By Suzanne Scott, San Antonio River Authority

SAN ANTONIO — The South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Group on Thursday approved the regional water plan for the 20-1/2 counties in Region L. The plan will be submitted to the Texas Water Development Board and merged with the water plans from the other 15 planning regions in the state.

Region L comprises Bexar, Atascosa, 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.

The plan represents the culmination of more than 60 meetings of the 21-member regional group, spanning a 2-1/2-year period.

Tasked with meeting the water needs of the region through 2050, the group studied more than 75 water-resource options. The approved plan identifies 22 water-resource options that have the potential to yield 715,156 acre-feet of water annually by 2050, an amount sufficient to meet the anticipated water demands of the region.

An acre-foot equals 325,860 gallons.

“The planning group has worked diligently to complete a viable water plan for our region,” said Evelyn Bonavita, chairman of the planning group. “At times throughout the process some issues became contentious, but the group worked through them and developed a plan that will produce sufficient water resources to sustain our region’s future economic viability.”

As part of Senate Bill 1, passed by the Texas Legislature in 1997, 16 planning groups throughout the state have been developing their respective region’s water plan. Each plan must detail water-management strategies to meet projected water demands in a drought of record in the state through 2050.

All regional water plans were to have been submitted to the Texas Water Development Board by Jan. 5. The board will review plans and merge them into a statewide water plan by January 2002.

The South Texas Regional Water Planning Group completed the initial draft of the regional water plan last August and released the plan for public comment. A series of public meetings were held in September. More than 125 public comments were officially received. The comments represented 39 issue areas. Planning-group responses to the comments are included in the approved plan.

Copies of the approved plan will be available for public viewing in the county library and the county clerk’s office in each county in the region by mid-January. The plan also will be available through the water board’s Web site at www.twdb.state.tx.us.

The San Antonio River Authority is, by contract, the Region L planning group’s administrator.