In a new effort to crack down on utility customers who ignore watering restrictions during periods of drought, the San Antonio Water System plans to do away with city-issued citations that require residents and businesses to pay a $137 fee and go to municipal court.
Instead, the municipally owned water utility plans to charge the violator a fee directly on their SAWS bill, freeing them of the obligation to go to court.
To further encourage conservation, the utility also plans to implement a drought surcharge on high-use customers in Stage 3, to update how its Stage 3 and 4 restrictions are triggered, to change its allotted watering hours and to change how it regulates drip irrigation watering.
But SAWS’ board of trustees decided to hold off on a vote to approve these new rules Tuesday morning until the water utility has taken time to consider the latest trustee and public feedback. A public hearing was held during the utility’s regularly scheduled board meeting Tuesday.
SAWS staff noted these changes were spurred on in part by exceptionally high water use in 2022 and 2023.
In 2022, San Antonio’s water use was 10 billion gallons or 9% more than was expected considering the city was under Stage 2 drought restrictions, said Karen Guz, SAWS vice president of conservation. In 2023, extreme heat drove the highest jump in water use SAWS has seen in 10 years, she added.
While about 90% of residential and commercial customers tend to follow watering rules during drought restrictions, there is a select 5% to 9% who do not, she added. The rule changes target those water users specifically, Guz noted.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who serves as a trustee in his official capacity, commended the changes Tuesday, calling them “long overdue.”
“I think this is — for the most part — in a good place for me to approve it, so I’m anxious to get this to the City Council,” he said.
SAWS staff said they are also anxious to get these changes approved by the board and council sooner rather than later since another abnormally hot, dry summer is predicted to be on the horizon.
The water utility may call a special board meeting later this month to further discuss the changes and to vote on them so that the City Council can review the items in early June, staff said.
Away with citations
Under the updated watering rules, violators who are caught will not have to face a $137 citation and a municipal court summons, as they currently do. That fee presently goes for all violators, both residential and commercial — no matter how much water they use, or how many violations they’ve committed.
Instead, violators will have a fixed charge called a “non-compliance charge” added to their bill; $137 for first-time offenders who are small water users using fewer than 1 million gallons per year per site, and $500 for large water users who use more than 1 million gallons per year per site.
Repeat offenders will be charged an increasing fixed rate for each violation. First-time offenders will have the option of waiving the fixed charge if they take an online education course, however, if they take the course and are found in violation again they will still be charged at the rate for a second violation, Guz said.
Customers who want to protest the charge will still be able to do so, Guz added, either by calling SAWS and talking to the conservation department or by going through a citizens committee organized by SAWS that would look at the disputed case.
These changes will have to be approved by the city to go into effect, Guz noted.
New surcharge structure
Another change under the updated rules will be the establishment of an excess use surcharge when SAWS is in Stage 3 drought restrictions — which will now align with the trigger points set by the Edwards Aquifer Authority. That means Stage 3 restrictions will begin when the 10-day average of the Edwards Aquifer monitoring well, called the J-17, drops below 640 feet.
The Edwards Aquifer Authority is a groundwater district spanning seven counties that regulates how much water can be pumped out of the aquifer in order to protect its springs and endangered species. Permit holders, such as SAWS, must reduce their pumping when the authority issues drought restrictions.
In years past, SAWS aligned with the authority’s trigger points for Stages 1 and 2 when it came to implementing the utility’s own drought restrictions, however the two entities historically differed in how their Stage 3 restrictions were triggered, with SAWS being able to decide unilaterally when to start them. Since implementing the stages system 20-plus years ago, SAWS has never declared Stage 3 restrictions for its customers, much less Stage 4 — despite severe droughts in recent years that sent the authority into its own Stages 3 and 4.
Annalisa Peace, executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, said she is glad to see SAWS align with the EAA for its Stage 3 trigger points as well.
“As director of a regional alliance that includes all of the Edwards region, it is frankly embarrassing and much-resented when everybody but San Antonio is in Stage 3 or 4 while we are still in Stage 1 and 2,” Peace said. “This change will eliminate customer confusion and convey the true severity of the drought.”
Under the proposed changes, when SAWS is in Stage 3, the utility will charge a residential customer $10.37 per 1,000 gallons for anything over 20,000 gallons. In Stage 4, that threshold drops to $10.37 per 1,000 gallons for anything over 12,000 gallons for residential customers.
Commercial customers will also be subject to surcharges but the thresholds will be determined by the meter size, Guz explained.
When asked why SAWS is proposing a drought surcharge in Stage 3 instead of implementing an every-other-week watering rule, SAWS said watering only every two weeks would be very difficult for many people who are already following the water rules.
The surcharge is designed to affect only the top 5% of water use accounts, Guz said — noting that it is fairer to encourage a small number of customers to comply before imposing more regulations on everyone.
An extensive rate analysis found 20,000 gallons per month is a good threshold, Guz said, adding that 90% to 95% of water bills are lower than this level.
New hours for energy conservation
SAWS is also proposing new watering rules for when customers can use their irrigation systems, with the intention of helping CPS Energy and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) see lower energy demand during peak hours.
ERCOT is the state’s grid electric operator, which has continued to see record demand in recent years due to the extreme heat Texas has faced the last two summers and the state’s growth.
Indeed, ERCOT issued its first hot weather watch of the year Tuesday due to “unseasonably high temperatures,” encouraging Texans to conserve energy if possible during peak hours. According to ERCOT, there are challenges with high demand on the grid from 7 to 9 p.m. during the summer.
Under the current year-round and Stage 1 watering rules for SAWS, customers must use their irrigation systems before 11 a.m. and after 7 p.m. In Stage 2, the watering hours are 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The new proposed hours would be before 10 a.m. and after 9 p.m. under year-round and Stage 1, and from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight in Stage 2. Customers using hose-end sprinklers could apply for a variance to water 7 to 10 p.m., SAWS staff said.
“If SAWS can shift those watering hours for when most outdoor water is used from automatic irrigation to 9 p.m. to midnight, it helps us contribute to shoring up the grid in the summer,” Guz said, noting SAWS is one of CPS Energy’s biggest power users. “SAWS has to use a surprising amount of power to move water — water is heavy.” If you’ve ever had to carry water you know it’s very heavy.”
Limiting drip irrigation
Despite common belief that drip irrigation helps conserve water, it has actually become a huge problem for SAWS in recent years due to its explosive growth in popularity, and because people mistakenly believe drip irrigation needs to run longer, Guz said.
The update to the rules will limit drip irrigation watering to one day a week, Guz said. Currently, spray irrigation is limited to one day per week but drip is allowed daily. This “loophole” will be closed under the new rules, Guz said.
“Drip irrigation applies water at a rate similar to spray irrigation meaning they use about the same amount of water,” Guz said.
Guz clarified the proposed rule changes still allow additional use of drip for vegetable gardens, which are defined as “any non-commercial vegetable garden planted primarily for household use.”
SAWS will also seek to improve the life and use of new irrigation systems by requiring any irrigation newly attached to SAWS water services must follow all state and city standards, Guz noted.
The utility plans to enforce existing state and local irrigation rules for both residential and commercial standards, she noted.
Board and public feedback
Questions regarding how SAWS will enforce its updated rules lingered for the trustees Tuesday, spurring the board to halt their vote.
Guz had noted that customers disputing a violation could use their smart meter data to potentially prove their innocence, which had Trustee Eduardo Parra questioning the ethics of using such data. Guz clarified the data would have to come from the customer willingly, not be taken from the customer’s account by SAWS.
Trustee Amy Hardberger voiced support for the changes, noting that with the city growing, it’s important to emphasize conservation across the board.
“I’m glad that we’re doing this — I think it’s time,” she said. “I am very aware that this is, in some ways for some residents, a culture shift.”
Several public commenters spoke during the public hearing portion of the meeting to voice approval of the updates as well, including Peace and a representative from the Alamo chapter of the Texas Sierra Club.
One such commenter, Joe Yakubik, a former member of SAWS rate advisory committee, noted SAWS needs to also fix its own system if it wants to be an example in conservation, noting that SAWS used 70,000 acre feet of non-revenue water in 2023 — or roughly a Vista Ridge’s-worth plus 40%. Non-revenue water is water that doesn’t get paid for, primarily coming from water lost through leaks and breaks in the system.
Guz agreed to an extent, noting that SAWS main breaks were unprecedented in 2022 and 2023 due to the drought, but said it starts with customers, too, because decreasing demand “is easier on the pipes.”
“These things do tie together,” she said. “We won’t stop main breaks by reducing demand, but we will help that issue.”
