Harris County Municipal Utility District 501

Due to continuing service impacts from Hurricane Beryl and long wait times at area landfills, Texas Pride Disposal was unable to complete household garbage collection within the District on Friday, July 12th.

Texas Pride stated that crews will be out today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday) to attempt to complete collection in the neighborhood. Any household garbage not collected by the end of the day Sunday will be collected on the next normal service date, Tuesday, July 16th.

As a reminder, recycling, heavy trash, and landscaping/storm debris will not be collected until next week. The Towne Lake and Heritage HOAs have been notified about the delayed collection.

We appreciate your patience as we work to recover from this major regional event.

Dear Customer:

Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 501 (MUD 501) has rescinded Stage 1 (voluntary) water conservation measures for potable (drinking) water. The West Harris County Regional Water Authority, which provides potable water to Harris County MUD No. 500’s Service Area, including MUD 501, also has rescinded its Stage 1 (voluntary) water conservation measures for their potable water usage.

The Board of Directors appreciates your cooperation and perseverance as we recover from the effects of Hurricane Beryl.

Due to continuing service impacts from Hurricane Beryl, Texas Pride Disposal was unable to complete household garbage collection within the District on Tuesday, July 9th.

Texas Pride stated that any household garbage that was not collected on Tuesday will be collected on Friday, July 12th.

As a reminder, recycling, heavy trash, and landscaping/storm debris will not be collected until next week.

Stage 1 Voluntary Water Conservation (PDF)

Dear Customer:

Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 501 (MUD 501) has initiated Stage 1 (voluntary) water conservation measures for potable (drinking) water and is requesting that all potable water users reduce their usage immediately. The West Harris County Regional Water Authority, which provides potable water to Harris County MUD No. 500’s Service Area, including MUD 501, also has initiated its Stage 1 (voluntary) water conservation measures due to the impact of Hurricane Beryl and disruption to the Authority’s water supply from the City of Houston and is requesting that all water users voluntarily reduce their potable water usage.

Stage 1 (Voluntary) water use restrictions now in place:

Customers are requested to reduce non-essential water use as follows voluntarily:

1. District residents and other water users within the District are requested that non-essential water use, including, but not limited to, landscape irrigation use, be limited to three (3) days per week, and run times be reduced by 5%.
2. Potable water used outdoors for irrigation or other uses be avoided between the hours of 6:00 am and 9:00 am and between the hours of 6:00 pm and 12:00 am (midnight).

Please check the settings on the controller for your irrigation system to make adjustments to the dates and times the system runs to implement these requested changes. Please note that the Towne Lake Community Association uses non-potable water from the lakes for irrigation of certain common areas throughout the Towne Lake community, which helps to reduce demand on the potable water system and preserve the availability of potable water for other uses.

MUD 501 will continue to monitor potable water use and will provide another notice if the drought stage changes or if Stage 1 drought conditions have been lifted. The MUD 501 Board of Directors appreciates your cooperation and perseverance during this challenging time.

Due to the impact of Hurricane Beryl on the Houston area, Texas Pride Disposal has informed the District that only household garbage will be collected the week of July 9th – July 12th.

Heavy trash and recycling collection services will resume next week on the District’s regularly scheduled collection days.

The MUD 501 Board recently completed negotiations with the District’s garbage and recycling provider, Texas Pride Disposal, for a new five-year garbage and recycling contract, which will begin on July 1^st.  Due to the substantially escalating costs of garage door collection, the MUD 501 Board made the difficult decision to switch to curbside garbage and recycling collection with the new contract.

Beginning on July 1^st, your garbage and recycling will be collected curbside and will not be collected if it is placed in the prior garage door location. Please place trash cans/bags and recycling carts at the curb by 5:30 a.m. on each collection day.

Elderly or disabled residents may contact Texas Pride, at 281-342-8178, or service@texaspridedisposal.com, to request valet garbage and recycling collection, if required. Valet service will include continued collection of garbage and recycling material at the garage door location, visible from the street.

We appreciate your understanding as the MUD 501 Board strives to continue to provide high-quality, cost-effective services to our community.

For more information, please visit the MUD 501 website, at https://www.hcmud501.org/trash-recycling/.

On May 16, 2024, thousands of residents in Cypress were alerted to take cover as tornado warnings indicated a twister was approaching. In reality, Cypress experienced a derecho, a powerful straight-line wind storm. According to the National Weather Service, a derecho is a widespread, long-lived windstorm associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.

In Towne Lake, many residents faced power and internet outages for several days. Meanwhile, the Heritage community was severely affected by an EF-1 tornado, causing extensive damage.

MUD 501 quickly responded by providing dumpsters for all Towne Lake residents to dispose of spoiled food and yard debris, a service greatly appreciated by the community.

The memory of this significant weather event will not soon be forgotten.

Due to the ongoing clean up efforts in Towne Lake, both the Heritage and Crossing dumpsters have again filled up.  MUD 501 has requested that Texas Pride remove and replace the dumpsters as soon as possible.  Replacement is expected  to occur on or about Wednesday, May 29^th.  The MUD 501 Board continues to respectfully request that residents wait to dispose of additional debris until the new dumpsters have arrived. Please do not stack debris next to the dumpsters once they have filled up.

Harris County also is continuing with their curbside debris removal process, which is expected to continue for multiple weeks.  As a reminder, please report debris to Harris County’s debris hotline by calling 713-274-3880.  You also can call Precinct 3 dispatch at 713-274-3100, if the debris hotline is busy.

Please see the below graphic for information on sorting your debris to assist with Harris County’s collection efforts.  Please also avoid parking along the curb in front of or immediately across from debris piles if at all possible to avoid blocking collection trucks and equipment.

For more information on disaster recovery resources, please visit https://www.readyharris.org/Resources/Disaster-Recovery-Resources.

At 4 pm on Friday, May 24th, Texas Pride notified MUD 501 that they unfortunately were not able to remove the full dumpsters and deliver the new dumpsters to the Heritage and Crossing locations today.

Replacement of both dumpsters now is expected to occur on Saturday, May 25th.

We apologize for any inconvenience for the delay.

The MUD 501 Board continues to respectfully request that residents wait to dispose of additional debris until the new dumpsters have arrived. Please do not stack debris next to the dumpsters.

As noted in an earlier update, Harris County will be providing curbside storm debris removal service throughout the County, including within MUD 501, in the coming weeks.

Please see the correspondence below from Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey regarding storm debris removal procedures, and be sure to contact the debris hotline at (713) 274-3880 to request debris removal.

Please place storm debris curbside according to the below graphic and do not include storm debris with your household garbage.  

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Precinct 3 Residents,

Precinct 3 Road and Bridge crews and contracted trucks will be starting debris pick-up on Monday, May 20th. Our area stretches from The Villages up to Cypress, through Tomball, Spring, Humble, Atascocita, then down the San Jacinto River through Huffman, Crosby, Highlands, and Baytown to Channelview. We were especially hard hit in Cypress and The Villages areas.

We expect debris operations to last for weeks to months, so please be patient as we move through the affected areas. Each debris zone where debris has been reported will have assets assigned. Presence will be heavier in the most impacted areas.

The most impactful things you can do to help are as follows:

• REPORT DEBRIS to our hotline by calling 713-274-3880, this greatly helps with planning and staging of assets. You can also call Precinct 3 dispatch at 713-274-3100, if the debris hotline is busy.
• Follow the debris staging/sorting guidelines in the attached handout (vegetative, construction, appliances, electronics, hazardous).
• If at all possible, do not park cars on the street near or across from debris piles. Our trucks and equipment are very large and if an area is not able to be accessed we will have to return later once obstructions have been removed.

Please know that we understand how traumatic and disruptive an event like this can be. Many of our crews who will be working in your areas are also Precinct 3 residents with property damage and power outages… this makes us especially proud to be serving you. Thank you for your partnership in the recovery efforts.

Sincerely,
Tom Ramsey Commissioner Precinct 3