San Antonio Water System officials on Oct. 1 told the City Council that the utility is implementing a range of leak-detection, meter-replacement and main-replacement programs while preparing to request rate support in early 2026 to fund major wastewater recycling center rehabilitations.

SAWS Chief Operating Officer Andrea Beamer said the utility has created an Office of Non-Revenue Water, added staff and equipment, and is deploying new technologies to reduce water loss across its 7,900 miles of water mains. “SAWS is committed to securing, protecting and managing our most precious resource in a responsible, proactive manner,” Beamer told council members.

Why it matters: SAWS officials say deferred spending and rising construction costs have weakened credit metrics; the utility’s plan to rehabilitate aging wastewater treatment facilities is the primary driver for a rate request that officials say will be needed to preserve borrowing capacity and avoid permit or enforcement risks.

SAWS outlined several near-term programs and numbers for the council. Among the items presented by Doug Evanson, SAWS chief financial officer:
- An ongoing replacement of production well flow meters — 106 new flow meters were authorized by the SAWS board and are being installed to correct over-registering on older meters.
- The ConnectH2O AMI program, replacing about 605,000 mechanical customer meters with electronic meters; SAWS reported 91% completion of AMI installations and said all small customer meters would be replaced by the end of 2025.
- Leak-detection and field staffing increases: the leak-detection team rose from six to 16 staff over two years, and overall response times for nonemergency leak repairs fell from as long as 14 days in 2022–23 to about two days in 2025.
- Use of an AI failure-prediction model to prioritize main replacements and a consultant-led leak-management model to refine feasible leakage targets.

On capital needs, SAWS told council it expects to invest heavily over the next five years: officials cited plans to spend more than $500 million specifically on water-main replacement and described a five‑year capital-improvement program of more than $3.2 billion from 2026–2030 (with a standalone 2026 need presented of roughly $608 million). Evanson said the primary near-term driver for the rate request is more than $340 million in treatment-plant rehabilitation work at SAWS’s two largest water-recycling centers; the utility also identified wastewater capital projects totaling about $327 million proposed for temporary deferral in the 2026 interim budget.

To avoid presenting a rate increase to a newly constituted SAWS board before members have time to review proposals, SAWS proposed an interim 2026 budget that defers roughly $350 million of capital projects and would allow the board to consider a later multi-year rate package. “We are planning to seek a rate adjustment for 2026 to allow us to carry out needed capital projects while still maintaining our credit metrics and bond ratings,” Evanson told council.

SAWS and operations: Beamer summarized system complexity — 13 supplies from seven sources, a 1,500-foot elevation range within the city, 59 pressure zones and service connections approaching 582,000 — and highlighted authorized (non‑loss) usage accounting, production-meter accuracy, apparent losses (meter underregistering and theft) and physical distribution losses as the four drivers of the utility’s non‑revenue water audit.

Programs and milestones: SAWS described progress on several fronts:
- Production-meter replacements in wells to correct over‑registering; board authorization to procure 106 meters.
- ConnectH2O AMI deployments (91% complete) and a planned finish of the small-customer meter replacement by end of 2025.
- Replacement of aging mains and increased in‑house and contractor work; SAWS said it expects to spend “more than $500 million” on water-main replacement over the next five years.
- Pilots for advanced leak-detection sensors and an upcoming innovation day to evaluate vendor technologies.

Affordability and customer programs: Council members pressed SAWS on protections for lower-income households. SAWS described its multi-faceted affordability efforts, including an “uplift” assistance program that reduces monthly bills for qualifying customers and short-term relief options for temporary hardship. SAWS staff said the utility has expanded “plumbers to people” and other outreach tied to AMI meter data (automated leak alerts and proactive contact), and officials said they will provide council offices with additional data on program uptake and district-level participation rates upon request.

Other council concerns and SAWS responses: Council members asked how replacement and detection priorities would serve historically underinvested neighborhoods; SAWS said replacement prioritization is based on failure rate, soil conditions, material, and predictive analytics rather than strictly on pipe age. Members also pressed on the effect of data-center growth; SAWS said many existing data centers have used recycled (purple-pipe) water and that potable connections farther west would require infrastructure paid by the developer, while warning that large commercial loads change long-term planning assumptions.

District cooling and downtown projects: Council members asked about a proposed chilled-water relocation downtown. SAWS said Jacobs Engineering is completing a feasibility estimate and that the relocation cost will likely be substantial; staff estimated the figure will be at least $200 million and cautioned that detailed funding and customer arrangements remain to be resolved.

Legal and regulatory context: SAWS recalled a 2013 consent decree addressing sanitary‑sewer overflows that prompted prior investment in collection systems; Evanson said the utility deferred some plant-level capital while addressing collection compliance and now must advance plant rehabilitations to avoid permit risk.

What happens next: SAWS will ask its board in November to adopt an interim 2026 budget without rate adjustments and will update its cost-of-service study for a proposed multi-year rate package planned to return to council in early 2026. SAWS also plans recurring utility briefings to council every other month.

Ending: Council members pressed SAWS for district-level maps of aging and higher‑risk mains, more detail on affordability program enrollment by district, and a memo on the timing and scope of deferred projects; SAWS staff agreed to provide follow-up materials and to continue public engagement at upcoming briefings.