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Del Rio Water Resource Plan Presented to State Legislator Eddie Morales in Austin
The City of Del Rio composed a Water Resource Plan that includes three problem statements and proposed solutions. “City administration recently went to Austin, last week, to advocate for financial assistance on Water and Wastewater issues facing the City of Del Rio,” said Burkhart as she held up a copy of the Water Resource Plan – “the document that we presented last week in Austin to our legislators.”
After centuries of use, ground-water resources are critically low. Water levels impact every single city system and every single city resident. We turn on the tap and expect water to be there, but recent studies suggest that we should not take it for granted. The Water Resource Plan explains that “due to recent drought conditions, the San Felipe Springs’ flow has declined and has triggered the City’s Drought Contingency Plan. The City has imposed Stage 2 water restrictions over the past two years.”
City Manager Shawna Burkhart, Assistant City Manager Manuel Chavez, and Public Works Director Gregory Velazquez met with Representative Eddie Morales (District 74) and other attendees “to discuss critical infrastructure needs, explore funding opportunities, and advocate for support on urgent water and wastewater projects,” said Communications & Marketing Director Peter Ojeda.
The Water Resource Plan was also referenced during the Special City Council Meeting that Burkhart called on Tuesday 2/18/25. Copies of the plan were distributed to all council members in advance. On the cover, big bold letters across an image of Amistad Dam read, “Ensuring A Sustainable Water Future.” Document sections include the new municipal water well, the east springs containment wall repair, and Agarita well emergency use background.
The City of Del Rio has called in reinforcements from external agencies. Austin meetings were set up by Andrade-Van De Putte – A strategy consulting firm who, according to their company website, specializes in “bridging the gap between government entities and the business community.” Burkhart said, “We thank them for accelerating the city of Del Rio’s goals while we were there.”
“The Edwards Aquifer is the principal water-bearing unit in Val Verde,” according to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). It has sustained our community since the 1800s. “The City of Del Rio currently obtains its public water supply from the San Felipe East and West Springs using shallow wells near the existing water treatment plant,” says the Water Resource Plan. The Edwards Aquifer is a body of porous limestone that holds groundwater and contains many springs, including Barton Springs, Comal Springs, and Del Rio’s own San Felipe Springs.
The Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) provides raw data every 15-minutes on “Water levels at the J-17 Index Well... These are provisional readings and are subject to further qualitative review by the EAA.” Their 2024 published report says, “Water levels are measured around the clock using different devices in monitoring wells throughout the aquifer. Water level data are used for many purposes, including criteria for determining when to impose groundwater withdrawal reductions on aquifer users during droughts and understanding and appreciating our shared natural resource.”
EAA readings from 2/20/25 showed a “provisional day high” water level of 630.52 feet. Water levels vary across the aquifer and Del Rio levels tend to fall below average. When water levels are so low, it is called a critical period. Within the critical period, Stage 0 through Stage 5 is assigned. Today’s levels read as Stage 3 (less than 640 feet). But lower levels by one more inch and they will be less than 630 feet, moving into Stage 4. The higher up the stages we go, the stronger the water restrictions will get.
In addition to water levels dropping, “we have almost daily waterline breaks,” said Velazquez. The last time that line upgrades were completed was more than 15 years ago in 2011, “20,000 [linear feet] of water and wastewater lines were done,” said Velazquez. The infrastructure is old, deteriorating, or simply insufficient to support continued growth. The city has a twofold water problem to tackle – the water resource itself and the lines needed to bring it to citizens.
Priority #1 in the Water Resource Plan is to build a new municipal well. This proposed solution would pull water from a secondary source, different than the San Felipe Springs, but still drawing from the Edwards Aquifer. The current shallow municipal well pulls directly from San Felipe Springs. The 2nd well would be drilled deeper and draw from water characterized as “groundwater under the influence.” Current water rights permit the city to yield 11,246 acre-feet of water from San Felipe Springs annually. According to estimations included in the Water Resource Plan, adding a second well would allow the city to work around the San Felipe water rights and pull in an additional 3,226 acre-feet of water per year.
The second and third proposed solutions are less expensive, coming in at around $2 million dollars each (as compared to drilling a new well, which is going to cost around $14 million). Their Priority #2 is to repair the existing municipal well, the East Spring Containment Wall, to be exact. The Water Resource Plan says, “Over the years, erosion, major flooding like the Flood of 1998, and tree roots have undermined the structural integrity of the [East Spring Containment Wall] and impacted its functional use to contain the water… Consequently, the structural deterioration of the concrete retaining wall may fail and remove the East Spring from operating for an unforeseen amount of time, adding pressure to the West Springs to provide 100% of water to the community.”
A significant connection between ground water resources and wastewater treatment was made in the Water Resource Plan, when addressing the emergency use of the Agarita Well. It says, “prolonged drought conditions have reduced spring flow significantly, threatening to interrupt the Water treatment Plant (WTP) supply pumps if spring flow water levels continue to decline. Such an interruption would present a serious public health threat and economic disruption to the city, with no other public water supply now available.” The Agarita Well has been abandoned since the early 2000s due to recurring bacterial contamination. The city suggested the option to rehabilitate this well for emergency use.
The various proposed solutions all point to the importance of fast action. They use the words “rapid” “emergency” and “expedited.” They request assistance from state and federal agencies such as TWDB for financial assistance. Del Rio needs funding fast to complete engineering documents. Once the city has completed that first phase, eligibility for more sources of funding results. More information about water and wastewater emergency project funding is in the Connect Del Rio 2/20/25 article titled, “Funding for Water and Wastewater Projects Explained at Special City Council Meeting.”
Public Works Director Gregory Velazquez is a driving force behind the water projects. He worked with the City’s Contract Engineers (referred to as ICE) to complete the Water Resource Plan. “They put this together in short order and got it through our public media department,” said Burkhart. The professionally designed booklet displays scientific data, photographic evidence, and letters of support from elected officials. A strong opening statement is found inside the front cover, “Del Rio’s future growth and development will depend heavily on the state of its infrastructure, the true back bone of the community’s social and economic functions.”
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