SAWS Ready for the Super Bowl Flush -- SAWS Press Release

Who will you be rooting for this Sunday, as the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts face off in the Super Bowl? Here in San Antonio, everyone's a winner as viewers take a break at halftime during the big game – turning on faucets and flushing toilets that send thousands of gallons of wastewater to SAWS water recycling centers to be treated and reused all over the city.

"SAWS converts wastewater into highly treated recycled water that can offset our city's potable water use," says Greg Flores, SAWS Vice President, Public Affairs. "Recycled water can help reduce our demand on the Edwards Aquifer and bring in an additional source of revenue to help maintain our infrastructure."

SAWS monitoring equipment can see when halftime starts by the quick increase in demand on our potable water system; we see a drop in the average system pressure as viewers take their bathroom breaks as halftime begins. That results in a lot of wastewater that makes its way to SAWS water recycling centers. The "Super Bowl Halftime Flush" is an example of how our water and wastewater infrastructure must be built and maintained to handle sudden spikes in demand.

While considered "waste" water, in San Antonio this high quality recycled water is a precious resource in high demand for commercial, industrial and large landscaping customers. The recycled water is used at the city's famous River Walk, golf courses, parks, and commercial and industrial customers such as Toyota and CPS Energy.

"Having high quality recycled water readily available for commercial and industrial uses helps encourage companies to come to San Antonio," added Flores.

Every year, about 115 million gallons of recycled water each day is produced at three water recycling centers owned and operated by San Antonio Water System. Nearly 110 miles of pipeline delivers highly treated effluent throughout the city for nonpotable use and also provides baseflows in the upper San Antonio River and Salado Creek, supplying critical flows to help aquatic ecosystems in these streams.