SAWS San Antonio is the largest drinking and sewage water facility in Texas State. SAWS San Antonio stands for San Antonio Water Systems. This is owned and maintained by the city of San Antonio. SAWS San Antonio draws water from Edwards Aquifer. SAWS San Antonio maintains high quality in its service and is reputed on a national scale in US. SAWS San Antonio takes every possible step to conserve and recycle the every bit of water and protect the environment. SAWS San Antonio was established in 1992. SAWS San Antonio was created with the merger of three agencies of the San Antonio. These three agencies are City Water Board, City Waste water department and Alamo water conservation and reuse district.
SAWS San Antonio also owns and operates Chilled water and Steam plant which was previously owned by City Water Board. This plant serves as centralized cooling system for buildings that are situated around Hemispheric plant. SAWS was also assigned the treatment and recycling of City’s Storm Water runoff. The previously City Planning Department’s water resources planning committee was included in to SAWS San Antonio. An important component of SAWS San Antonio planning role is the responsibility to maintain the purity levels of city’s water supply that comes from Edwards Aquifer.
SAWS San Antonio imposes several restrictions on case of water scarcity or low water levels in Edwards aquifer. These drought restrictions are established by the city ordinance to ensure the proper management of city’s water supply. The restriction levels depend on the severity of the situation. Year round restrictions are in effect when the water level in Edwards aquifer is normal or above 660 feet above mean sea level. Water waste is prevented in every way possible. Allowing water to run off into a gutter, ditch, or drain or failing to repair a controllable leak is considered water waste.
SAWS San Antonio year round restrictions also include limiting of landscape watering to particular times of day. Washing and cleaning of parking lots and pavements is permitted without the excessive use of water or runoff to avoid wastage. Commercial car wash facility can be availed at any time on any day. These restrictions are in effect despite the customer not being a SAWS San Antonio’s. Everyone in the city of San Antonio is to follow these restrictions. There are different stages of drought restrictions followed by SAWS San Antonio. There are four stages of restrictions which come in to effect with decreasing water levels in Edwards aquifer.
SAWS San Antonio took several steps to conserve the environmental resources. SAWS San Antonio is also making arrangements to establish a project which produces bio gas which is usable in many ways and is eco-friendly. This bio gas is produced from sewage waste collected from unusable and sewage water. SAWS San Antonio emphasizes on these regulations in order to maintain supply levels at all times. SAWS San Antonio makes use of the waste water which we do not use and recycles it to create pure usable water.