Collaboration the solution to aquifer protection
I’ve lived in San Antonio for the better part of the past 49 years, and over that time the questions, concerns, debates, consternation and angst over the Edwards Aquifer has been a prime topic of conversation (right after Texas weather). There is no question of the critical importance of water for our region’s economy and our survival.
So why the continued arguments, debates, fights and frustrations over water? Some say it’s over the God-given right to your land and its resources. Some say it’s over what’s best for the common good, and some say it’s about economics.
Water is an essential resource and has an intrinsic and real cash value. There’s the cost of finding and capturing it from rivers, lakes, wells and aquifers, as in our case. There’s the cost of delivering it and maintaining the delivery system. There’s the cost of treating water, and the cost of selling it; and to the case in point today, there’s the continuing cost of protecting it. The residents of San Antonio have voluntarily taken on that expense for the past 20 years — and rightfully so.
Who else was willing to spend millions of dollars to protect San Antonians, the local economy and our primary source of some of the best fresh water in the nation? The people from surrounding counties who also dearly rely on the aquifer? How about the ranchers, farmers and property owners in those counties who control ownership of the properties over the aquifer recharge and recovery zones? Many are recipients of much of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on acquiring conservation easements on their lands.
Meanwhile, over 20 years, many things have changed.
We avoided a couple of “pigs in a poke” by rejecting the big puddle called Applewhite, and successfully fought and closed down the multimillion-gallonper-hour catfish farm. We had the creation of the Edwards Aquifer Authority that has developed watering regulations to ensure no one’s lawn sprinklers overpump the Edwards.
On the other hand, to develop more stable water resources, we have acquired multiple water contracts with numerous other water districts in Central and South Texas, including the $2.8 billion Vista Ridge pipeline, and we have built one of the biggest and best water desalination facilities in the country at H2oaks. Not to mention one of the largest underground water storage facilities in Texas in our ASR, Aquifer Storage & Recovery project, now holding billions of gallons of water.
So now the issue facing the voters of the city of San Antonio is: Are we willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to continue to protect one of our region’s main sources of water?
I think the answer is yes, millions more, but possibly in a partnership arrangement with SAWS, the city of San Antonio and the Edwards Aquifer Authority. The people of San Antonio want to continue to see the protection of the aquifer, but should we bear that burden alone?
I support a collaboration between the three aforementioned partners to establish a long-term commitment to protecting the aquifer, with the city using some of its income from SAWS, paid to the city en lieu of taxes (that would be paid to the city if it were a private company) financing additional funding, which could be added to the projected $40 million still in the pipeline from the current 1⁄8-cent sales tax. Together the city could guarantee $100 million to acquire more protective conservation easements over the aquifer. At the end of the $100 million city expenditure, the Edwards Authority would take over future aquifer protection.
The devil is in the details, but who would argue that the future protection of the Edwards Aquifer could be in any better hands than the authority established by the Texas Legislature to regulate the water usage from the Edwards Aquifer?