Water Planning
Water Savings Account
To ensure that San Antonio has a sustainable supply of affordable water, SAWS built the Twin Oaks Aquifer Storage and Recovery facility to store excess Edwards Aquifer drinking water during rainy times in a large-scale underground water storage facility in south Bexar County for use during our arid summers. Think of it as a water savings account – one that's protected from evaporation.
The award-winning Twin Oaks Aquifer Storage and Recovery has a 120,000 acre-feet capacity, which equals more than 39 billion gallons of water. That's a mighty hefty savings account.
Brackish Groundwater Desalination
Desalination, in its simplest description, is the removal of salt from water to make it drinkable.
Most people associate desalination with ocean water, but SAWS is developing a plant to treat brackish groundwater right in our own backyard. This new source comes from the Wilcox Aquifer in southern Bexar County.
When fully operational, the desalination facility should generate about 25 million gallons of water per day and will be located at the existing Twin Oaks Aquifer Storage & Recovery. The brackish, or salty, water will be treated to drinking standards using reverse osmosis treatment. The first phase of this exciting project is scheduled to come on line in 2016.