By Marty Kufus

SAN ANTONIO — In a forum where rural- county residents have railed against proposals for new reservoirs, a Caldwell County delegation Thursday asked regional water planners to help ensure a "Lockhart Reservoir" does get built someday.

The South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Group, in its monthly meeting, also mulled over public and state water-board reactions to its "initially prepared plan."

Criticisms and concerns voiced in September in three major public hearings, as well as recent technical nitpicks by the Texas Water Development Board’s staff, will require no substantial changes to the draft plan, according to discussion Thursday.

The regional planners and their consulting engineers must address major public concerns and include that material in the final version of their 50-year plan.

It is due Jan. 5 at the state water board.

So are those of 15 other Texas water-planning regions — none of which faces the challenge of a region containing San Antonio: a rapidly growing city that currently relies solely on the Edwards Aquifer.

The draft plan for the south-central region (Region L) contains about two dozen recommended projects or strategies to increase the water available to the region through the year 2050, at a cost of several billion dollars.

Two projects envision large and costly pipelines to the lower Colorado River and to the Guadalupe River at its saltwater barrier. Time frame: 10 to 30 years.

The construction of a high-tech desalination plant on the Gulf coast, and a 133-mile pipeline to Bexar County, is projected as a possibility in 2040, according to the draft plan.

By 2010, Wilson County is projected to provide about 11,000 acre-feet a year from the Carrizo Aquifer for export via pipeline to Bexar County, according to the draft plan.

That amount conforms to a "safe yield" limit set independently by the Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District. (An acre-foot is about 325,860 gal-lons.)

The draft plan doesn’t recommend any new, large reservoirs such as a 16,000-acre"Cibolo" in central Wilson County.

Planners also looked ahead Thursday to the next round of planning: year 2001 through 2005.

Their tentative five-year budget — to be approved at a Nov. 9 workshop in San Antonio — put the cost of technical research and planning at about $2.46 million, and public-participation activities at $650,000.

Under 1997’s Senate Bill 1, the state water board pays for regional planning and is responsible for assembling a state plan next year.

It will be submitted to the Legislature, which is gearing up for a water-heavy session beginning in January. (The eventual funding of water projects is being referred to, jokingly, as "Senate Bill, Too.")

Looking ahead, one of the 21 voting member of the Region L group submitted his letter of resignation.

Fred Pfeiffer, the former general manager of the San Antonio River Authority, had served from the outset of regional planning in 1998 as the group’s secretary.

Planners Thursday agreed his successor also should represent "river authorities."

There are three within the 20 1/2- county region: the San Antonio River Authority (which also is the planning group’s administrator), the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, and the Nueces River Authority. Bill West, general manager of the Guadalupe-Blanco authority, and Con Mims, executive director of the Nueces authority, are voting members of the Region L group.

There is a Dec. 21 deadline for nominations for Pfeiffer’s successor, according to discussion.

Next September, all of the voting members will draw straws for two- or five-year terms.

Caldwell County Judge H.T. Wright and Lockhart Mayor Ray Sanders and Councilman Jim Stephens spoke in favor of a reservoir there.

Unlike much larger proposals — such as the "Cibolo" in Wilson County, the "Goliad" in Goliad and Karnes, and the "Cuero I" in DeWitt and Gonzales — that mostly would have benefited San Antonio, a 2,910-acre "Lockhart" is viewed as primarily benefiting Caldwell County.

It would be built on Plum Creek, a tributary of the San Marcos River, north of Lockhart. The project’s estimated construction cost in current dollars: $60.7 million.

The draft plan states: "There are questions about economic feasibility at present, but the [Region L group] recognizes the efforts in Caldwell County and by the Guadalupe –Blanco River Authority to find a viable strategy.… When that strategy is ready, the [group] will review the Lockhart Reservoir water-supply option as a possible amendment."

Planners Thursday assured the Caldwell County delegation there would be funding for a feasibility study.

The language in the draft plan "would not hinder [state] funding for feasibility analysis," said nonvoting planner Jorge Arroyo, an assistant division director at the state water board.

Mayor Sanders reminded the planners that "we have no surface water as a backup," and that the last drought caused heavy pumping of Carrizo Aquifer wells there.

Judge Wright pointed to the population growth in his county as a result of the "exodus out of Austin."

"Water is going to be absolutely critical to us," he said.

Wright asked planner West if he was satisfied with the plan’s language regarding a Lockhart Reservoir.

West said he was.

Also Thursday, the architects of the recharge and recirculation ("R&R") strategy for the Edwards Aquifer renewed their plea that the proposal be elevated in planning status.

Kirk and Carol Patterson have maintained that existing research shows the complex proposal for pipelines and small aquifer-recharge dams is capable of fortifying the Edwards and ensuring its springflows.

A majority of planners, however, had decided more study is needed before "R&R" could become an active strategy, and that the regional plan would have to be "amended to allow implementation."