By Marty Kufus
December 5, 2001
Wilson County News

The state’s environmental-regulation agency recently authorized the San Antonio Water System to drill and operate up to 34 wells in southern Bexar County at SAWS’ planned aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) and water-production site.
SAWS calls its approximately 3,000-acre site, located off Hardy Road east of I-37, the "Twin Oaks Aquifer Storage and Recovery Facility."
Below it is a portion of an outcrop of the Carrizo Aquifer.
The projected cost of the dual-use facility, including a large pipeline to San Antonio, has been estimated at $215 million.
Six of the "class 5 injection wells" will be "immediately constructed as ASR prototype wells, which will be developed and cycle-tested to provide final design information for full-scale ASR implementation," according to a Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission document dated Oct. 9.
The goal in the coming years is the storage of surplus Edwards Aquifer water, during wet spells, in the Carrizo outcrop for recovery (pumping) during dry spells and peak demands in San Antonio.
"This project is a key piece to both our short-term and long-term water supply plans for San Antonio, Bexar County, and South Central Texas. …," Eugene Habiger, SAWS’ president and chief executive officer, said in an announcement.
"The engineering design work is 60-percent complete and bids are being sought for the drilling of 17 wells," SAWS’ announcement said. "Construction is expected to begin June 2002 and should be completed by fall 2003."
The ASR project’s "7.3-billion gallon [storage] capacity will be the largest project of its kind in the state" and the second-largest in the nation, SAWS said.
Those 34 injection wells also could be used to pump billions of gallons of water from the Carrizo outcrop — a fact that has alarmed some neighboring well owners and officials at the Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District. Their fear is that a "draw down" would significantly lower water levels in wells for several miles around.
SAWS planners and engineers have acknowledged they do not yet have definitive scientific data on a possible "draw down."

A Feb. 2 election approaches in southern Bexar County.
The affected area is an upside-down triangle formed by the Atascosa and Wilson county lines on the south; S.H. 16 on the west; Loop 1604 on the north; and, U.S. 181 on the east. In the very bottom of that triangle is SAWS’ Twin Oaks property.
A grass-roots movement in southern Bexar County this summer generated petitions seeking annexation by the Evergreen (Aug. 22 Wilson County News). The district currently takes in Wilson, Atascosa, Karnes, and Frio counties.
As a result, southern-Bexar voters will have two distinct choices.
They can trust San Antonio and its water system to be good neighbors that will carefully manage and share this underground resource, the Carrizo outcrop, as SAWS representatives publicly have pledged. Or, voters can choose to pay a bit more in property taxes to be annexed and "protected" by the Evergreen district, whose regulatory authority is specified in state laws.
One of the Evergreen’s current rules is a prohibition of ASR in the district — the very kind of water project SAWS plans for its southern-Bexar property.
The Evergreen also has strict limits on production pumping of aquifer water: 2 acre-feet per acre of land per year.
Even as staff members at the Evergreen, headquartered in Pleasanton, now are adding up the costs of the special election in southern Bexar, officials on both sides of the annexation issue are taking care to distinguish the ASR project from the controversial production-pumping proposal.

In September 1999, the Evergreen inked an interlocal agreement with SAWS and the San Antonio River Authority (SARA). It spelled out the step-by-step development of an expanded ASR program in Wilson and/or Atascosa counties.
If ASR in southern Bexar proved scientifically sound — the injections of Edwards water did not harm the sand and gravel formations of the Carrizo — the Evergreen’s board would alter the rules to allow ASR in its district.
There were suggestions at that time that SAWS might withdraw only 90 percent of its stored water, providing a "recharge" of the aquifer.
This budding, three-way cooperation later was reflected in higher-echelon planning.
In January of this year, the South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Group sent the first installment of its 50-year plan to Austin for inclusion in a statewide plan. The ASR project, described in general terms, was included in the "Region L" plan.
SAWS’ idea of pumping the Carrizo outcrop, however, was not publicized in time for inclusion in the regional plan.
As the engineering of the ASR project advanced on the drawing boards, SAWS representatives would explain to regional planners, the opportunity for "short term" production of the Carrizo outcrop materialized. It seemed to be a feasible "buffer" as the Edwards Aquifer Authority enforced gradual cutbacks in San Antonio’s pumping.
Between 2003 and 2010, SAWS representatives said, other major water projects would be built elsewhere. During this time, the Carrizo outcrop might be tapped for as much as 30,000 acre-feet (9.78 billion gallons) a year to get a growing San Antonio through its peak demands.
That amount is roughly five times what the Evergreen’s limit would allow, if applied to southern Bexar County.

Despite the controversy over SAWS’ Carrizo-production proposal, even if southern-Bexar voters approve annexation by the Evergreen early next year, it wouldn’t necessarily spell the end of SAWS’ aquifer storage and recovery project, according to recent interviews.
"ASR is authorized by the TNRCC and the Region L plan. We have an interlocal agreement with us, Evergreen, and SARA to work together on ASR," John Boggess, a SAWS spokesman, said recently. "We want to maintain that agreement … we still want to partner" with the Evergreen "to manage the resource according to science."
"The [Evergreen] board is not philosophically opposed to ASR," one of its members remarked last week. He was speaking to the scenario of the Evergreen’s annexation into southern Bexar County.
He did not rule out the possibility that the district’s rules could be altered to allow ASR. But, at least two conditions would have to be met, the board member speculated.
SAWS’ field tests of its prototypical wells in southern Bexar County would have to prove aquifer storage and recovery is feasible and safe, he continued. And, the Evergreen’s board would have to be sure that ASR is "not just a smoke screen for a 30,000 acre-foot project on our outcrop."
Evergreen General Manager Mike Mahoney was cautious. "I can’t say what the board’s going to do … and there’re too many unknowns," he said. "We’re going to have to see how this [annexation issue] plays out, and the board will make decisions accordingly."
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