KENEDY, Texas – For more than a year, the small town of Kenedy, southeast of San Antonio, has seen higher-than-allowable levels of arsenic in its water supply, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Mayor Randy Garza said even so, “The water is safe to drink. TCEQ has not asked us to have alternative drinking water or even to boil water. So at this time, it’s not an emergency.”
He said as far as he knows, his community hasn’t seen the health consequences of long-term exposure to arsenic, a naturally occurring element in the ground. But he urges residents to come forward with any health concerns.
Andrea Morrow, TCEQ spokeswoman, said people who drink water with high levels of arsenic over time “could experience skin damage or problems with their circulatory system and may have an increased risk of cancer.”
Morrow said not even geologists can explain why arsenic is a problem in some areas and not in others, even if they’re in close proximity.
“I liked the water,” said Jarryd Duenes, a resident of Kenedy. “Now I just drink bottled water.”
Duenes and the mayor both said arsenic in Kenedy’s water had been a problem for years.
“It was salty, like water out of the Gulf of Mexico,” Garza said.
But when the Connally prison unit was built about 20 years ago, the mayor said the state of Texas required the problem be addressed.
He said that’s why the city had to build a new water plant.
But over the last few years, the Eagle Ford fracking boom has relied heavily on Kenedy’s water.
“By draining our water source, we have less water to bring in. Therefore there is more arsenic in the water,” Garza said.
To help dilute the arsenic, Garza said the city is drilling two new wells capable of producing up to 600,000 gallons per minute.
“Hopefully, in the next three to four months, we’ll have two wells on line that should take care of the problem,” Garza said.
He also said the city already has the needed capacity with two new million-gallon tanks, as well as a state-of-the-art reverse osmosis system and an arsenic absorber.
Morrow said the city’s yearly average is still in violation of state standards but she confirmed arsenic levels have been dropping over the last four months.
The mayor said the effort so far has cost taxpayers $26,000.
“I think things are looking up, but we have to stay cautious,” the mayor said.
He said for now, the city will continue to drill in the same Jasper Aquifer that it’s been using, but eventually they’ll need infrastructure to get water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer that is arsenic-free.