The Fight for Water Accessibility in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO – The Torres family survived the summer of 2022 with buckets of rainwater and bottles of water. The family had to do that because they didn’t have a water connection.

The Torres family is coming forward now to call for change and make water connections more accessible in San Antonio.

“It was just incredible how hard it was and how expensive it was to be able to just get water,” Daniel Torres said.

The Torres family bought land in the Lone Star District during the 1980s. Years later, the city divided the family property into two parts.

In 2022, their family sold the other half and the water meter just happened to be in front of that property.

The family’s water service was disconnected in June 2022. Running water did not return until Sept. 2022.

District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo said this story is far from the only one in San Antonio. Castillo filed a Council Consideration Request to create a pilot program to connect more people to San Antonio Water System water and sewer main lines.

Here’s what the CCR would do:

• The development of a COSA-sponsored Residential Water & Sewer Lateral Installation Pilot which includes connections to the SAWS water and sewer main lines located within the right-of-way
• A review of and update to Division 2 Article V – Sewage Transportation, Treatment and Disposal
• Requesting the appropriate entities work together to map out residential properties with missing laterals

The request has gone through the Governance and Planning & Community Development committees.

“It’s a public health issue,” Castillo said. “Some folks don’t know they’re not connected until their water gets cut off.”

Castillo said one of the biggest barriers to these connections and laterals can be the fees. She said some of these can total up to thousands of dollars.

A spokesperson for SAWS said impact fees are standard and needed to cover infrastructure costs.

“An impact fee is a one-time charge imposed on new development to help recover capital costs associated with providing the infrastructure and other required improvements to deliver service to that new development,” a SAWS spokesperson said.

SAWS said that impact fees and the location of these lines may not be something the average property owner thinks of when they look to build a completely new home or sell part of their land.

“SAWS advises potential homebuyers to ensure they have their own service line and water meter to avoid any future service issues,” the spokesperson said.

In the meantime, the Torres family said the fight for water accessibility is far from over.

“If there’s nothing to help, then we need to create something to help,” Martha Torres said. “It can happen to anybody. We’re that anybody.”

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