Aquifer Storage and Recovery Facts

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Existing Facilities

  • The San Antonio Water System ASR facility at H2Oaks Center has 29 ASR wells and a recovery capacity of about 60 million gallons per day. As of December 2020, the volume of groundwater in storage is about 174,635 acre-feet.
  • The City of Kerrville Plant has two wells and a recovery capacity of about 2.6 million gallons per day. The volume of surface water stored is about 2,000 acre-feet. As of 2018, Kerrville obtained a permit from the Underground Injection Control at TCEQ, but is holding off on converting a production well to ASR well and potentially increasing the capacity to 4 million gallons per day.
  • The 12 million-gallons-per-day Fred Hervey Water Reclamation Plant in El Paso is considered a hybrid ASR-AR-indirect facility. It uses two different methods to inject or recharge reclaimed water into the Hueco-Mesilla Bolsons Aquifer: shallow vadose wells and infiltration basins. This facility may also be classified as aquifer storage, transfer, and recovery because the wells used to inject the reclaimed water are not the same wells that are used to recover the stored water. As of August 2020, they plan to retire their last vadose well once it needs maintenance and expand the infiltration basins. As of December 11, 2018, the stored volume is 167, 848 acre-feet of water.

2022 State Water Plan

  • The volume of new water supplies coming from ASR recommended water management strategies by 2070 is 193,000 acre-feet per year (2.5 percent).
  • "Approximately 60 percent of 2070 ASR supplies are associated with stored surface water sources, while 30 percent are associated with a combination of groundwater and surface water sources. The remaining 10 percent are associated with groundwater or a combination of surface water and reuse or groundwater and reuse supplies."
  • "Ten regions recommended ASR strategies. Associated with these strategies are 27 recommended projects that would establish ASR systems or pilot projects. Regions not recommending ASR strategies (Regions B, D, F, I, M, and P) cited reasons such as the lack of suitable geology in proximity to needs, cost constraints, or a lack of interested project sponsors."