Thank goodness we live in San Antonio. Almost all national and international news continues to depress me. Almost all San Antonio major news continues to inspire and impress me.
Another major positive development for our region:
- 1. Robert Puente and the San Antonio Water System staff forge an major win-win-win deal with Gonzales County UWCD and Schertz/Sequin water pipeline system
- 3. Robert Rivard, Editor of the SA Express News, pushes it up a notch with his excellent column today. (see below)
On a related note, please mark your calendar for our Water Forum II
luncheon at the Pearl Stable on October 6, 2010. We are working diligently to ensure that this Forum meets the high standards of our March 9, 2010 Water Forum I. To help ensure that we do so, we have teamed up with:
The SA Greater Chamber Water Committee – Mayor Howard Peak
UTSA – Sustainability Energy Research Institute – Dr. Les Shephard
San Antonio Water System – Robert Puente
San Antonio River Authority – Suzanne Scott
KLRN PBS – Bill Moll
Robert Rivard will serve as Moderator, and Mayor Julian Castro will deliver a “Call to Action” address.
The Water Forum II will be broadcast in prime time at later dates by KLRN, PBS television throughout the State, and Texas Public Radio.
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No losers in SAWS deal on Carrizo Aquifer
Robert Rivard – SA Express News July 18, 2010
The 3-2 vote was a reminder that nothing comes easily, and a single vote stood between success and failure.
Still, significant progress was made last week when the Gonzales County Underground Water Conservation District voted to let the San Antonio Water System tap into the Carrizo Aquifer and pump enough water to meet the annual needs of 40,000 households here.
SAWS secured what it needs most undefined a new and reliable supply of water to supplement the Edwards Aquifer undefined and it demonstrated the ability to close a complex, mutually beneficial deal with another South Texas water management entity. Gonzales County gets a dependable flow of revenue from its wealthier urban neighbor.
There is one other beneficiary in this deal whose essential participation might escape the attention of readers. The Schertz-Seguin Local Government Corp., which owns a pipeline running from the Carrizo Aquifer to serve its customers, will sell excess pipeline capacity to SAWS to facilitate the water being pumped from Gonzales County to San Antonio.
Like their neighbors to the east, the residents of Schertz and Seguin will enjoy a new revenue stream that allows them to see SAWS as a water management partner rather than an adversary.
SAWS, in turn, will save the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to build an independent pipeline. Instead, the city will build two shorter lines, one linking its Carrizo Aquifer pumping well to the Schertz-Seguin line and from there another connecting to the SAWS network.
The water and cash will not start to flow until 2013, and the deal is likely to be challenged by dissenting Gonzales County citizens, but models that show the outflow to SAWS will not threaten the Carrizo Aquifer's viability probably will carry the day in court just as they did with a majority of the five-member board.
Cyclical droughts, periodic water conservation mandates and decades of regional and local political wrangling have led many people to believe South Texas, particularly San Antonio, faces a near-constant shortage of water, a predicament that swings from tolerable to severe.
However, “The fact is there is no shortage of water,” SAWS CEO Robert Puente said. “There is a perception that there is a shortage, but with conservation, the brackish water desalination project and the underground water storage we now have, we can meet our needs now and in the future. It's the politics of water that makes things so difficult.”
Put another way, water managers and water users in South Texas have an unprecedented opportunity to forge new regional relationships that serve everyone's long-term interests. Adversarial mind-sets need to change, compromises need to be struck, and everyone has to see an economic benefit. Public education along the way is important.
Continued good will and cooperation among the members of the Edwards Aquifer Authority is essential, as is a consensus among the dozens of stakeholders participating in the Regional Implementation Process, an ongoing initiative designed to keep water management out of the hands of federal authorities. For that to happen, a comprehensive plan that guarantees spring flows and protects endangered species has to be forged.
Water management and politics are complicated. Some people just want to know water will be there when they turn on the faucet. If that's you, at least know that last week's water deal was a win-win-win. It's also a model for other regional accords on the drawing board.
Robert Rivard is the editor of the Express-News. E-mail him at rrivard@express-news.net. Or follow him on Twitter at @editorrivard.