San Antonio City Council approves pipeline to Burleson County
By Scott Huddleston - October 30, 2014
Henry Urban, of Lee and Bastrop Counties enters City Council Chamber to lend his opposition to the proposed San Antonio Water Systems 42-mile water pipeline during a San Antonio City Council hearing, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. The $3.4 billion pipeline, known as the Vista Ridge Water Supply Project would bring water from Burleson County, east of Austin, to San Antonio. It is expected to increase SAWS customers rate by as much as 17 percent...
SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio City Council unanimously approved a public-private project Thursday to build a 142-mile pipeline to transport up to 16.3 billion gallons annually from Central Texas to San Antonio for at least 30 years.
Council members said the water project, perhaps the largest in the city's history, will help diversify the local supply, relieve dependence on the Edwards Aquifer and expand the amount of water available during a drought by up to 20 percent.
The council vote followed appeals from about 40 people on both sides of the issue. Maria Berriozabal, a former councilwoman, said the pipeline is the latest of many projects, including two failed Applewhite reservoir voter initiatives in the 1990s, that had support of the business community and City Hall insiders but proved to be ill-advised.
“We have never had a project as expensive as this — ever,” said Berriozabal, whose declaration, “not in my name,” was dramatically echoed by several other opponents in the council chambers.
Margaret Day, executive committee chair with the Alamo Group of the Sierra Club, said the San Antonio Water System has produced a “smoke and mirrors show” to sell the project, without releasing key facts and figures. Rather than going 140 miles northeast for water, SAWS should focus on working with neighboring counties on expanded brackish water desalination, she said...
A lot more from both sides on the link:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/San-Antonio-City-Council-approves-pipeline-to-5858756.php#photo-7054480
It sounds dubious to me:
Under the pipeline project, the privately owned Vista Ridge Consortium will take on risks of the “politics of groundwater districts...”
It's not the “politics of groundwater districts...”as if the only risk is public relations. People upstream may find their homes, farms and ranches without the water they need. Trying to protect the Edwards Aquifer is a good thing. But AFAIK, Texas still has the right of discovery in place regarding water. It has been abused by some landowners, and fracking and other commercial enterprises also waste this vital resources.
I don't trust these private groups as they will seek to make profit instead of the public good, and if things go bad, they can split. The taxpayers however, will not be able to escape paying for something that fails to deliver to them.
Council accepts this as a necessary evil. Where are all the 'don't tread on me' types? Any thoughts?
= new reply since forum marked as read
And don't want to get my hopes up!
This is the typical scenario:
1. New source of water is found
2. City Council votes on it
3. Bunch of people protest it
4. People file lawsuits and renege
5. New source of water is gone
6. Rinse and repeat
The 'don't tread on me' group is part of the mix. This has been going on with San Antonio since the 1950s. The major flops were Canyon Lake, Applewhite, & Lower Colorado River.
One thing that they have done in San Antonio which is really cool is something called Aquifer Storage and Recovery. San Antonio Water System literally created an underground reservoir from a non-communicating aquifer. I believe it holds at least 100,000 acre feet. When the Edwards is above a certain level, the surplus is pumped and stored in sealed type of aquifer.
http://www.saws.org/Your_Water/WaterResources/projects/asr.cfm
