BY PARKS KUGLE
Looking ahead
Zooming out
Guz said though San Antonio is bracing for continued drought conditions, the proactive investment into multiple sources of water has left the city in a better position. “[Our predecessors] knew that one of the first questions businesses ask when they want to move their corporations here is, ‘Do you have water?’ And we can say, ‘Yes, we do, and we have a long term plan.’ We were one of the first major cities in Texas to do that,” Guz said.
as well as technology to lessen the city’s depen- dence on the Edwards Aquifer. “[The greater San Antonio area] uses about 275,000 acre feet a year, and about half of that is Edwards Aquifer water, and then the other comes from that Vista Ridge source, which is coming from pretty far away,” Guz said. “Then we’ve got regional Carrizo water coming from a different region, [and] we have our H2Oaks facility down in South Bexar County. At that facility, we bring out what we call local Carrizo water, and we store water during wet periods.” The H2Oaks Center utilizes Aquifer Storage and Recovery technology to store excess water from the Edwards Aquifer for later use in dry periods, desalination of brackish water and water pumped from the Carrizo Aquifer, which is a sand aquifer. The Carrizo Aquifer supplies water to more than 60 counties in Texas, and runs from the Rio Grande in South Texas northwest in Arkansas.
Another means of preserving the Edwards Aquifer’s water supply is the San Antonio Water System’s mitigation and diversification strategies. Karen Guz, SAWS vice president of conservation, said mitigation strategies include implementing stricter watering rules, tiered fines for excessive water consumption, promoting the use of drought tolerant plants, conducting free home conser- vation consultations and providing irrigation efficiency rebates. “There’s three main strategies for conservation. There’s education, getting everybody’s hearts and minds on the same page about [water usage] and understanding it and caring about it,” Guz said. “Then there’s incentives, so that’s the coupons to change your landscape or improve your irrigation system, and then there’s reasonable regulations, [such as rules] against watering in the middle of the day.” Guz also noted that SAWS uses multiple sources to provide water to the greater San Antonio region
“What I can say unequivocally is, if San Antonio had not been proactive in investing in all of those supplies we just laid out, it would feel very different today.” KAREN GUZ, SAWS VP OF CONSERVATION.
COMING ���� WOODLANDCOTTAGES.COM Enjoy premier senior living in your new single-family style cottage! 2911 N. ELLISON DRIVE ◆ SAN ANTONIO, TX 78251 210.343.1134
Handicapped accessible units available. The owner and management company for Woodland Cottages comply fully with the provisions of the Equal Housing Opportunity Laws and nondiscrimination laws. The homes have been designed and constructed to be accessible in accordance with those laws.
17
NORTH SAN ANTONIO EDITION
Powered by FlippingBook