By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members have learned it may be a year before the city can begin drawing water from a proposed new well site just north of the San Felipe Springs.
City council members heard an update on the well project, proposed as an additional water source for the city, during a special work session on June 18. The proposed water well site is located on an archery range just north of the San Felipe Springs, source of all of the city’s drinking water.
Mark Roetzel, of MRoetzel Consulting, LLC, in San Antonio, a water expert hired by the city, and hydrogeologist Eric Wolff, of DNA Geosciences, Inc., an environmental services company in San Antonio, gave the update.
Roetzel told the council, “We’re pleased to come back and visit with you again to update you on the results of the initial phase of the archery range site evaluation. As you’ll recall, the concept is to identify a supply well, specifically to provide a water supply to the water treatment plant in the event that either the East and/or the West Spring pumps are not able to continue to provide a water supply to the treatment plant.
“This well would be, essentially, a deeper source from the same productive aquifer that would then ensure a reliable intake source to the water treatment plant. That water would, of course, then be filtered through the treatment plant,” he said.
Roetzel told the council the geophysical study of the archery range site has been completed and described some of the survey processes used.
“We have got some very encouraging results that should support the next phase, which will be the installation of a test well, to actually penetrate down to the target depth . . . hopefully find that very wet seam that we are looking for and then test that well to confirm the hydraulic performance before we make the recommendation to, hopefully, move forward with that as a full production well,” Roetzel said.
He then turned the presentation over to Wolff.
Wolff said he began his survey of the area by looking at how the city is getting its water now, examining Google Earth images of the site and studying the water drainage patterns in the area.
Wolff said he looked at previously-drilled private water wells north of the San Felipe Springs, then used Lidar imaging technology to get a more detailed picture of the geology around the springs.
Based on his reviews of the area’s geology, Wolff said, the archery range site “looked like a good potential source because of that big drainage pattern.”
Wolff said his target is drilling a well that can produce 3,000 gallons of water a minute.
He showed council a map and the spot chosen for the drilling of the pilot hole, which he called “ground truthing, where we gradually go down (into the earth) to prove what is suggested is here, based on our knowledge and geoscience and groundwater movement and hydrogeology.”
When Wolff asked if council members had questions, Councilman Jim DeReus asked, “So what kind of time frame are we talking about, to be able to get this test well, to see if it’s not only productive but also clean enough that we won’t have to do any additional processing at the plant?”
Roetzel replied drilling a test well would take “probably 30 to 60 days” from the time of authorization to the time of installing the well.
“So within that 60-day window, we’ll know whether that is a good hole, how much that hole will produce, what size diameter that well will need to be, what size pump will be needed, so to answer your question, in 60 days we’ll know whether to move forward with a full-size well,” Roetzel said.
DeReus again expressed concern about the new well’s possible effects on existing private water wells in the area.
“I know we’ve discussed it before, but we’re not anticipating this having impact on individual landowners’ wells,” DeReus said.
“The systems out here are inter-related a little bit, but you know the spring levels, even though they’re so close to each other, are at different elevations, and I think that the place where we’re going to drill, that groundwater slope is not going to effect the West Springs,” Wolff replied.
Roetzel said the plan also calls for drilling two small monitoring wells to be placed at different distances from the pilot hole “to see what the influence is” of the pumping tests at the main well site.
“Based on our general knowledge and what we’re seeing at the springs, we anticipate that even at . . . flows of 3,000 or 4,000 gallons a minute, it would be unusual to see any influence,” Roetzel said.
Assistant Public Works Director Greg Velazquez reminded the council the only contract the city currently has is for the site study and that staff could later bring an item to council to pursue the drilling of the pilot well.
Mayor Al Arreola then recognized Jerry Simpton, a local water expert, and asked Simpton if he had any questions after hearing the presentation.
Simpton first asked Wolff about the depth to which he planned to drill the well, and Wolff replied about 250 feet.
Simpton asked if the geologists had identified a secondary potential well site close to their primary target if the pilot hole doesn’t produce the expected water, and Wolff said they had.
Simpton also suggested – in the form of a question – that the city consider drilling two pilot holes at the same time, given the time it takes a bureaucracy to process the approval and fund the drilling.
“You’re probably going to need a second well location. One is not enough. You probably need two production wells,” Simpton said.
“Until you put a hole in the ground, whether you’re looking for water or oil, until you put a hole in the ground, if anyone assures you of results, either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or they’re not being honest. We’ll know when we get a hole in the ground. That’s the nature of all wells,” Roetzel said.
“It’s not unreasonable to think that, given what we see here, given our understanding of local geology, hydrogeology, it’s not unreasonable to think that we could get a 4,000-gallon-a-minute well out of the test hole. We’ll know fairly quickly, when we do the pumping test,” he added.
Wolff said the real challenge won’t be finding water, but drilling a well that will produce the amount of water the city is hoping for.
“We’re just looking to find a big source close to the treatment plant,” he said.
Simpton then asked about the rest of the timeline for the development of the alternate well.
Roetzel said once the well is drilled, a design will have to be created to integrate it into the water treatment plant’s control system, but that process must be approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and can take 90 to 120 days for review and approval. Once state approval is granted, actual construction can begin.
“If everything fell right into place and we got no upsets or delays, plus or minus a year, to be bringing another production well into the treatment plant,” he told the council.
Arreola said city staff will meet with Wolff, Roetzel and other engineers contracted by the city to come up with a cost and return to council with a proposal.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
