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San Antonio Moves Forward with PGA Resort
After years of legal wrangling and stiff opposition from environmentalists, Lumbermen's Investment and its new partner, PGA Tour Properties, are moving forward with the TPC of San Antonio. In its earlier incarnation, the 36-hole project was called PGA Village San Antonio. That proposal involved the PGA of America (which is different than the PGA Tour). But PGA of America officials grew tired of being cast in a bad light by the project’s opponents and withdrew in 2004.

The most recent proposal was approved in late January by the San Antonio city council by a 10-1 vote. The overwhelming support was based primarily on assurances given by developers to protect the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone – San Antonio’s primary source for drinking water – underneath the site.

The developers and their engineers are now developing the most involved system in the country to protect the drinking water, which is located deep underground. It involves combining a waterproof clay layer, a closed-loop irrigation system and water monitoring stations to prevent pollutants from entering the aquifer. The closest similar design might be the one used by the Environmental Protection Agency when it builds golf courses over highly polluted Superfund sites.

In recent comments to reporter Anton Caputo of the San Antonio Express-News, Scott Halty, director of resource protection for the San Antonio Water System, said he’s been unable to find another system like the one planned for the TPC of San Antonio anywhere in the country. Vernon Kelly, president of PGA Tour Properties, said the system will probably add millions of dollars to the club’s price tag and will go far beyond what the tour has done for its 26 other TPC facilities.

Not everyone is convinced the aquifer will be spared from pollution. “I feel like our aquifer is the guinea pig for the project,” said San Antonio city councilwoman Patti Radle, who cast the lone anti vote. “Why would we go ahead and risk something like this?”

If the golf-related project wasn’t allowed to proceed, Lumbermen’s threatened to develop a residential-only for the 2,855-acre site in northwest Bexar County, as current zoning allows. “I think the argument is that this is definitely better than anything that is not monitored and has higher impervious cover,” council member Art Hall told Caputo. “I know they have never built this before, but I’m sure they are getting the right engineers and consultants who have the knowledge.”

Besides promising an intricate system to protect the aquifer, Lumbermen’s has downsized the project from its original proposal. Instead of several thousand homes and a major community, the project now involves less housing, the two 18-hole courses (one of which will be designed by Pete Dye), some commercial elements, an 800-room Marriott hotel, and recreational amenities. Much of the property will be left as open space.

Approximately $300 million will be spent on the golf courses and hotel facilities, which as part of the agreement with the city of San Antonio, must be completed by 2010.

Even though the aquifer-protection system will boast the best engineering known to man – with constant testing and monitoring to assure the drinking water from the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone remains clean – there are no guarantees it will work over the long haul.

George Veni, a local hydrogeologist and expert on the recharge zone, said that small amounts of contamination – from insecticides, herbicides and other man-made chemicals – have already been found in the water, but there hasn’t been any research to determine the cause or effect. Veni argues that makes it impossible to estimate how much more pollution the aquifer can take before the water becomes truly fouled and needs to undergo treatment before flowing into the drinking glasses of San Antonio residents.

“The more we look, the more we find (instances of pollution),” Veni told Caputo. “The aquifer itself is not contaminated, but there is contamination in the aquifer.”

But Tim Howe, environmental compliance supervisor for the local water system, says officials won’t fall asleep at the switch in making sure the water is safe to drink. “The water system has gone all out for a good water monitoring program,” Howe said. “Water sampling isn’t done halfway. I want people to know that we take this thing seriously and we have the professional people that can do the job right.”