We talked briefly about the cost of buying or leasing water rights at the meeting tonight. I did a quick google and found prices from $800 up. Here is a story by the Express news saying buying acre feet of water was $2200 in 2005 and is now over $5000 an acre foot in 2008!!

It was said at the meeting that we need 20 acre feet of water a year to keep the lake full!!!

How can we afford this??

http://www.eckardnaturalresourcegroup.com/documents/articles/Buy_Water_Rights.pdf

First of all let me compliment you for showing up to the meeting, taking interest & doing research, we need more residents like you.

We have only had our well meter on for two months.   An estimate of twenty acre feet is very, very, very  rough.  Many factors play into our water usage; rain, temperatures, irrigation & leakage.  We have control of only one factor, irrigation.

There are two ways of paying for water, buying rights or leasing rights.  If we bought rights we would own them forever.  We could also sell them at a later date.   Since we are new to this water rights stuff, we may want to lease (rent) for the first couple of years to see our consumption.

I for one see the lake as an asset to our neighborhood & feel we need to preserve it.

Do you know of any other gated neighborhood on a lake in San Antonio?

If you would like to help with this project, you are certainly welcome.  This is our neighborhood.

I was not able to attend the meeting because of elder care issues.  I do not get the water issue.  Could someone please explain it to me?  I understand the "lake" is viewed an asset but we also live in South Texas on the eastern edge of the Great Chihuahuan Desert.  Low water in ponds, lakes and stock tanks go with the area and the amount of rain fall.  Are we now going to spend money to put water in the lake?

Here's what I know.

The lake is approx seven acres.  The bottom is lined with caliche(?) as a liner to prevent water from leaking out.  We use the lake water to irrigate the landscaping around the lake & the two parks.  We have a well across the lake & to the right/North of the small park.  You can see a fenced in area with some vegitation/trees.  The well was drilled by the original developers.  The well adds water to the lake on an as needed basis. ie. less rain/more irrigation more well water is drawn.   For twenty years T/L has been drawing water free of charge.  The free days are over.  The Edwards Aquifer Authority required us to either cap the well or meter water drawn & pay them  ~$43 per acre foot of water (326,000 gallons) plus we need to pay for water rights.

We can either buy water rights or lease them.  So, yes we will need to pay $$$ for water.

We are currently in a one year monitoring period allowed by the Edwards Aquifer Authority.   We really do not know our projected usage until the one year monitoring period is up.  If we had a a rainy year it is very conceivable, that we would use little to no water.   

I hope this answers your question.