The sustained and costly effort by developer Abengoa to win a long-term water supply contract in San Antonio gained some traction on July 1 when the Spanish company was picked to negotiate a 30-year water purchase agreement to deliver 50,000 acre-ft to the parched city by 2019.

Abengoa and two regional teams were shortlisted in July 2011 from a list of nine companies that were prequalified late in 2010 to compete for the water supply contract.

In addition to taking supply risk, the company will finance and build a 142-mile pipeline along I-35 to deliver groundwater purchased from two wellfields in Burleson County. The rural county east of Austin has a population of 17,200.