By Marty Kufus

A regional water planner Friday (May 25) told county officials and a skeptical group of Pandora-area landowners that a small reservoir on the Ecleto Creek might be a revenue-generating future alternative to a larger and even less-popular "Cibolo Reservoir."
"We've got an irresponsible neighbor to the north" whose water needs affect Wilson County, Darrell Brownlow said of San Antonio.
      One skeptical landowner asked why Wilson County even would consider doing business with San Antonio in any reservoir project.
      "If you read the papers," Gary West remarked, "it would seem the San Antonio Water System's credibility is lacking" in neighboring rural areas.
      An Ecleto Reservoir, West added, "could be like the BFI landfill [in southern Bexar County]; it could be as big as they want."
      Brownlow disagreed, citing the findings of a recent engineering report.
      County Judge Marvin Quinney presided over commissioners Roger Lopez, Wayne Stroud, Bobby Lynn, and John Olenick.
      The commissioners approved a court order forbidding the creation of any new landfills in the county.
      The order, written by County Attorney Russell Wilson, said it was necessary to protect public health and safety and property values.
      The commissioners approved the $19,775 purchase of a former state highway department maintenance site in Stockdale, for county use. The 2.6-acre tract is on S.H. 123, according to a court document.
      The officials received a satisfactory report from the annual audit of county government's bookkeeping.
      It was conducted independently by certified public accountant Wayne Beyer, of Pleasanton, for $14,725. The audit covered the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
      Commissioners and the sheriff later unhappily discussed speeders driving to and from a dirt-bike track on C.R. 405 near Floresville.
      A deputy has clocked dirt-track patrons, mostly out-of-towners, traveling as fast as 60 mph in the 30-mph zone, Sheriff Joe Tackitt Jr. said later.

      Brownlow, a Floresville-area resident, spoke about the "Ecleto Reservoir" idea at Quinney's invitation.
      A geologist, Brownlow is a "small-business" representative on the South Central Texas Regional Water Planning Group. Its jurisdiction is 20-1/2 counties. It answers to the Texas Water Development Board.
      His prepared remarks and a sometimes-testy question-and-answer session filled 80 minutes of the county meeting.
      Some Ecleto-area landowners had attended commissioners court once before - as well as last month's regional water meeting in San Antonio - to voice their opposition to the idea of giving up their land.
      Since then, HDR Engineering, Inc., a consultant to the San Antonio River Authority and regional planners, released a "preliminary technical evaluation" of a possible Ecleto Reservoir in extreme eastern Wilson County.
      Its conclusion: The "maximum reasonable" elevation of a reservoir's water would be 395 feet above mean sea level. That would flood 4,347 acres of land. The reservoir eventually would hold about 78,000 acre-feet of water. (An acre-foot is 325,860 gallons.)
      By the year 2050, HDR concluded, such a reservoir would be cost-effective as "terminal storage" for San Antonio, with pipelines bringing in nearby water from the San Antonio River and Cibolo Creek, and from distant sources including the lower Guadalupe and Colorado rivers.
      The "total capital cost" of building a reservoir, including local pipelines and pumps, would be about $49 million, HDR estimated.
      The HDR report will be presented to regional planners next month as an informational item.
      One weakness in the 50-year plan released in January by the regional group is insufficient water storage for San Antonio's future needs, Brownlow explained Friday.
      He warned "there was a very serious effort" last year by some regional planners to get the controversial Cibolo Reservoir into the plan. (Planning documents described it as covering about 16,000 acres in central Wilson County, near Stockdale.)
      Local water activists and some county officials helped defeat that proposal for now, Brownlow said.
      He added that "the Applewhite [reservoir proposal for southern Bexar] is not going to happen."
      "I've got no interest in helping San Antonio with their problem" other than from a regional perspective, Brownlow said. "We cannot bury our head in the sand."
      The sparsely populated land in eastern Wilson County, in the Ecleto watershed, could become very valuable for its owners, he said.
      Additionally, a local entity representing the county could facilitate the land sales and somehow set a surcharge on water piped into Bexar County from an Ecleto Reservoir.
      At 5 cents per 1,000 gallons, Brownlow speculated, that could generate $800,000 to $4 million annually for local use.
      He said that money could be spent on local fire and emergency-medical services; relief of Wilson Memorial Hospital as a property-tax entity; and, scholarships and tuition reimbursement for local high-school graduates.
      "Why do we need you ...?" landowner Thomas Loessin demanded.
      If push came to shove with San Antonio, he said, the landowners affected by an Ecleto project could negotiate their own sales of land to the San Antonio Water System.
      "You are absolutely right," Brownlow admitted. "You and those landowners can do whatever you want."
      "Knock yourselves out," muttered Diane Savage, who was seated in the courtroom.
      She and two other members of the Wilson County Water Action Project attended the meeting, but said little.
      "We need to work together ... listen to one another," Quinney said, in closing.
      He later proposed the creation of a three-member county panel to stay abreast of area water issues.
      The commissioners took no actions.