San Antonio built a pipeline to rural Central Texas to increase its water supply. Now local landowne

[douglas9]

LEXINGTON — When the water finally arrived, San Antonio’s leadership could relax. The roughly 150-mile long water pipeline to the northeast guaranteed the city’s economic future and freed residents from the stress of droughts.

“We have water security for decades to come,” said Robert Puente, president and CEO of the San Antonio Water System. The project, what Puente called the “biggest achievement in our lifetimes” to secure water for the city, helped conserve the sensitive Edwards Aquifer, upon which San Antonio has historically depended for water.

But less than a year after the pipeline began to suck water from a different aquifer in Central Texas for delivery to 1.8 million people, some residents in that rural area turned on their taps only to be greeted by air.

“All so that the people in the city of San Antonio can water their lawns,” said Bob Scouras, 72, a landowner in Lee County.

Out on County Road 411, Scouras and his wife, Leslie, 63, raised and later sold their horses, raised kids and sent them to college, built dozens of houses for birds, and are almost done building one for their family. They commuted to Austin until retirement, as did many of their neighbors. The community is mostly retirees who bought the lush farmland decades ago for cheap.

https://www.ksat.com/news/texas/2021/08/02/san-antonio-built-a-pipeline-to-rural-central-texas-to-increase-its-water-supply-now-local-landowners-say-their-wells-are-running-dry/

[SWBTATTReg]

1. These very same landowners who are suffering from the effects of these lowered

water table levels are suffering the same thing as lower water levels experienced in the Ozarks too (Missouri), over the last 30-40 years, when a flood of retirees moved to Missouri and water wells were drilled (thousands of them).

At least in MO, we do have an excess (most times) of water, but levels have dropped and we've had to deepen our well at one site, and at another site, use city water (which was fine, more reliable and cheaper in the long run).

This unequal protection of water assets (when political jurisdictions don't match water aquifers underground) can lead to potentially dramatic overdrawing of water and for those selling water rights to their properties to others, might want to reconsider this as an option as it could come back to bite a person who initiated the lease(s)/signed the lease(s)...what if, one day, you wish to use the land that you leased the water away from?

[Sanity Claws]

2. This is going to happen more and more

The West is very dry but people keep moving to Colorado and Arizona.

[3Hotdogs]

3. "All so that the people in the city of San Antonio can water there lawns."

How much of that water was used to water Lexington lawns or wash Lexington cars for fill Lexington backyard pools?

[UpInArms]

4. All this because of "economic development"

That is concentrated in major metropolitan areas …

These corporations could actually help diversify and distribute that growth to other areas ..

It would put less stress on the environment and help develop a better workforce around the country, while improving the economy in struggling communities