Edwards Aquifer Returns to Stage 3, Cutting Permitted Pumping 35 Percent for the San Antonio Pool
The Edwards Aquifer Authority put the San Antonio Pool back under Stage 3 drought cuts — a 35 percent reduction in permitted pumping, up from 30 percent — five days after easing to Stage 2.
The Edwards Aquifer Authority has returned the San Antonio Pool to Stage 3 of its drought plan, cutting permitted pumping by 35 percent, up from the 30 percent cut under Stage 2, according to the authority's Oct. 21 news release as reported by The Texas Dispatch on Oct. 27.
The move reversed the authority's Oct. 16 announcement of a return to Stage 2 in just five days. The authority said the change rests on falling water levels: on Oct. 21 the daily high at Index Well J-17, its benchmark well in San Antonio, was 639.2 feet above mean sea level, producing a ten-day rolling average of 639.9 feet — below the Stage 3 threshold, the release said. The Oct. 16 release had listed the well at 640.2 feet.
The San Antonio Pool covers Medina and Bexar counties and parts of Atascosa, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal and Hays counties, according to the release. Farms, factories and water utilities that pump from the aquifer are the permit holders subject to the deeper cut.
