SAWS Aquifer Storage Recovery storing more water than expected
SAN ANTONIO — Our Edwards Aquifer water is precious, and we don't want to waste a drop of it if we can help it.
San Antonio Water System has 29 wells that sit on 6,000 acres at the ASR plant. What it does is allow the water to be pumped in from the Edwards Aquifer and stored underground so that it can be used later on, as needed.
The Aquifer Storage and Recovery or ASR is an incredible feat in engineering. Unlike some above ground storage reservoirs, this is underground about 600-800 feet. Evaporation isn't a problem, and it's less vulnerable to contamination.
"We are taking the water from the Edwards and injecting it into the Carrizo Aquifer, which is a pressurized sand aquifer and just continue to store water," explained SAWS Communications Specialist Lillian Gonzalez. "At this point, we're four times where we thought we were going to be with the storage capacity at this aquifer."
Four times as much water. So how much water are we actually talking about?
“We have 126,000 acre feet right now, and that's about 36 billion gallons," Gonzalez told us.
That's billions with a "B," and it's at SAWS disposal to use in case we go into drought situations or to keep us from going deeper into the water restriction stages. So how far will that much water go?
"We could say that San Antonio receives about 200 million gallons a day from our system," said Gonzalez.
To put it in another way, that's three times as much water as is in Braunig Lake. The 36 billion gallons would provide water for all of San Antonio for 6 months.
And it's all Edwards Aquifer water. It doesn't include Carrizo Aquifer water or water from the Desalination Plant.
