San Antonio Utility Approves Vista Ridge Takeover

[FuzzyLumpkins]

The San Antonio Water System board on Wednesday unanimously approved a takeover of the controversial Vista Ridge project by a Kansas City-based construction company — a move set in motion by the financial troubles of a Spanish firm the city had enlisted to build the 142-mile pipeline.

The financial standing of that firm, Abengoa, began eroding in mid-2014, around the same time the city council unanimously approved a contract between one of its subsidiaries and the city-owned water utility. Under the agreement, Abengoa Vista Ridge would've designed and constructed a project that city leaders believe is key to San Antonio's water future — but that environmentalists argue will hinder conservation efforts and damage local water supplies.

The pipeline is expected to deliver up to 16.3 billion gallons of water per year to San Antonio from a wellfield in Burleson County starting in 2020, expanding the city’s water supply by 20 percent.

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/05/18/san-antonio-utility-approves-vista-ridge-takeover/

[Nbadan]

San Antonio needs water to keep growing, but SAWS waste tons of $$$ passing on the cost to consumers

[CosmicCowboy]

San Antonio needs water to keep growing, but SAWS waste tons of $$$ passing on the cost to consumers

Saws is not as bad as CPS.

Bottom line is since the feds won't allow the aquifer to drop before 620 feet at J-7 San Antonio has to increase it's water supply at the same rate it grows. No other alternatives to the Edwards are cheap.

[xrayzebra]

Saws is not as bad as CPS.

Bottom line is since the feds won't allow the aquifer to drop before 620 feet at J-7 San Antonio has to increase it's water supply at the same rate it grows. No other alternatives to the Edwards are cheap.

Several things bother me about the aquifer. One, no one really knows how much water is in the aquifer. There is, unless something has changed, an arbitrary pump depth of 512 feet set because when the pumps were installed that is the lowest depth from which they could pull the water. Second, why doesn't San Antonio, Corpus Christi get together and build a desalinization facility on the coast. Corpus has had serious water problems in the past and desalinization is going to have to be the final answer in years to come and it certainly wont be any cheaper. SAWS just keeps doing patches which really don't solve anything. That desalinization plant they built to process the brackish water in the Aquifer will soon or later be grounds for the environmentalist to sue on some grounds. They will find the remains of a blind Salamander or bug or something. The Gulf water will also trigger some sort of suit, some folks are already making noises about how pumping the salt back into gulf will make it too salty.:downspin:

[CosmicCowboy]

There are millions of acre feet in the Edwards we can't use because the Comal springs go dry at 520 and the snail darter lives there. The shit is the springs went dry for a couple of years in the 50s and the snail darters did just fine.