Boerne - Fair Oaks Ranch | October 2025

Environment

BY JARRETT WHITENER

A nearly $5.9 billion water expansion project from the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, or GBRA, aims to provide water across the region. The GBRA WaterSECURE project is a potential future water source for utilities in the region, leveraging Lower Guadalupe River surface water rights owned by GBRA. In July, Boerne and Fair Oaks Ranch officials discussed participation in the program to secure water for future growth, with both city councils choosing to opt out. The GBRA project requires extensive infrastructure, including a large water treatment plant, an aquifer storage and recovery facility and over 250 miles of water pipeline. Boerne, Fair Oaks Ranch opt out of water project

Diving in deeper

Before the project begins, GBRA is working on a Memorandum of Understanding with each municipality that falls within the project area. Water use is measured in acre-feet, which rep- resents around 325,851 gallons per acre foot. For Fair Oaks Ranch, the peak demand per connection in 2022 reached 0.62 acre-feet. Assuming peak demand, the city would need approximately 2,805 acre-feet of water to meet build-out demands. In Boerne, the city utility has access to surface water provided through the city lake. Should Boerne decide to participate in the program to pull 3 million gallons of potable water, the capital cost could range between $383 million and $543 million , paid for over 30 years. An annual payment on the commitment would be over $12 million each year. Using growth assumptions, Boerne staff projects the city to have adequate water until around 2070. Should the city join the GBRA project, payments

Project timeline

October 2025: Procure program manager

March 2026: Execute water supply agreements

Q1 2026: Application for additional funding

June 2026: Design kick-off

2028: Construction begins

2033-34: Initial water delivery

SOURCE: GBRA/COMMUNITY IMPACT

would be made beginning in 2028 or 2034. GBRA is developing agreements with communi- ties that wish to participate, with the goal of initial water delivery around 2033. Communities who decide to opt out will not be entitled to the new water source, according to GBRA.

WaterSECURE capital cost

Demand (gallons per day)

Capital cost

Source

Breaking it down

Lower basin raw water diversion Lower basin reservoir Upriver transmission Local water infrastructure

129.1M

$441.8M

build-out. GBRA representative Brian Perkins told City Council in July that the capital cost per acre-foot is around $62,896. The total capital cost to bring 300 acre-feet of water into the city would be around $18.9 million . “Where you get the water is getting further and further away, and pipeline is getting more expen- sive,” Perkins said.

As of Oct. 15, Fair Oaks Ranch had 3,274 water connections, and the projected number of con- nections at full water build-out in the year 2052 is around 4,528. Public Works Director Grant Watanabe said the city currently has around 2,600 acre-feet of water available and will have another 400 available from GBRA around 2038. The total acre-feet available would be around 3,000, which is 195 acre-feet more than the projected peak demand at full

129.1M

$1.09B

76.8M

$1.5B

72.9M 407.9M

$2.84B

$5.89B

Total

SOURCE: GBRA/COMMUNITY IMPACT

Kendall County water user population

Region L water user population

Looking ahead

200K

12M

164.9K

The GBRA project comes alongside the state legislative priority to increase water resources. In the draft 2026 Region L Water Plan, Kendall County is expected to reach over 160,000 water users by 2080, while Region L—which covers six counties including Kendall, Comal and Bexar—is expected to reach a population of 7.69 million by 2080. The WaterSECURE project is still in the early stages of development, and the project is subject to change.

150K

6.89M

111.4K

6.18M

136.4K

7.69M

5.47M

100K

70.9K

3.98M

89.7K

56.3K

4.79M

50K

2030

2040

2050

2060

2070

2080