An area just a few miles away from San Antonio may be in almost as bad condition as the impoverished Colonias in the Rio Grande Valley. An estimated 20,000 to 40,000 residents in southern Bexar County do not have adequate water for drinking, bathing, and cooking. Those few residents with access to wells occasionally find their water contaminated with heavy metals, flammable liquids, and fecal coliform bacteria, and the well water is rarely chlorinated. Inadequate wastewater treatment is also a problem.
Many residents are still without indoor plumbing and are utilizing outhouses.
Some efforts are underway to improve conditions. More septic tanks may soon be built by those who can afford them, because a new Bexar County regulation requires residents to have a septic system before they can receive electricity. The Bexar County Commissioners' Court has approved projects to supply water to roughly 400 households in the area last year. Critics charge those improvements are too few and have not yet occurred. The Texas Section of the American Water Resources Association is sponsoring a Seminar on Surface and Ground Water Hydrology November 8 at the Balcones Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.