By Margarette Chavez
Wilson County News

Diane Savage from the Wilson County Water Action Project, once again requested to have 11,000 acre-feet of ground water from Wilson County slated for Bexar County slashed from the state plan at Thursday’s South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Group meeting at the San Antonio River Authority.

There’s no new or economically feasible water inclusion in the plan for any of agricultural needs, according to Savage.

She said the Action Project wants to participate in a regional solution to the water problem. But that taking water from an area that needs it, and moving it to another region, is not solving the problem, it’s just moving it.

Savage alluded to Wilson County’s spreading population by saying that “from the looks of things anyone in Bexar County who might have benefited from those 11,000 acres [of water] will already be living in Wilson County.”

Planning group member Darrell Brownlow said Monday in a phone interview there needed to be data indicating the water wasn’t needed elsewhere, then the numbers could be refined down, or possibly up, over the course of the planning cycle.

During the water demand projections portion of the meeting, the question of what kind of impact the Toyota plant will have on Bexar and the surrounding counties was asked. Eugene Habiger of the San Antonio Water System explained there had been no discussion in this area until a requirement came in from Toyota, which was, “We want one million gallons a day, and we want them very cheap.”

Water demand estimates for the plant run approximately a 1,000-acre feet a year. The Economic Development Foundation calculates 4,000 jobs at the Toyota plant, a number the foundation is multiplying by a factor of eight or nine to include subcontractors and others. The plant will not be located over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone.

Habiger said the Toyota folks are the most environmentally sensitive people that you could ask to come to San Antonio. He provided an example saying that when Toyota found out they were to be conveyed 637 aces of the Apple White Project north of the Medina River, they had their own environmental engineers examine the property. The board knew there were five old oil wells on that property, one of which had leaked about 100 gallons a few years ago; there was also a slurry pit associated with the initial construction. Toyota highlighted those items and immediately demanded mediation before they’d consider the project going forward.

When the planning group turned their attention to a draft of water demand projections, it elicited a lengthy discussion. Herb Grubb of HDR went over definitions, methodology, definitions, and documentation on how projections were made by the Texas Water Development Board.

The group conceded that in part confusion stems from the fact the Water Development Board is working with reports from the industry. According to Grubb, a lack of manpower forces them to rely on self-reporting methods.

“Getting the right data base to begin with, based on what the industry wants to report, is fun-damental to making all these projections,” said Grubb.

Brownlow explained on Monday that collecting data from a municipality or SAWS, which have a reporting system in place, provide good data. But industry has had no reporting requirements until two years ago when the legislature made re-porting mandatory.

“The quality of your plan is only as good as your data,” said Brownlow. “In the future, we’ll all see a need to provide accurate data for planning.”

The planing group considered various additional ideas for water conservation management strategy. What are we going to do; what’s the return; what’s it going to cost; how are you going to enforce it?

Public education as part conservation program was tossed out as an idea. Grubb mentioned that in Austin public education has been beneficial.

Another thought was to use the grants and loans for water districts as incentives. If users don’t comply then the water district receives no incentives.

Other suggestions ranged from having utilities disclose high water users; to having the state mandate a policy “so we’re playing by the same rules,” to having a baseline rate then up-ping the rates as you use more water.

“This is a very contentious issue,” said Brownlow. “Have everyone reduce their water consumption. It’s fair and we’d have a standard. On the surface, it seems a simple argument. But there’s problem with it. The devil is in the details. Is it fair to compare how much water per capita someone in Fair Oaks Ranch or Hollywood Park uses versus someone in Somerset or Floresville?

“Someone in Floresville doesn’t have the massive manicured lawn. How much more does a person with a $1,000,000 home pay in property tax? That money is used to maintain the infrastructure. If they can afford to pay for it [water], should we say no?

“We getting involved in social responsibility issues. I don’t think the planing board should endorse plans to mandate or require certain measures, but rather it should promote conservation.”

The highlight of the meeting was the revelation that the 2001 plan had overestimated popula-tion over the next 50 years.

“The plan for 2006 indicates water demand projections were overestimated by 500,000 acre-feet. Subtract 200,000 for irrigation and we’ll need 300,000 acre-feet of water less than projected — 15 times the amount of water Wilson County uses on an annual basis,” said Brownlow.

The reason for the overstated numbers was the fact that the census showed the population increase in Bexar County at a much slower rate than the 2001 plan had projected.

The planning group is asking the board for a meeting in which questions pertaining to the data can be addressed.

The planning group is sending water user groups, counties, water districts, in-dustry manufacturing, and agriculture, (trade groups i.e. farm bureau, manufacturing associations, utilities the available data on water demand projections. The planning group will decide whether to hold a workshop on the water demand projections at a later date.

The planning group also approved for the executive board to handle the next step in the process for changes to county population projections until the next meeting.
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