{"id":18467,"date":"2025-10-24T00:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T00:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/18467\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T00:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T00:59:07","slug":"saws-president-and-ceo-says-guajolote-ranch-development-will-not-cause-lower-quality-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/18467\/","title":{"rendered":"SAWS president and CEO says Guajolote Ranch development will not cause \u2018lower quality water\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The head of San Antonio Water System (SAWS) told KSAT that systems are in place to protect the city\u2019s water supply after the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) gave the green light for Guajolote Ranch<\/a>, a controversial development in northwest Bexar County.<\/p>\n

The project permit was approved during a meeting Wednesday morning. The TCEQ\u2019s Office of the Commissioners concluded that the permit for the development\u2019s wastewater treatment plant \u201cmeets all applicable requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

>> Guajolote Ranch project moves forward as TCEQ approves wastewater facility permit over Helotes Creek watershed<\/a><\/p>\n

Guajolote Ranch is a proposed development that would create approximately 3,000 homes on 1,100 acres, located north of Grey Forest. Lennar Homes, a Florida-based developer, is the company behind the project.<\/p>\n

KSAT has covered neighbors\u2019 concerns<\/a> about the project for nearly two years<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Neighbors oppose the proposed housing development because of the wastewater treatment plant that could come with it, which would treat sewage from homes in Guajolote Ranch and discharge it over an area that feeds into Trinity and Edwards aquifers. Those two aquifers supply San Antonio with water.<\/p>\n

SAWS President and CEO Robert Puente told KSAT that the utility is comfortable with the project after Lennar Homes agreed to several terms.<\/p>\n

Puente said they believe they have \u201cminimized any contamination to the aquifer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sewage that comes into the plant has to have increased filtration before it exits the plant,\u201d Puente said. \u201cAnd the other one was nutrient removal \u2014 the nutrients that are in the sewage, a heightened way to remove those nutrients.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said treated water must also be used on-site as much as possible.<\/p>\n

When asked if there\u2019s anything coming out of treated sewage water that he would consider harmful to a water supply, Puente said \u201cnot in this circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of what I mentioned earlier, the enhanced treatment and the enhanced filtration that we have contractually obligated them to,\u201d Puente said.<\/p>\n

Puente said hundreds of laboratory tests are conducted every month to ensure the water delivered is \u201cof the highest quality possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puente said the development, \u201cin our opinion, will not cause our community to have a lower quality water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not agreeing with it moving forward, and we\u2019re not supporting it,\u201d Puente said. \u201cWhat we feel that SAWS has done through these nine concessions, we have protected the aquifer. … We have minimized any kind of contamination to the aquifer.\u201d<\/p>\n

More coverage of this story on KSAT.com:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The head of San Antonio Water System (SAWS) told KSAT that systems are in place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[698,12836,584,4178,82,84,83,3215,410],"class_list":["post-18467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bexar-county","tag-guajolote-ranch","tag-health","tag-hill-country","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-saws","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}