San Antonio Approves Stronger Drought Ordinance

San Antonio City Council approved changes to the city’s drought ordinance that will make it easier for San Antonio Water System to declare water restrictions.

Officials with the water utility, also known as SAWS, say the changes will allow San Antonio to save millions of gallons more water during the dry times.

Specifically, the ordinance raises the triggers for Stage 1, 2 and 3 water restrictions by 10 feet.

“Changing drought triggers will save San Antonio 2.5 billion gallons of water over the typical summer period of two to three months,” SAWS Conservation Director Karen Guz says. “At today’s prices, if SAWS purchased additional Edwards water rights for the same amount of water, it would cost $46 million.”

SAWS officials admit that revising the level at which the city goes into drought restrictions may mean that local residents will enter water restrictions more often. However, watering their lawns once a week will allow homeowners to maintain their yards, according to SAWS.

“This drought trigger change is about more than the exceptional drought circumstances we are in today,” says Guz. “It is about how we manage the cycle of weather we have in San Antonio. In San Antonio’s semi-arid climate, we can expect to have one year out of every three be dry.”

SAWS serves more than 1 million water and wastewater customers in the San Antonio region.