San Antonio leaders believe a new agreement with the local water authority to build 4 miles of pipeline will ensure the area’s military installations have sufficient water supplies over the coming decades.
The most significant piece of the $11 million project calls for the construction of a 1,700-foot-long pipeline to Camp Bullis, making the San Antonio Water System the primary water source for the facility used to train military medics, reported the San Antonio Express-News. The aquifer Camp Bullis now relies on is susceptible to drought.
Local officials made the project a priority after Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert LaBrutta, commander of Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA), last year highlighted the importance of obtaining alternate backup sources of water to sustain the city’s bases missions into the future.
The agreement will “solve the military’s water needs for at least the next 20 years,” particularly at Camp Bullis, according to Councilman Joe Krier. “If we ever lost Bullis, we would lose all kinds of other missions in this community because it’s the training place for the military medics, for a whole lot of other things,” said Krier.
The agreement with the water authority also calls for the extension of mains and valves, meters and other equipment so that it can offer secondary service to JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, JBSA-Lackland and its training annex, and the cybersecurity and intelligence complex on the east end of Lackland known as Security Hill, according to the story.
Bob Murdock, director of the city’s office of military affairs, said the water project would help preserve existing missions at the city’s installations as well as help them attract new ones. “Having an alternative water source for Joint Base San Antonio significantly increases the military value of all of our installations,” Murdock said.
Shared from Association of Defense Communities.