The San Antonio City Council will vote next week on proposed drought rule changes, which are intended to address failures of the current San Antonio Water Systems (SAWS) Water Management Plan to adequately save water in the last two years.
The city-owned water utility’s proposed rules would increase violation penalties for repeat offenders, add a surcharge for high water users, allow SAWS to fine non-San Antonio residents, introduce new restrictions on drip irrigation, and shave off some watering hours during drought stages.
SAWS Vice President of Conservation Karen Guz said SAWS believes these changes will get them the water savings they need while imposing restrictions on as few of their customers as possible.
“Fundamentally, most of it is about getting savings from about 10% more of the community,” Guz said. “Most people are doing what we ask them to do, and we’re trying in these changes not to inconvenience those folks further.”
She said 90% of SAWS customers follow the drought rules, and those 10% who don’t are the reason SAWS failed to meet its water savings goals in the last two years.
Guz said the ongoing drought is the worst the SAWS has ever faced, and it has pushed the Edwards Aquifers to levels not experienced since 1990. She said SAWS isn’t in crisis, in large part due to water source diversification, but the proposed rule changes are still necessary.
One area SAWS wants to address are non-San Antonio resident customers.
Many of the small segment of drought rule violators, according to Guz, live outside San Antonio city limits, where they can dodge city fines. In the summer of 2022, more than a third of residential customers using more than 20,000 gallons of water per month lived outside of San Antonio — Guz said 5,000 gallons per month is normal for a single family home.
“SAWS customers who live in separately incorporated cities, they can’t get a City of San Antonio citation,” she said. “So, we hear on social media them talking about it: ‘I don’t have to follow the rules, I live in this [other] city.’ We need everyone on board during droughts.”
To get everyone on board, SAWS is proposing turning the municipal citation into a non-compliance charge that would be added to customers’ water bills. This way, SAWS would be able to fine customers in places like Olmos Park, Leon Valley, and Castle Hills.
Within San Antonio, Council Districts 9 and 8 had more SAWS residential customers using 20,000 gallons or more of water per month in the summer of 2022 than the other eight districts combined. District 9 customers alone made up a majority in the city with 5,024 households.
Eliminating the municipal citation would also eliminate the court system’s involvement, and SAWS would instead establish a committee of non-SAWS employees to resolve disputes between customers and the utility.
The non-compliance charges would increase for repeat offenses — $137 for the first violation and $500 for the third violation — for most residential and commercial customers. Single family customers on their first violation could have it waived if they take an online course.
SAWS is also proposing changes to its Stage 3 drought restrictions. Stage 3 drought imposes twice a month watering restrictions for all customers. Stage 2 drought, the current stage, allows watering twice per week.
Guz said SAWS doesn’t want the vast majority of customers following the rules to have to cut back to make up for the handful of violators. To avoid this, SAWS is proposing a new high use surcharge and moving the twice a month watering restriction to an optional emergency Stage 4.
Single family customers would have to pay a surcharge of $10.37 for every 1,000 gallons they use beyond 20,000 gallons each month during EEA Stage 3, a level of water usage that only impacts about 5% of all SAWS residential customers.
“We hope that’s enough to get their attention,” Guz said.
EEA stages are different from SAWS stages and are determined by the height of the aquifer. EEA is currently in Stage 4.
The surcharge for commercial users would also be $10.37 per 1,000 gallons, but how much a company gets charged would depend on its size — smaller commercial customers would begin paying the surcharge at a lower gallon usage than larger ones.
Guz said even a modest change from high water users as a result of the surcharge would make a big difference for SAWS.
Drip irrigation would also be restricted under the new rules, limited to the same times of day as spray irrigation but more times per week depending on the drought stage.
Guz said 27% of all water violations in 2023 came from new home builder accounts, mostly because of their irrigation systems. SAWS would begin reviewing irrigation plans builders are already required to draft and then test the systems once they’re complete.
The plan reviews would start in January 2025, and the system tests would start in 2026.
SAWS is also proposing shifting and reducing the watering times during drought stages to help reduce the energy burden on the state grid. SAWS Stage 1 watering hours would be changed to before 10:00 a.m. and from 9:00 p.m. and midnight. SAWS Stage 2 watering hours would be changed to between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and from 9:00 p.m. to midnight.
Guz said customers can hand water at any time of day if the later evening watering hours are inconvenient.
City council will vote on the proposed rules next Thursday.
