Resource Management Keeps the Taps Flowing in the Alamo Area
Published Mar 05, 2009
Good planning and resource management ensure there’s a steady supply of water to Alamo Area communities and is a key economic development strategy.
Extreme weather conditions in the growing Alamo Area necessitate careful management of water resources.
Fortunately, several local agencies and municipalities have worked creatively to develop plans that are vital to economic development efforts.
“This is a cosmopolitan area,” says Calvin Finch, water resources director for the San Antonio Water System. “Businesses want to have water available for their business, but also for their workers, and if they are selling products locally, they want a growing population that has access to water.”
David Welsch, executive manager of business development and resource management for the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, says providing the right quality of life provides challenges.
“We live in an area that has become high growth, regardless of water supplies,” he says. “This same area has a history of drought and flood.”
The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, a water conservation and reclamation district created in 1933, oversees a basin of 10 counties, with three – Guadalupe, Comal and Kendall – located in the Alamo Area. The San Antonio Water System services most of the city of San Antonio, several suburban municipalities and part of adjacent Bexar County.
Welsch notes his agency has worked with forward-thinking municipalities, such as Schertz and Seguin, about 30 minutes west of San Antonio, to develop “firm-water” supplies.
Firm water refers to water that is available even in drought conditions.
Welsch and Finch are among those charged with ensuring businesses locating in the area and the thousands of employees moving with them have sufficient water supplies.
“We’re aggressively seeking new water resources, even as per-capita water use has been cut by 40 percent since the early 1980s,” Finch says.
The Guadalupe-Blanco authority built Canyon Reservoir on the Guadalupe River into a firm-water supply that will help sustain the local economy, while the San Antonio Water System relies on underground reservoirs for emergencies.
Finch says his agency partners with smaller, surrounding communities to work on water-resource measures that are reviewed and revised at least every five years to ensure plans still meet the community’s needs and fit state and national regulatory requirements.
San Antonio has a 50-year water plan, and, Finch says, “It’s hard to imagine a city that is growing that wouldn’t have a plan.”
Finding new resources is only half the equation.
“You really have to look at both ends of the issue,” Welsch says. “Business development also means a resource-protection strategy and an examination of the discharge.”
Like the Guadalupe-Blanco authority, the San Antonio Water System is concerned with protecting existing resources and has crafted a water-recycling effort to maximize supplies.
Talk of reservoirs and aquifers, resource plans and drought contingencies sounds technical, but Finch says everything comes down to a simple principle. “We want to make sure we are investing in our community,” he says.
Story by J. Holly McCall
Photo by Todd Bennett
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