San Antonio Spurs Pioneering Water Conservation Effort

With a multipronged strategy, San Antonio has managed to achieve the nearly impossible - keeping water use flat while accommodating substantial growth - rightfully earning it the title "Water's Most Resourceful City," reports Mose Buchele.

1 minute read

August 10, 2012, 11:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


"[B]y dramatically cutting consumption, pioneering new storage techniques
and investing in water recycling and desalination projects," San Antonio has become the envy of cities across America now reeling from a record drought. According to Buchele, "There are so many programs and projects that Chuck Ahrens of Water
Resources and Conservation with the San Antonio Water System can hardly
keep track."

Although Ahrens has a hard time naming them all, "These are the things that have allowed San Antonio to be one of the
fastest-growing cities in the country while not increasing water
consumption," writes Buchele. "In fact, the city still uses about the same amount of water
it did in the early '90s even though it has added more than 300,000
residents."

Thursday, August 9, 2012 in NPR

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