H2O To Grow Newsletter: Volume #2 / Issue #3

·        What Is Water Privatization?

·        benefits of a rain garden

·        community gardens

·        Farmer’s markets

Welcome to H2O To Grow, a newsletter from a San Antonio Native for Water Conservation and Rain Harvesting.

There has been a lot of recent water activity going on in the state of Texas as well as the Nation.

Here in San Antonio we have dissolved Bexar Met and absorbed their responsibility of rural customers to SAWS, a wise choice in my opinion, but one that may bite us in the behind if they ever privatize.

what is water privatization?

As the drought pushes most water municipalities to the brink of running out of water, it seems like a good time to discuss Water Privatization and how it could affect our fellow Texans.

According to Webster’s Online Dictionary – Water privatization is a short-hand for the privatization of water services, although more rarely it refers to privatization of water resources themselves.

In laymen’s terms, it’s when a public water utility, which is run by the municipality it services, is sold to a private entity, usually a corporation.

Unfortunately this is happening more and more often with disastrous results which endanger the health and way of life of many small-town or rural customers.

The reasons for a town selling its water rights and infrastructure to a private company are varied, but the reasons most often stated are;

1.       Efficiency

2.       Lower Cost of Operations

3.       Lower prices to customers

4.       Failing/Aged Infrastructure repairs too expensive

5.       Unable to meet federal regulatory standards

They all sound like good intentions.

Let’s use the fictional West Texas town of Santo Poco to describe the Pros and Cons of Privatizing their water municipality.

The benefits seem to be stacked in Santo Poco’s favor to let someone else come in and take care of the problem.  The current management has not been able to keep up with repairs and water outages are a way of life.

Now the 2011 droughts have pushed the already scarce water beyond the capabilities of the town to handle.  There is no water and no government assistance, state or national, to help them.

The citizens don’t know what to do, but they demand action.  They want to lynch the current water municipality managements for not handling the situation better and dooming their town. 

Gardens all over town have turned to ash and the threat of wildfires loom over the town.  Emergency services have to ship water in from other municipalities.  The Federal & State governments are enforcing regulations that the town cannot meet due to aging water infrastructure.

The scientist had warned Santo Poco this was going to happen, but they didn’t shout loud enough, and the ones that did were ridiculed or censored, so the only person speaking to the people and the city is the fictional PRIVATE water company, El Guapo’s Water.

The citizenry doesn’t want to adapt to the environment, they continue trying to adapt the environment to their wants.  After all, they pay taxes, why should they worry.  And besides, it’s too late for a 5-year plan, we need results yesterday!

 They want a greener garden than their neighbor.  They want to wash their cars every Sunday and keep going to the river and lakes for recreation.  They want storm-water directed out of town to prevent flooding. AND they want to do all this without paying more taxes.

So El Guapo’s Water company comes in and offers to help the town avoid the hefty Government Fines coming down the line by beginning a project to improve the infrastructure of their water municipality without raising taxes.  El Guapo tells them he’s willing to invest $10 million into the infrastructure of the water company.

That’s more money than the town makes in a year, so they start thinking of all the jobs that will be created and how they don’t have to raise taxes or even worry about the water to their homes because El Guapo is going to take care of all that for them.

Not only that, El Guapo is willing to pay the city twice the appraised value of the water municipality.  So instead of losing money, they were being paid a total of $250k for items worth only $150k.

So they rush the deal thru the city council and destroy anyone opposed to it.  The only person opposing the deal was the Mayor of Santo Poco, but he was overridden and threatened with a vote of no confidence.

Selling off everything to El Guapo included the “water rights” or Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CC&N). 

Now the government offers a deal to El Guapo that allows him to increase Santo Poco’s water rates to recoup up to 12% of the amount of money he invested in the maintenance of the infrastructure.  That means he can raise rates high enough to recoup not only the original $10million investment, but an additional $1.2million as well.

And he raises rates immediately! Tripling the price a week after the purchase of the municipality.

El Guapo was smart and had made sure the contract was good for 40 years so Santo Poco would not be able to get affordable water from anywhere else for at least a generation.

But since even El Guapo has to show the government that he is rebuilding and improving the infrastructure,      construction begins.

All these trucks from the home state of El Guapo (not Texas) begin to arrive with construction crews and equipment to begin fixing the wells and erecting water extraction/storage buildings to increase the amount of water they can take out of the ground.

These are the statistics and data El Guapo’s scientists wave under the noses of the citizens and regulators who complain they haven’t seen an increase in water rate or quality for Santo Poco.

El Guapo even complains that he’s already budgeted $8million dollars to construction costs and hasn’t seen a dime in return.

In the meanwhile, the few wells around Santo Poco that belonged to the landowners begin running dry.  So much water is being withdrawn and stored that the water table has dropped below conventional well depths.

Now Santo Poco begins to complain.  They ask El Guapo when does he plan to fix the lines going to their homes?  When will the school and hospital have reliable clean water?

“Unfortunately”, responds El Guapo’s Water Company, “all our money is tied up in the construction of the extraction and storage units.  We would have to increase rates or seek alternative avenues of revenue.”

So Santo Poco’s citizens say “No Way Jose” to the rate increases, they already pay 3 times more than before.  “Go with that alternative thing you mentioned,” they say.

So El Guapo calls his friend, El Feo, who owns a well-fracturing company and offers to sell him millions of gallons of water at below market value to increase revenue to El Guapo’s Water company without raising the rates for Santo Poco’s citizens.

He can do this because he is a PRIVATE company.  Now the drought is back and the water is gone and the rates are high and the government can’t help.  Santo Poco only has 40 more years to go of this.

benefits of a rain garden

Rain Gardens are wonderful additions to any lawn or landscape.  Whether it is a private home or an office building, they can all benefit from having one.

First of all, a rain garden is described as a vegetated depression in the soil constructed in such a way as to capture and filter water that would normally be storm-water runoff.  Here are some benefits;

1.       Capture storm-water to prevent pollution from entering water system.

2.       Create habitats for beneficial insects, butterflies, birds and critters.

3.       Use Texas Native Plants to survive droughts.

4.       Increase the beauty and use of your garden with mosquito repellant plants and hummingbird attracting plants.

5.       Decrease the urban heat island effect in parking lots

6.       Save water!

I could go on and on, but instead I’ll tell you how easy they are to build. 

Find a spot where the water already seems to collect but keep it at least 10ft away from the foundation, if none available then choose any area you would like.

Dig a shallow depression at least 8” deep 4ft x 8ft (kidney shape works best) with a gentle slope so it looks like a saucer, not deep like a bowl.  If clay soil make it deeper, if loamy soil make it shallower.  Create channels to direct water into and as overflow from with decorative rocks to soften water flow.  If lawn is on an angle, create a 6” berm on the downward side.

Plant beneficial Texas Natives and wait for rain!  This is the simple version, they can get very complex.

Calendar of Events

Under Construction

Farmer’s Markets

Every Tuesday, 8am – 12pm - Main Plaza115 Main Plaza, San Antonio, TX.

Every Tuesday, 7:30am – 1pm – Olmos Basin100 Jackson Keller, 78216

Every Wednesday, 7:30am – 1pm – Leon Valley6427 Evers Rd, 78238

Every Wednesday, 8am – 1pm – St. Jude Church
130 S. San Augustine St., 78209

Every Wednesday, 4pm – Pearl Brewery – Pearl Park parking lot (say that 3 times real fast!)

Every Thursday, 8 am – 1pm – SA Botanical Gardens
555 Funston Pl, 78209

Every Friday, 8am – 1pm – St. Matthew’s Church
11121 Wurzbach Rd, 78230

Every Saturday, 7am – 11am - Bracken Farmer’s and Artisans Market
7561 E Evans Rd, 78266

Every Saturday, 7:30am – 1pm - Olmos Basin 100 Jackson Keller, 78216

Every Saturday, 9am – 1pm - Pearl Farmer’s Market – At Pearl Brewery along the banks of the San Antonio River.

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