Legal fight over water deal might be brewing

Local water officials believe their counterparts in Austin are in breach of contract for actions that put the Colorado River's water out of San Antonio's reach.

The San Antonio Water System made the declaration at its board meeting Tuesday, setting up mediation and, potentially, a legal battle with the Lower Colorado River Authority.

“I think unfortunately we don't have a choice,” SAWS Chairman Alex Briseño said. “We feel that we have been wronged.”

The two utilities are eyeball-to-eyeball over a proposed pipeline project that would have brought water from the Colorado River to San Antonio. When the Legislature approved the project in 2001, it was touted as a model of regional cooperation. But the utilities' relationship has soured in recent months with the advent of a disputed study that shows there is not enough water in the river to supply any to San Antonio.

SAWS officials contend those studies were stacked against San Antonio by LCRA board decisions made in December, decisions that SAWS President Robert Puente said represent a breach of the project's contract.

SAWS has spent roughly $40 million in scientific studies and other work for the project. LCRA would have to pay back half the money if SAWS simply pulls out of the deal. But Puente said the utility is more interested in carrying the project forward.

“They voted to essentially do away with the project — to pull the plug on the project,” Puente said. ‘We want them to rescind the December 2008 board decisions and somehow unring that bell.”

Those disputed decisions include planning to meet all agricultural demands throughout the basin; not tapping into groundwater supplies for those needs if surface water is available; pulling 50,000 acre-feet of water in reserve at the Highlands Lakes from the project; and using an outside consultant to determine the region's future water needs instead of the 2001 projections included in the Lower Colorado Regional Water Planning Group, or Region K, water plan.

LCRA spokesman Robert Cullick said the utility believes all its actions were warranted and within the bounds of the contract and will vigorously defend its position.

“LCRA's responsibility under the contract is to study a progressive and complicated water supply plan and see if it could be implemented,” he said.

When the project began, it was projected that SAWS would spend $900 million to develop 330,000 acre-feet of water in the river in exchange for the right to bring 150,000 acre-feet to San Antonio. Studies since have pushed the estimated price up to $2.2 billion and decreased San Antonio's take to 90,000 acre-feet.

Puente, who said he doesn't understand how LCRA can walk away from a project that SAWS was willing to pay for, wants to know how LCRA plans to find the water it was hoping to get from the project.

“That's a good question,” Cullick said. “The plan was put in place by Region K. The problem remains and Region K will have to determine what steps it takes.”

Also Tuesday, the SAWS board unanimously adopted its 50-year water plan. The City Council is to vote on the plan Thursday.

By Anton Caputo - Express-News