San Antonio sues over shelved water project
SAN ANTONIO - SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A water fight between the San Antonio Water System and a neighboring river authority spilled into court Monday when the system sued the river authority for more than $1.2 billion.
The water system filed a lawsuit in Travis County accusing the Lower Colorado River Authority of breach of contract after the authority's board passed a resolution that effectively killed a project to recapture wasted water for use around San Antonio and Austin.
The agencies had been working under a March 2002 agreement to study large-scale conservation projects that would have supplied enough extra water to raise the levels in Lakes Travis and Buchanan while supplying fast-growing San Antonio with more drinking water. The conserved water would have come from the Lower Colorado River Basin and the excess would have been sold to San Antonio.
The plans included projects that would reduce the water needed for rice production through the laser leveling of fields to prevent run-off. The plans also called for a reservoir to catch storm run-off.
The water system spent $43.2 million on the studies, which SAWS spokesman Greg Flores said showed that such measures could be taken effectively and without harming downstream users. However, that changed when the river authority's board changed the requirements, subjecting the plans to more rigorous requirements on downstream user effects, Flores said.
The agency sued for $1.2 billion to cover the cost of the studies and the cost of building an alternative source of water, like a desalination plant, said Flores.
A call to a river authority spokesman was not immediately returned Monday.
The water was not planned for immediate use. SAWS had not anticipated being able to buy it from LCRA until 2034, but it will now have to look for other ways to ensure the regional water supply.
"This was a big part of our long-term plan," Flores said. "We've lost seven years."
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