STAFF REPORT
The Lower Colorado River Authority Board of Directors voted last week to settle a $1.2 billion lawsuit with the San Antonio Water System over a proposed water supply project dating back nearly a decade.
In the settlement, LCRA and SAWS agree to work together to find new water supplies.
In addition to ongoing cooperation in the water development arena, LCRA agrees to reimburse SAWS $18.8 million right away, and then $1.4 million a year for eight years. The agreement will officially terminate the contract and end the lawsuit.
“Through this settlement, San Antonians will recover a significant portion of their investment in the LCRA water supply project, and avoid ongoing legal fees,” said Robert R. Puente, president and CEO of SAWS.
The LCRA Board unanimously voted to accept the settlement at its meeting Oct. 19. The SAWS Board is scheduled to consider the measure at its next regular meeting on Tuesday.
LCRA and SAWS signed an agreement in 2002 to study the feasibility of a water-sharing project to determine if such a project could provide for water needs in both basins while meeting requirements set by the Texas Legislature.
Generally, the agreement allowed LCRA to study whether water from the Colorado River downstream from Austin could be captured and stored in a reservoir. The water would have been piped to San Antonio.
Preliminary findings indicated that the project – given updated growth projections – would not meet all of the legislative requirements, meaning no water would be available for San Antonio.
In May 2009, the SAWS Board of Trustees claimed that LCRA’s use of updated water need projections in the ongoing project studies breached the agreement and a lawsuit was filed. LCRA responded that it had not breached the contract and the case was dismissed in 2010. However, the dismissal was overturned on appeal.
