within the community.
Montgomery County:
Montgomery County’s population in 1953 was approximately 24,000 people, and by 1970, the population had grown to 45,000 as the Houston suburbs began to form.
Conroe/Lake Conroe
Conroe was a small lumber community founded in the 1880s, that grew to approximately 7,000 residents in the 1970s. In 1968, the City of Houston contracted to have Lake Conroe built as a response to the 1950s droughts and to add a secondary reservoir to its system to help protect the growing population of Houston. The lake was completed in 1973 and became an economic draw to the community of Conroe, to Montgomery County as a whole. Although Houston owns Lake Conroe, it has been allowed to be used for recreational purposes. In 2025, Conroe is home to 120,000 people, who believe that Lake Conroe is theirs for recreational purposes first, creating a great divide with their neighbors to the south in Kingwood.
The Woodlands
In 1974, George P. Mitchell changed the trajectory of Montgomery County by founding The Woodlands as another master planned community that at the time rivaled Kingwood as a premier place to live. This, along with Lake Conroe, has led to a meteoric rise in Montgomery County’s population to 750,000 in 2024, as well as significant economic contributions. It is deemed the reddest county in Texas and home to many high-profile politicians and celebrities.
San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA):
Started in 1937 for agricultural management, the role of the SJRA morphed into an agency to help protect water resources after the 7-year drought of the 1950s. It has overseen the construction of many reservoir lakes throughout Texas, including Lake Conroe, which was built in collaboration with the City of Houston and the Texas Water Development Board. And, the SJRA continues to manage Lake Conroe, its tide pools, and its water releases, which flow down to the East and West Forks of the San Jacinto River and directly into Lake Houston. It now stores 430,000 acre-feet and maintains a 201-foot pool elevation.
Flood Events for Kingwood Caused by Montgomery County
October 1994
In 1994, right after the opening of West Lake Houston Parkway to the South of Kingwood Drive, a large flood occurred. Water encroached into Kingwood through the Forest Cove section and reached as far as Kingwood Drive via the new section of West Lake Houston Parkway. Lower-lying homes that were adjacent to the lake flooded. Although much of Forset Cove was flooded, most of Kingwood itself was not.
This flood was random, and no one had ever seen an event like this. As government officials investigated the matter, it was determined that the SJRA had released too much water too quickly from Lake Conroe, causing it to flow down the San Jacinto River to Lake Houston faster than it could be released from Lake Houston. And thus began the fight between Kingwood and Lake Conroe.
At the time, there was a gentleman’s agreement that would never be done again, and it held until Hurricane Harvey.
Hurricane Harvey 2017
Hurricane Harvey brought an unprecedented amount of rainfall to the Houston area and Lake Conroe. In doing so, the water rose so quickly that they opened the gates on Lake Conroe, letting out 79,000 cfs, well above the 10,000 cfs that Lake Houston can release, causing catastrophic flood damage through Kingwood, with the water crossing over Kingwood Drive and going into homes and schools that had not seen water ever. The entire south side of Kingwood was flooded from the San Jacinto River to Rustic Wood Drive and all points in between. 50% of all the lives lost in Harvey were in Kingwood.
Elm Grove/Taylor Gully 2019 (May/Sept)
This flood event had nothing to do with the historical situation with the SJRA and Lake Conroe. Instead, this had everything to do with the lack of enforcement of laws by Montgomery County, as they turned a blind eye while Perry Homes came in and clear-cut 300 acres, using an inadequate drainage ditch that flooded 600 homes unnecessarily, not once but twice, within 4 months.
Flooding is a more recent issue because of Montgomery County’s over zealous building initatives. Their refusal to enforce laws create situations with homeowners that take years to manifest, only to allow the builders to walk away from projects before issues happen.
It seems all the elected officials in Montgomery County have little regard or understanding for the dymanics of this situation. Some take a position of neutrality and don’t vote for or against initiatives.
In the case of Steve Toth, he seems to be the worst of it, because he has not researched the issue enough to even have a solid conversation about it. But worse is that he doesn’t want to learn. He wants to try to tell the people on the front side of this we are wrong after so many have worked for years to bring about change that protects the ressidents of Kingwood. We can only hope this is arrogance that drives this rather than being in the tank for donors, which I have long felt was the case with many in Montgomery County. Builders are donors and there for we can only do what the donors say.
The problem is that people are getting killed because of these policies. When you tell them this happend, they tell you we are making it up yet we have a list of the people killed in Harvey. We have a list of the home owners in Elm Grove that lost their pets. We have a property damage report after property damage report.
But maybe the biggest issue of all is the not being willing to listen. To have so much huberis as to not want to hear about the struggles of the people you are wanting to represent. So when people tell you who they are believe them. And Steve Toth has told us who he is in actions, not in words. We have all been warned.
