Area water-use restrictions are working better than projected, helping San Antonio avoid further cutbacks, but the San Antonio Water System is planning for the possibility that the two-year drought — already the worst two-year period in the city’s rainfall history — could last another five years.
It happened a half-century ago. A seven-year drought in the 1950s led to the first regulations for the Edwards Aquifer, the city’s main source of drinking water. It remains the drought of record.
While SAWS officials are making plans to deal with an extended drought, they are not forecasting one. There is hope for relief soon; meteorologists at the National Weather Service say weather patterns suggest the formation of an El Niño in the eastern Pacific Ocean that could result in a wetter fall and winter here.
SAWS officials told an audience of invited business customers Wednesday that, thanks to widespread compliance with the first two stages of water restrictions, San Antonio is not in danger of dropping to the third stage until possibly mid-August.
To have lasted through the worst two years of low rainfall without falling to the third stage, which would limit lawn watering by sprinklers or spray systems to once every two weeks, reflects the effectiveness of SAWS’ water conservation plan and a city ordinance requiring water-use restrictions.
The conservation success also will put off indefinitely any thought of adding a new element to the list of restrictions — rationing water to the point that nonagricultural businesses must reduce operations.
“We may have another five years of this situation,” said Greg Flores, SAWS public affairs vice president. “We’re talking about management of the water supply, not rationing.”
The utility pumped 23 percent less water in June than it did in the same month in 2008, which also was a dry year but without water-use restrictions, said Karen Guz, SAWS’ conservation director. “It says a lot about what can happen when the public complies,” she said.
The aquifer level has gone up during recent weekends about two feet, “even if it didn’t rain,” because of widespread compliance with a weekend ban of watering lawns using sprinklers or spray systems, Guz said.
The aquifer stood at 644.3 feet above sea level Thursday, 4.3 feet above the trigger for Stage 3 restrictions.
“We haven’t enforced Stage 3 before,” Guz said. “We are more optimistic than two weeks ago. Maybe we can avoid it.”
Nevertheless, businesses, especially those with large landscapes, need to begin prioritizing their needs.
“Hopefully, you have Bermuda grass or other drought-resistant grasses, and can plan on it going brown,” Guz said. “There’s no variance (that customers may seek) to keep grass green.”
The fourth stage of restrictions is unlikely to be triggered this year by a fall in the aquifer level to 630 feet at the Fort Sam Houston monitoring well, Guz added. Stage 4 restrictions would include surcharges to customers using more than normal amounts of water.
Despite widespread compliance, the number of citations for violating watering restrictions has hit a high — 1,200 so far this year. Guz said five police officers work overtime to deliver citations. Thirty trained SAWS employees work as witnesses to restriction violations but cannot issue citations. When residents report violations by neighbors, warnings are issued, Guz said.
SAWS does not plan to tap into its storage facility with 53,000 acre-feet of water unless the drought enters a fifth or sixth year, Flores said. The stored water is equal to about 25 percent of annual demand for drinking water.
Year-round conservation — including water recycling at large users such as CPS Energy power plants, the Toyota assembly plant and golf courses — has kept SAWS’ pumping volume the same over the past two decades despite a 50 percent increase in the number of customers, Flores said.
In 1982, per capita water usage was 225 gallons per day, and that has fallen to about 115 gallons per day now, Flores said.
Other than expanding conservation efforts, SAWS’ top priority over the next five years is to acquire 2,000 more acre-feet of water rights from existing aquifer permit holders, either buying permanent pumping permits or leasing them, Flores said.
Conservation and additional water rights are the cheapest way to keep SAWS bills from rising dramatically. Longer-term projects, including desalination of seawater and brackish groundwater and transporting water from other basins, require pipelines and water treatment plants, Flores said.
Financing costs on that construction would drive up SAWS rates, which now are the second-lowest among large Texas cities. El Paso has the cheapest rates.
SAWS offers incentive plans to businesses to curtail water use, including landscape consultations and informational presentations. “Give us an audience,” Guz told business customers.
SAWS also offers rebates on capturing air-conditioning condensate, fountains that don’t use drinking water and irrigation improvements.
Businesses already are voluntarily cutting back on water use. Fountains have been turned off. Some hotels are asking guests to reuse towels and bed linens, Guz said.
The utility wants to avoid adding industrial production cutbacks to the city ordinance restriction program.
“If restrictions affect business, we want to hear about it,” Flores said. “The city ordinance has not been tested like this before.
“Droughts are like a national disaster,” he added. “There’s a lot of damage that occurs, like with hurricanes.”
By David Hendricks - Express-News
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