By Marty Kufus

SAN ANTONIO — Coming soon to a county clerk and county library near you: a three-volume draft of the first 50-year water plan for the region.

The South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Group approved the draft of its “initially prepared plan” Thursday at a daylong workshop.

The printed copies are to be distributed in the 21 affected counties beginning Aug. 25.

“I think there is little question it will be over 1,000 pages,” technical consultant Sam Vaugh, of HDR Engineering, Inc., of Austin, said after the workshop at the headquarters of the San Antonio River Authority.

Minutes earlier, planners applauded themselves and their consultants after agreeing to send the draft plan to the printer.

Left unresolved Thursday was an interregional disagreement over the aquifer-pumping goals in Bastrop County of a San Antonio project, according to discussion.

The issue will be debated Sept. 7, at the Region L group’s monthly meeting, by technical representatives of the San Antonio Water System and Alcoa and the Lower Colorado Regional Water Planning Group and Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District of Bastrop.

Calendar

The initially prepared plan is due Oct. 2 at the Texas Water Development Board.

Region L’s final plan is due Jan. 5, as are those of 15 other Texas planning regions.

The water board so far has spent about $20.6 million on Senate Bill 1 planning in the 16 regions.

Senate Bill 1, the omnibus water law enacted in 1997, was inspired by the Texas drought of 1996.

Wilson County

On Thursday afternoon, regional planner Darrell Brownlow, a Wilson County resident, made the motion to submit the “preliminary water resources plan” to the public.

It passed by consensus.

The draft plan’s list of recommended water projects or strategies reflects a “safe yield” pumping limit for the Carrizo Aquifer in Wilson County, as set in June by the Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District.

The draft plan contains no recommendations for large, new reservoirs, such as the “Cibolo,” “Goliad,” or “Sandies Creek” in rural counties.

But a spokesman for the Wilson County Water Action Project repeated her request that regional planners permanently delete the 16,000-acre “Cibolo Reservoir” proposal from any future consideration.

“Please let these people get on with their lives and out from under the threat” of such a project, said project Chairman Diane Savage.

The planning group did not act on the request.

Each regional water plan is subject to amendment, and will be reviewed every five years.

Money?

A San Antonio resident led the public comments Thursday. His concern: the bill for new water.

“I want to see what Bexar County [residents] are going to pay for their water in the future,” said Karl Wurz, who commonly introduces himself at such meetings as “the original endangered specie.”

Much of the 20 1/2-county region’s long-range challenge is in meeting the needs of Bexar County’s rapidly growing population, in the face of limits on the Edwards Aquifer.

According to the executive summary in volume one of the draft plan, “Annual costs … (in 1999 dollars) are estimated to range from a low of about $120 million in the immediate future, as some of the least costly water management strategies are developed, to a high of about $425 million in 2040, at which time desalination of seawater is projected to be implemented.

“Estimated unit costs average $616 per acre-foot [about 325,860 gallons] or $1.89 per 1,000 gallons over the 50-year planning horizon,” it said.

Public response

Regional planners are urging the public to scrutinize the draft plan and comment on it at three hearings next month:

•Sept. 25, 7 p.m., Victoria Community Center Annex, 2905 E. North St., Victoria;

•Sept. 26, 7 p.m., Sgt. Willie DeLeon Civic Center, 300 E. Main, Uvalde; and,

•Sept. 27, 7 p.m., Laurie Auditorium, Trinity University, 715 Stadium, San Antonio.

Officials at the Texas Water Development Board also will examine the proposed draft plan in the coming weeks.

Drawing on public and water-board criticism, the regional group will make agreed-on changes to the draft plan by October, according to discussion last week.

The next monthly meeting of the Region L planning group is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., Sept. 7, in the community center in Boerne.

It is open to the public.