The Mayor and City Council of San Antonio, Texas will vote Oct. 30 on a water-purchase contract three years in the making with a large Spanish water company that will increase consumer water rates by 16%. A yes vote will commit the political leaders of the south Texas city, 25th in size by metro area, to a $3.4-billion, 30-year contract for 50,000 acre-ft a year of imported groundwater, enough to augment current city supplies by 20%, via a 142-mile, 54” pipeline along I-35.

If approved, the availability payment contract with Abengoa will dwarf any similar groundwater transfer contracts in the U.S. Only Poseidon’s 50-mgd seawater desalination projects in California match the 45 mgd in new water promised to San Antonio.