3 minute read
Facility Tours
from Texas Water '22
by TEXAS AWWA
Attendees who purchased tickets will enjoy one of these tours on Friday morning. Tours will depart at 8:30 am from the Henry B. González Convention Center on Thursday, April 7.
Thanks to our sponsors!
SAWS Agua Vista Station
San Antonio Water System’s Agua Vista Station was commissioned in 2020. This $70 million water treatment plant, which delivers 50,000 acre-feet of water per year (approximately 45 MGD) and serves up to 20% of the utility’s customers, is the cornerstone of integrating the Vista Ridge Regional Water Supply into the SAWS water distribution system. The water supply is a blend of two sand aquifers in Burleson County, Texas, over 140 miles away. The Agua Vista Station provides treatment of the incoming supply to ensure compatibility with SAWS’ primary supply from the limestone Edwards Aquifer.
The plant has a unique hydraulic profile that makes beneficial use of static head available from the Vista Ridge transmission system; water passes through the treatment process without supplemental pumping, and approximately 80% of the treated water is conveyed by gravity into the SAWS water distribution system. Tour highlights include breathtaking cityscape views from the top of the lime storage silos and a state-of-the-art on-site hypochlorite generation facility. Participants should wear comfortable clothes and close-toed shoes.
SAWS Medio Creek Water Recycling Center
San Antonio Water System’s Medio Creek Water Recycling Center (WRC) is an extended aeration wastewater treatment facility with an average day capacity of 16 million gallons per day (MGD) that serves the growing Far West Side of San Antonio. The tour will showcase how the original plant constructed in phases beginning in 1972 works in parallel with the “new” plant commissioned in 2009.
Tour highlights will include the recently upgraded tertiary filtration and ultraviolet disinfection facilities as well as the upstream facilities, including the influent lift station, headworks, carrousel aeration basins and secondary clarifiers. Participants should wear comfortable clothes and close-toed shoes.
San Pedro Creek Culture Park & Confluence Park
San Pedro Creek Culture Park, located on the western edge of downtown, exemplifies beauty with purpose, as it serves as vital infrastructure for a growing downtown. Bexar County and the San Antonio River Authority, in coordination with the City of San Antonio, have restored San Pedro Creek’s natural environment and created a world-class linear park. It combines public art, architectural design and historic preservation with engineering, ecosystem restoration and native landscaping. This project will deepen and widen the existing channel and replace eight street bridges so that the 100-year floodplain can be contained within the banks.
The first segment of phase 1 – stretching from the flood tunnel inlet at N. Santa Rosa Street near Fox Tech High School to Houston Street – opened to the public on May 5, 2018. The San Pedro Creek Culture Park encompasses a total of four phases, with three segments in Phase 1. With segment one complete, the second and third segments – from Houston Street to Cesar Chavez – are under construction. Currently Phases 1.2 and 1.3 are set to open to the public in the Fall of 2022, and Phases 2, 3, and 4.1 are expected to be complete by Fall of 2023.
Following the tour of the park, the group will visit Confluence Park and the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River, which has over 16 miles of trail along the river with connections to Mission Portals, which serve as gateways to the San Antonio World Heritage Mission Sites. Don’t worry – a bus will help get you to the key landmarks without extensive walking! Participants should wear comfortable clothes and close-toed shoes.
