MILANO—The Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District (POSGCD) is strongly questioning the San Antonio Water System’s (SAWS) use of millions of gallons of water from the recently-completed Vista Ridge Pipeline, which takes water from beneath Milam and Burleson counties to the nation’s seventh-largest city.
After Thursday’s POSGCD board meeting, water district chair Sidney Youngblood signed letters to SAWS, Blue Water Vista Ridge and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
The letters allege about half the volume of water being sent through the pipeline to a San Antonio water plant for testing was instead disposed of into Mud Creek—a San Antonio area waterway—because it was not needed for testing.
‘NO POSITION’—Youngblood said the POSGCD board learned that at the time contractual delivery of Vista Ridge water commenced, the pipeline was required to run carrying, minimally, 20 million gallons of water per day.
“It was concerning to learn only later that SAWS requested such gallonage to be delivered to the Agua Vista (San Antonio) plant when the SAWS staff was also well aware that it was in no position to receive such volume of water,” Youngblood’s letter to the pipeline company states.
The letter to SAWS states: “For nearly 6o days you received 20 million gallons per day (meg), of which only 10 meg were used in the plant testing and operations, at least based on the information provided by your staff.”
It continues: “It does not appear that thought was given as to any proper beneficial use that 10 meg of water could be used for and (that) all groundwater in Texas is mandated to be for beneficial use and not wasted under the permits granted by a groundwater conservation district...”
In the letter to Blue Water Vista Ridge, Youngblood wrote “...the volume of water disposed of into Mud Creek (was) roughly the equivalent to the amount of water needed to supply a community in our district of approximately 5,000 for an entire year...”
In the same letter, Youngblood said “miraculously” within days of contact by the POSGCD general manager to SAWS the disposal stopped.”
He characterized the POSGCD board’s response to the disposal’s revelation as “shocked and surprised.”
TCEQ—Youngblood’s letter to TCEQ notes the POSGCD is “not a regulatory body that appears to have authority over SAWS or EPCOR (which operates the pipeline) but said the district’s board does have the authority to undertake a review of the permit holders and their knowledge and ability to address this disposal.”
That letter asks the TCEQ to “see if there is any regulatory authority to cause an investigation to be undertaken to determine whether there was waste in the actions of SAWS, to determine what can be done to prevent future occurrences of waste and whether there is an ability to strengthen the water conservation plans required of water districts to allow water coming from groundwater wells through a pipeline to be included in such water conservation plan mandates.”
That letter to TCEQ requests a formal investigation.
On Wednesday, July 15, one day before the POSGCD sent its letters, SAWS Act PAC, a San Antonio-based citizens coalition, filed a public information request with SAWS alleging the pumping in question began April 15 and continued for approximately 58 days.
Its stated goal was to discover “how much water has been pumped to San Antonio through the Vista Ridge pipeline and where did it go?”
“The volume of water disposed of into Mud Creek (was) roughly the equivalent to the amount of water needed to supply a community in our district of approximately, 5,000 for an entire year.”
—Sidney Youngblood, POSGCD chair
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