By Marty Kufus

CUERO — Two interregional water projects, totaling as much as $2.26 billion in costs but potentially meeting at least half of the San Antonio region’s future shortfall, were formally proposed Thursday to water planners meeting here.

Among each of the proposals’ selling points is the possible development of as much or more water than a new reservoir, without the environmental and social impacts of a reservoir, according to discussions and reports.

The South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Group (representing “Region L”) took no formal action Thursday on the two proposals.

The planners agreed to study them further.

The two proposals — a 50-year water deal with the Lower Colorado River Authority, and a Gulf desalination plant — already appear in general form in Region L’s list of options in a recently developed “hybrid plan” (July 5 Wilson County News).

Consultant HDR Engineering, Inc., will present a full analysis of the hybrid plan — last week renamed the “new draft alternative” — at a July 25 workshop.

If the list of options (possible water projects) is shown to be insufficient, additional options would be reconsidered — among them, possibly, a “Cibolo Reservoir.”

On paper, Wilson County’s contribution in regional planning is 11,196 acre-feet annually from the Carrizo Aquifer, as set by the Evergreen Underground Water Conversation District.

Some regional planners last week expressed a willingness to consider adding a 2,900-acre “Lockhart Reservoir,” for local use in Caldwell County, if research shows there is public support.

The “initially prepared,” or first version of, Region L’s 20 1/2-county plan is due Oct. 2 in Austin.

The final plan is due in January at the Texas Water Development Board, as are those of 15 other planning regions.

Projects recommended in the water board’s statewide plan in January 2002 — subject then to the Legislature’s approval — would receive priority consideration for governmental permits and fiscal support.

Both of Thursday’s proposals to Region L planners would require a long-term financial commitment from a San Antonio-area water purveyor or partnership, according to discussions.

Central to one of Thursday’s proposals is the pipeline diversion of 150,000 acre-feet of water a year to the San Antonio area, mostly from the lower Colorado River below Austin and between Bastrop and Matagorda counties.

The project would fund other water development in the lower Colorado River basin: new aquifer-well fields, conservation, and, possibly, four small “off-channel reservoirs.”

This proposal by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) of Austin would require a San Antonio-area entity or partnership to foot the entire bill — $800 million to $1 billion — for the 50-year project.

There would not be a “permanent transfer” of water rights from the river basin, according to discussion.

The project’s total yield would be 330,000 acre-feet a year. Of that, 180,000 would remain in the Lower Colorado region (also known as planning “Region K”), according to the LCRA’s report.

An acre-foot is 325,860 gallons: enough for about eight people a year consuming an average amount of water.

Region L planners agreed to meet July 18 in San Marcos with Region K planners and LCRA officials for further discussion of the proposal.

A large interregional project could go a long way in meeting the San Antonio area’s growing needs.

If no new sources were developed, the south-central region’s year-2050 shortfall would be around 400,000 acre-feet, even allowing for conservation and not counting future irrigational demand.

Much of that shortfall will occur in Bexar County, according to technical forecasts.

Region L comprises Atascosa, Bexar, Caldwell, Calhoun, Comal, DeWitt, Dimmit, Frio, Goliad, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Karnes, Kendall, La Salle, Medina, Refugio, Uvalde, Victoria, Wilson, and Zavala counties, and part of Hays County.

Region K comprises Mills, San Saba, Llano, Burnet, Gillespie, Blanco, Travis, Bastrop, Fayette, Colorado, and Matagorda counties, and parts of Williamson, Hays, and Wharton counties.

Region K planning-group Chairman John Burke, of Bastrop, introduced the LCRA’s proposal Thursday.

He called it a “win for San Antonio, a win for the environment, and a win for the Highland Lakes…”

In the proposal “there are many things yet to be figured out,” Paul Thornhill, the LCRA’s executive manager of water codes, acknowledged.

An LCRA delegation came prepared with a slide show and documents. The presentation and follow-up discussion lasted more than an hour.

Region L planner Greg Ellis, general manager of the San Antonio-based Edwards Aquifer Authority, recapped the proposal: Regional L entities would pay for the project and get 150,000 acre-feet a year. The unit cost would be $730 to $860 per acre foot.

Ellis asked if the LCRA would consider chipping in, too. The answer was no.

Thornhill said the LCRA would not profit from the deal. “This pays for a shortage,” he said.

Minutes later, planner Mike Thuss, president and CEO of the San Antonio Water System (SAWS), remarked, “I’m guardedly optimistic we can work out the details…”

SAWS already had been fully apprised of the LCRA’s proposal. It “should be included in our draft [regional] plan,” Thuss recommended.

Planner Con Mims, executive director of the Nueces River Authority, asked, “How exclusive is this offer?”

“We don’t intend to shop this around,” Thornhill replied.

But if the Region L planners are not interested, he did not know what would happen next.

In the proposal, Region K would keep 180,000 acre-feet annually to raise the levels in the recreational Highland Lakes (Travis and Buchanan) and meet small “municipal” needs.

That water also would ensure future irrigational demands of rice farming in the region are met, according to LCRA documents.

Region K planners have forecast a 160,000 acre-foot water shortfall there in agricultural irrigation for the year 2050.

Region L planners, on the other hand, have been unsuccessful in their efforts to identify local water projects that would meet future irrigational needs in their region at prices affordable to farmers (May 10 Wilson County News). The LCRA’s proposal, endorsed by Region K planners, represents a breakthrough of sorts in the sometimes-thorny relations between the two water-planning regions.

In April, Burke sent a letter to Region L planners, specifying in “nine points” the guidelines for cooperation.
Of the 76 options Region L planners have studied, 14 involve imported aquifer or surface water from the lower Colorado River basin.

“All 14 options would face stiff opposition,” an LCRA document, handed out Thursday, stated.

In the other proposal, by the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority in Edna, the construction of a high-tech desalination plant would produce large quantities of premium-priced fresh water, some of which could be piped to the San Antonio area from the Gulf coast.

The Texas Water Development Board sanctioned the study.

The desalination plant would be built beside CP&L’s Joslin Steam Electric Station in Point Comfort and get its power there, according the river authority’s report.

To remove salt, the plant would inject heated seawater into “reverse osmosis [filtration] or a combined-cycle reverse osmosis/multiple effect distillation,” the report said.

The costs of construction of a desalination and water-treatment plant, a 156-mile pipeline to the San Antonio area, pump stations, and purchases of land totaled $755,124,000, according to the report.

Its yield would be 100,000 acre-feet a year, at a unit cost $1,099 per acre-foot, the report said.

An expanded version of the plan also would blend 100,000 acre-feet a year from the Colorado and Guadalupe rivers. Estimated total cost of the combined project: $1.26 billion.

Its yield would be 200,000 acre-feet, at a unit cost of $914 per acre-foot. The project would, by agreement, use Corpus Christi’s Mary Rhodes pipeline, according to the report.

Jack Nelson, general manager of the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority, submitted the proposal to Region L planners.

He also is a member of the “Region P” planning group, which represents Lavaca and Jackson counties and part of Wharton County.

In the proposal’s full scheme, the report said, “A public-private partnership … could include the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority as the managing partner for the desalination and transmission facilities; the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority as the managing entity of the surface-water treatment plant at the Guadalupe salt-water barrier; City of Corpus Christi as the provider of raw surface water from the Colorado River under contract to LNRA or GBRA for treatment and provision to SAWS…”

If interbasin agreements were worked out and funding provided, the project could be completed in three to five years, according to discussion.

Consultant Mark Lowry said technology and engineering can answer two environmental concerns.

Biological solids and microscopic marine organisms sucked into the desalination plant would be separated out and returned undamaged to Lavaca Bay or Matagorda Bay, he explained.

Half of the Gulf water processed in the plant would have to be discharged as a very salt-heavy solution.

The disposal pipeline would be routed offshore far enough to avoid significantly raising the salinity of either bay, he said.