$26.5 million in upgrades underway for stretch of SE Side sewer

Six miles of 65-year-old pipe being replaced

SAN ANTONIO – Mayor Ivy Taylor admits it isn't sexy, but she said a sewer upgrade is an important project for an area of town ignored in the past.

Six miles of sewer pipe is getting replaced on the Southeast Side as part of a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency, a first for Texas.

As Taylor took in the work site near the intersection of Mission Way and South Presa Street, she put it bluntly why she was spending a Monday morning at a sewer upgrade.

"I mean this isn't the sexy stuff, but this, these are the building blocks of a city," Taylor said.

Workers are replacing a 65-year-old concrete sewer pipe at a cost of $26.5 million for six miles of gravity-fed main and siphons. The money is coming in part from the water rate increase in November.

San Antonio Water System said the need was clear with a sewage spill in 2012.

The new 48-inch pipes are fiberglass. SAWS said they are state-of-the-art and will last 50 years.

San Antonio is the first city in Texas to negotiate what it calls a "consent decree" with the EPA. The upgrades are part of a $1.1 billion agreement with the EPA to upgrade sewage after a 2013 settlement for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act through sewage spills.

SAWS said other cities, including Houston and Corpus Christi, are looking to San Antonio as they negotiate their own deals.

The new pipe will serve more than 50,000 homes in a neighborhood Taylor said was often ignored by city money.

"In the past, you know, maybe we've made different decisions about where to invest," Taylor said. "So it's great for us to be able to have this level [of] investment in this side of town."