$3 Billion to Pump It in

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$3 Billion to Pump It in

16 Billion Gallons of Groundwater to be Piped from Central Texas'Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to San Antonio Texas USA

San Antonio might either be on the cusp of securing its water future at a relatively low cost, or it is pinning most of its hopes on a multibillion-dollar boondoggle that could diminish the water supply for fast-growing Central Texas and wouldn't deliver what San Antonio expects.

For decades, the city has searched for a water supply beyond the dwindling Edwards Aquifer. And now officials at San Antonio Water System, the city's water utility, are negotiating with two private companies — the Austin-based Central Texas water supplier BlueWater and the Spanish company Abengoa — to pipe in 16 billion gallons of water a year from Burleson County in Central Texas. The utility estimates that the project would cost $3 billion over 30 years and boost its water supply by about 20 percent starting in 2019.

Berto Guerra, chairman of the SAWS board, said the project would be key in ensuring the city remains a good place to do business in the coming decades.

Available groundwater may indeed be a concern, even though the two water companies say they've already secured more than enough water rights from the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District, which regulates groundwater withdrawals in Burleson County. According to the district's current groundwater models, just under 20 billion gallons of water a year are available from the Carrizo-Wilcox there.

A few billion gallons a year are already pumped from the aquifer by small towns in the county. At the same time, just across the county line in the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District, two water companies are fighting district officials and local landowners to pull about 15 billion gallons of water annually from the same aquifer.

Westbrook also appeared surprised that SAWS would in 2019begin pumping the full 16 billion gallons out of the aquifer, because most of the other pumpers in the district today don't use the entirety of the groundwater that is allocated to them. "If they go to the full [16 billion gallons], obviously that's going to change a lot of our considerations. That's going to be a much different permit than we're used to dealing with, and that's okay," he said.

SAWS officials say they're protected from such concerns because the water companies that would be pumping and transporting the water have bought up extra land and water rights in excess of 16 billion gallons a year. They also say thetwo companies have agreed that SAWS will only pay for the maximum amount of water the companies can physically deliver. If that turns out to be less than 16 billion gallons of water per year because of pumping curtailments, the companies would lose that money, not SAWS.

Source: Texas Tribune

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