The Castle Hills City Council is sending a message to San Antonio: it thinks the Vista Ridge water pipeline proposed by the San Antonio Water System, SAWS, is a bad deal.
Tuesday night the suburban council voted 3 to 2 for a resolution opposing the 142-mile pipeline that would transport water from Burleson County to the Bexar County area.
SAWS is owned by the City of San Antonio. San Antonio council members will decide next week whether to support a 50-percent rate increase over five years in water and sewer rates, to pay for the Vista Ridge pipeline.
Castle Hills citizens also get their water from SAWS, so the decision will affect their rates, too.
Castle Hills Council Member Leslie Wenger believes the rate increase is out-of-line, and says it will disproportionately hike the cost of water in her community where the properties are typically larger.
“We’re not an average household. So it’s going to be much more excessive than a 50 percent (increase) by 2020, much, much higher,” said Wenger.
Castle Hills Councilmember Douglas Gregory also went on record opposing the Vista Ridge pipeline. He’s a stock broker familiar with bond markets. He’s concerned that pipeline contractor Abengoa doesn’t have a stellar financial rating.
“It seems to be if you’re building a project of over $3 billion dollars, you’d want the soundest company- soundest financially- that has the best reputation. And that’s not the impression I got that this company was that,” said Gregory.
Gregory and Wenger say they want to go on record as opposing the pipeline before San Antonio council members vote on rates. They want San Antonio officials to realize their decision will affect other communities that buy water from SAWS.
