Citizens speak out on SAWS sewers in Hill Country

About 40 citizens attended the public meeting held by SAWS Tuesday (Sept. 18) evening to discuss SAWS' application with TCEQ to extend their service area. The meeting was supposed to end at 9PM but audience participation kept everyone there until 10PM.  Almost everyone in the audience spoke out on numerous concerns with the planned expansion.

These concerns include:

• the impact of sewer leaks in the Recharge Zone
• the use of extending service to spur growth rather than respond to it
• the lack of adequate environmental laws to protect the Aquifer and endangered species habitat along Recharge Zone creeks
• the impact of rapid growth on the rural Hill Country community
• developments like the 1,700 acre Hills of Castle Rock cannot be built without SAWS' water
• SAWS' rate payers will end up paying for the expanded service

SAWS utility expansion will irreversibly impact our aquifer

from Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance

SAWS expansion of sewer service will open the area to high-density development. Current regulations specify a minimum size for residential development with on-site sewage facilities to be ½ acre for lots with a central water system and 1-1/2 acres for lots with wells. This is the housing density needed to protect the contributing and recharge zones of the Edwards Aquifer.

Providing sewer systems will open the Hill Country in NW Bexar County to much higher density housing development, easily as high as 4-6 lots per acre. Housing development of this density would greatly degrade the environment because of high impervious cover, increased traffic, thoroughfare construction, and other related infrastructure development, all leading to continued and irreversible impact on the aquifer.

GEAA and our member groups ask you, as stewards of this valuable unique resource, to help us insure that NW Bexar County does not repeat the mistakes in planning and development that are now glaringly evident in north Bexar County along Stone Oak Parkway and many other areas in the Edwards Aquifer contributing and recharge zones. Please join us in asking SAWS to abandon this short-sighted plan to open development of NW Bexar County to high-density development and the inevitable degradation to the Edwards Aquifer by providing sewer service to an environmentally fragile environment.