Partnership seeks to develop $250 million water pipeline

A group of investors is looking to persuade state lawmakers to make an exception to an existing law so that they can build a 67-to-75-mile water pipeline from Uvalde to San Antonio.

Southwest Texas Water Resources LP is the name of the group backing the project, which they say could deliver up to 40,000 cubic acres of water per year beginning in 2013. The funding for the project, estimated to cost about a quarter of a billion dollars, would all be raised privately.

Rodney Smith, president of San Antonio-based Southwest Texas Water Resources, says the pipeline would serve as a resource management tool for the Edwards Aquifer. Not only would it serve as an additional water supply source for the San Antonio metropolitan area, but it could also provide a significant economic boost to Uvalde County, Smith says.

“We think this project can act as a pressure-release valve by moving water into San Antonio as it is needed,” he says.

Smith adds that the project would not be the “silver bullet” answer to all of San Antonio’s long-term water problems, but it could be an important part of an overall solution.

“Accessing the under-utilized water from the Uvalde Pool of the Edwards Aquifer and transferring a portion of that water to the San Antonio metropolitan area will relieve pressure on the San Antonio Pool as well as the San Marcos Springs and Comal Springs,” Smith says.

Smith says the population of the greater San Antonio metropolitan area is expected to reach 2.4 million by the year 2050, and the city will need additional water supplies of approximately 120,000 acre feet per year.

“Municipalities need a long-term focus on the management of their water resources,” Smith says. “You can’t have a community based on a supply that goes away in 50 years. You just can’t run a community like that.”

Western water Mike Beldon, chairman of Beldon Enterprises and a past chairman of the Edwards Aquifer Authority, says he has been a longtime advocate for the need to look west to resolve San Antonio’s water problem.

“There is a lot of water out there, and I think just philosophically we need to look at it,” Beldon says.

When state lawmakers established the rules that determined how water resources would be divided up, Beldon says, in effect, they gave the farmers and irrigators in rural counties more water than they needed and shortchanged the cities. That happened because the state law prohibits municipalities from piping water out of Uvalde County.

“The irrigators won big time,” Beldon says. “They got two acre-feet per acre and they only use one.”

Beldon says he is not taking a position on the proposal by Southwest Texas Water Resources. “Whether Rod’s plan is the best one is for SAWS (San Antonio Water System) to decide,” he says. “All I am saying is that Western water needs to be part of any long-term plan to address San Antonio’s water problems.”

Luana Buckner, current chair of the Edwards Aquifer board of directors, says she has met with Smith a couple of times and has been briefed on his plan, but the authority has not yet taken a position on his plan one way or another.

“We have directed our staff to look at their plan, consider the assumptions they use, and see if we concur,” she says.

Buckner says she has members of her board who are on both sides of the issue. Some are concerned about the economic impact that any pipeline plan would have on the Uvalde community.

“There is some fear that it could reduce the availability of water for crops and put a lot of farmers out of business,” she says.

Smith says, to the contrary, that his plan would be an economic stimulator for the Uvalde community and would not take away water that would be needed by area farmers.

Southwest Texas Water Resources is currently seeking backers in the Texas Legislature who would be willing to sponsor a bill carving out an exception for the pipeline project. Smith says he hopes to have commitments on sponsorships in the next three weeks.

“We want to be very up-front and transparent about this process,” he says.

San Antonio Business Journal - by Mike W. Thomas