San Antonio’s unusual program to protect Edwards Aquifer

Purchases land over aquifer

Marci Gilbert, Mar 18, 11.

There is an aggressive and unusual program by San Antonio to protect its aquifer, according to a story in the Texas Tribune. The Edwards Aquifer is the city’s main source of water and covers a vast underground terrain. Three times in the last 11 years, city voters have approved the use of public money to purchase land or easements over the aquifer.

So far, about $135 million has been spent to protect close to 97,000 acres. More easements will be bought starting this fall, with the help of $90 million in additional financing that voters handily approved in November, despite the tough economic conditions.

Virtually no other city in Texas, except green-minded Austin, has committed substantial money toward land conservation, environmentalists say. That is partly because few big cities rely so heavily on a single aquifer. Dallas, for example, gets its water mainly from reservoirs, and Houston draws from a combination of surface and underground sources.

In the Austin area, public money has helped preserve nearly 45,000 acres, said Valarie Bristol, president of the Travis Audubon Society. The aim is to protect endangered species like the golden-cheeked warbler and also to preserve the Austin portion of the Edwards Aquifer, including Barton Springs.

The focus of the San Antonio program has changed over the years. In 2000, when voters approved the first batch of aquifer-conservation money (which is financed by one-eighth of a cent from the city sales tax), the city used it to purchase land in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, and turn it into public natural areas. But as land prices rose and officials looked toward conserving lands farther away, the city decided to focus less on purchasing land outright and more on buying easements in the aquifer’s “recharge zone,” which includes a number of surrounding counties.

Source: Texas Tribune