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A senior author of a 2020 Southwest Research Institute study showing that a development like Guajolote Ranch would degrade the Edwards Aquifer is refuting claims by San Antonio Water System.
In a 22-page technical letter sent this week to San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and all city council members, Ronald T. Green, Ph.D, now retired from SwRI, said that even with the stated controls, effluent from a wastewater treatment plant in the proposed northwest Bexar County development could reach either private wells or public supply wells in days or weeks.
Green spoke to TPR in 2023.
“Virtually all the water that goes down Helotes Creek ends up in the Edwards Aquifer," he said at that time. "And if, over time, the recharge becomes degraded to such a degree that the health of the Edwards Aquifer itself is degraded, then that would be a concern to everyone who relies on the Edwards Aquifer.”
He said that damage to the Edwards would be permanent.
“Once you develop over the contributing zone and the recharge zone of the Edwards. Then those sources of contaminants, or constituents that degrade the water, are permanent. It's going to be very difficult to go back and replace those sources with non impactful developments that don't degrade the recharge to the Edwards. So if these developments continue into the recharge and contributing zone of the Edwards, they are going to be likely to be permanent impacts on the aquifer that will not clean up by themselves.”
Green calls public statements by SAWS “simplistic,” “not correct,” and "unsupported by scientific citations."
Lennar wants to put around 3,000 homes on 1,100 acres near Scenic Loop and Babcock roads and discharge as much as one million gallons of treated wastewater a day into Helotes Creek, which opponents say will threaten the Edwards Aquifer.
Lennar is requesting the creation of a Municipal Utility District, or MUD, that would pay for the proposed water treatment plant and other improvements.
The City Planning Commission recently voted to deny the request for the utility district.
During the meeting an attorney for Lennar told the planning commission that the Guajolote Subdivision water treatment plant “is coming,” with or without consent of the City of San Antonio.
The San Antonio City Council will consider a vote on approval of the MUD for the Guajolote Subdivision on February 5.
