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San Antonio, like many other major cities, faces a critical problem that lies below the ground - an aging infrastructure.

Here to Australia

San Antonio’s water and wastewater infrastructure is a massive system of pipes, water wells, pumps, storage tanks, treatment facilities, and pump stations that are mostly below ground. We have more than 9,000 miles of water and sewer mains buried below the 561-square miles that SAWS serves – enough to stretch from South Texas to Australia.

The Problem

The typical life expectancy of a pipe is about 50 years. By 2010 (only six years away) 40% of SAWS mains will reach the 50-year benchmark. That’s almost half of our system. When you factor in the wear and tear of our aging pipes and pumps with the ever-expanding population in San Antonio, you can quickly sense that this is a problem that will only become worse over time instead of better.

While our water delivery system is still reliable, our wastewater collection system on the other hand, is not in good shape. Nearly 25 % of San Antonio’s sewer system is in poor or critical condition. Emergency sewer repairs occur more often than we would like and they are expensive – sometimes costing four times more than if these same jobs were scheduled as routine maintenance.

Rates Advisory Committee

That is why, in early 2003, the Rates Advisory Committee was formed. SAWS also hired one of the nation’s leading rate consultants to take an in-depth look at this critical issue. The group, a cross representation of our community, met for eight months to develop a feasible recommendation – to upgrade our infrastructure every 85 years. Although the industry standard for infrastructure replacement is 50 years, the cost at this time would be prohibitive. The 85-year replacement timeline was determined to be the most proactive and affordable, with an estimated budget of $110 million per year.

We project that this kind of investment will help us solve immediate infrastructure needs, particularly on the sewer side, yet not leave our children with an expensive problem in the future. Like the water supply costs, we plan to slowly phase in the required rates to maintain our very competitive water bills.