San Antonio Water System (SAWS), the largest water and sewage utility in Bexar County, has put new watering restrictions in place after the Edwards Aquifer level dropped to 640 feet.

What You Need To Know

  • Like many other Texas cities battling ongoing droughts, stricter water usage rules are now in place in San Antonio

  • SAWS implemented new watering hours this summer — allowing customers to water once a week from 5 to 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight

  • Along with the new watering hours, SAWS has implemented a high usage surcharge

  • The noncompliance charge ranges from $137 to $500 for violators

“Stage 3 is serious,” said Nathan Riggs, an employee at the utility company.

For nearly 20 years, Riggs has worked for SAWS.

“I’ve been the drought enforcement coordinator for a few years now,” Riggs said.

His team is responsible for monitoring irrigation system usage across the city.

“We drive up and down the street. We look for sprinklers running,” Riggs said. “Then we look at the address to make sure it’s the right day.”

Like many other Texas cities battling ongoing droughts, stricter water usage rules are now in place. SAWS implemented new watering hours this summer — allowing customers to water once a week from 5 to 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight.

“We want to make sure that people are watering when they are supposed to,” Riggs said. “And that they’re not watering too much, too many days a week to try to manage demand across the system.”

Riggs says SAWS patrols from 7 p.m. until 10 a.m. 

“Our patrol staff gets a lot of violations here in the middle of the night,” Riggs said.

“We observe their sprinklers going off at three in the morning,” Riggs explained. “And then, they will send us an email or call us and say, ‘You weren’t really at my house at three in the morning.’ Then we send them the photos.”

Along with the new watering hours, SAWS has implemented a high usage surcharge.

“If a residential customer uses more than 20,000 gallons while we’re in Stage 3, there’s an additional charge tacked on to the bill every 1,000 gallons above 20,000,” Riggs said.

With more than 500,000 SAWS customers, Riggs says overall usage is down compared with the last two summers. He says they’ve only issued 2,900 violations and 4,700 warnings.

“We want to educate our customers,” Riggs said. “We would much rather do that than issue violations.”

Riggs says water conservation is critical during this Texas drought. The noncompliance charge ranges from $137 to $500 for violators.

“First-time residential customers who get a violation have a chance to take an education class online and get that charge waived,” Riggs said. “It’s kind of like defensive watering.”

This is the first time SAWS has declared Stage 3 restrictions. Riggs says it will take more than a few showers for this drought to be over and the Edwards Aquifer to rise above 660 feet. 

“People who would say, we got an inch of rain, drought's over,” Riggs said. “The drought is over when the aquifer says it’s over.”