A large stormwater basin is creating a big problem for some North Side neighbors.<\/p>\n
The drainage system is clogged, creating a back up of free standing water, and a breeding ground for mosquitos.<\/p>\n
Neighbors say mosquitos are so bad, they’re avoiding spending time this summer in their yards.<\/p>\n
Fox SA’s Investigative Problem Solver Darian Trotter stepped in to help.<\/p>\n
Tenchita Flores starts her day spraying and slathering herself with insect repellents.<\/p>\n
She’s not fond of harsh chemicals on her skin, but says it’s a necessary evil to ward off mosquitos taking over her back yard.<\/p>\n
“I get concerned because we have so many mosquitos in this area,” said Tenchita Flores. <\/p>\n
Unfortunately for her, and her North Side neighbors, she says avoiding mosquito bites has become a way of life.<\/p>\n
Trotter asked, “How do you feel about it?” Flores replied, “They’re complaining about mosquitos all the time.”<\/p>\n
Tenchita and Alfredo Flores describe the source of the mosquito infestation as a free-standing water as large swimming pool.<\/p>\n
“I call it a mosquito factory,” Tenchita said. <\/p>\n
The stormwater basin, for reasons unknown, doesn’t drain properly.<\/p>\n
“It’s enormous,” Tenchita said. “And it’s extremely deep.”<\/p>\n
Adamant we had to see it to believe it, they took us out on a golf cart to show us in person.<\/p>\n
They weren’t lying. We saw with our own eyes.<\/p>\n
The stormwater basin at Blanco and Loop 1604 is full of water that’s not draining. The area’s recent heavy rains aren’t helping.<\/p>\n
”I know that now we have two or three notices of the West Nile Virus situation,” Tenchita said. <\/p>\n
West Nile Season started in may, months earlier in San Antonio than usual.<\/p>\n
Leaders with Metro Health San Antonio are warning, heavy rainfall, high temps and humidity create perfect conditions for mosquitos.<\/p>\n
The agency is urging property owners to get rid of free standing water in much smaller amounts than this.<\/p>\n
It’s an alert only adding to their frustration.<\/p>\n
“It’s terribly frustrating,” Tenchita said. <\/p>\n
The Flores’ say they’ve been fighting this battle a long time. They showed us communication they’ve collected.<\/p>\n
A few years back they say their call for action resulted in engineers with TCEQ coming out to address the problem.<\/p>\n
“So I guess for about six to eight months, I don’t know how long it did drain,” Tenchita said. “Then it stopped again. And ever since then, it has never really fully drained.”<\/p>\n
This time around…<\/p>\n
Tenchita said, “We have gone to Sonterra Property owners, Stone Oak property owners, SAWS, and TCEQ, and 311, all them, Nothing.”<\/p>\n
So we reached out to SAWS, TCEQ and San Antonio Code Enforcement.<\/p>\n
TCEQ says a violation was issued to the regulated entity back in June of 2024 for failing to maintain the basin.<\/p>\n
Corrective action was taken and the problem was solved. As a result of our recent inquiry, a new investigation was launched in June.<\/p>\n
“Last I heard was that somebody in Austin owns that particular slice of land, and that they have been contacted, and that they don’t respond,” Tenchita said. <\/p>\n
Who’s responsible for unclogging and maintaining the basin? We’ve learned property owners are.<\/p>\n
SAWS tells us the owner has been notified the site is out of compliance and requires corrective action.<\/p>\n
If the problem is not solved, we’re told TCEQ may issue enforcement penalties including fines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A large stormwater basin is creating a big problem for some North Side neighbors. The drainage system is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-425583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425583","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=425583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}