On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.

San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving community with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with the news makers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the Reporters Roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the.

Hi, everybody.

I'm Randi Beamer, and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

This week, we're going to talk about some development plans in the Hill country.

The latest plans for the Alamo, as well as problems with the transmission of some power across the state.

But first, we start with the idea, a plan to get you to and from Austin faster and maybe cheaper.

And how soon will that be happening?

Joining us with all the answers Diane Rath, who is the executive director of ACOG, the Alamo Area Council of Governments.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Obviously, we've been talking for decades in San Antonio about how to get to Austin more efficiently, faster, avoiding the traffic, cutting down on the traffic.

This latest plan is interesting because of all the coordination and you could take this bus ride for ten bucks.

How close are you to this?

We're very excited because we've been working on it for over a year and we have a definite plan that is scalable and ready to roll, literally with about two months notice.

We have the busses available, which is really important right now because there's about a two year wait.

If you had to order busses.

So we have the busses and there are 40 seat bus.

So it's very comfortable it's like you're getting on a Greyhound and we have the route mapped out and we have all the stops.

And I'm so proud of the entities coming together in the region.

So we have all of the entities from the both of your metropolitan transit agencies with the and CAP Metro.

And this is all about convenience because you say bus from here to Austin.

Well there's probably a bus I'd have to, you know, figure out where it is, go to the station, this and that.

But this is how often it would be per day.

We would run from 645 in the morning until 945 at night.

We'd have 21 white trips a day and we figured that will be a good pilot a good launch to have people gain confidence in it to prove that it works and to really have people start using it.

From a park and ride the Randolph Park and ride here to a park and ride there or and that's also at a stop where you could get more transportation into the city and around the city.

Yes, sir.

By connecting at Randolph Park and Ride and Be is doing a tremendous remodeling in that facility right now.

We'd be able to connect any place in San Antonio.

We would stop in New Braunfels to give access for both all the workers and the students that go back and forth, a stop in San Marcos to service the college and the workforce there and then go into Southern Travis County, one of the Southern Park, and rides in Austin that can connect any place in Austin.

Well, now some people might wonder, well, OK, that's great, but it's maybe lengthening my journey.

I just have to sit in a bus in traffic on I-35 instead of in my car, but at least I wouldn't be driving and spending less money maybe.

Yes, you wouldn't be driving.

You could sleep you could read, you could walk, you could they'll be equipped with computers so you're able to continue and be online and functioning very nicely.

I commuted for almost 12 years daily.

So I know to.

Austin.

Back.

Yes, sir.

To the capital area.

So I know how bad that Austin is.

And particularly with the construction on 35, that's upcoming and the increasing price of gas.

It has significant advantages both in times of economics and time.

But now you have the plan you have the busses, you have all this but funding, it's always the fun thing.

Now we expect that there will be some federal money coming in from one of the infrastructure plans Who else are you looking at for the money and how soon could you get it going?

Yes, sir.

We can start as soon as we get the money.

We can start rolling in two months.

We would like to have 1.5 million for a two year pilot because it takes about six months to establish a new route.

So we're asking Tech Start.

We're asking each of the counties, the four counties and the four major cities if they'd be interested in contributing.

I have to really express my appreciation to all the elected leadership of each of the counties and cities because they've been very supportive.

I think there's tremendous recognition that we have the seventh largest city in San Antonio Austin is almost the 10th largest city in the country, separated by 70 miles.

And there's no public transportation.

Rail which was brought up years ago, and the Alamo Army was created for that.

And people might wonder, Well, wait, wouldn't it be better to have rail?

Where are we in that process?

Union Pacific owns the tracks at least that are existing right now and, and, and what what's going to happen there?

And that's the ultimate solution.

We'd love to have rail and that's why the Lone Star Rail was passed in the nineties and had a functioning board and did a lot of studies.

But the funding has not been available for New Tracks, and the existing tracks are owned by Union Pacific.

And right now the freight is not allowing them to prioritize passenger rail.

And you don't want to be stranded on the side of a rail train.

And, you know, we have to stop and remember that 60% of our US-Mexico trade comes right through San Antonio.

And if somebody is watching out there saying, This is a great idea, why isn't it happening?

What would you urge them to do?

I would ask them to call their elected leadership, and because we would be glad to work with them on the funding.

And I'm hopeful that perhaps when the legislature meets, they might consider funding a pilot with 1.5 million we're very fortunate here in San Antonio that we have Bruce back as chairman of Tech Start, and he certainly could express interest in it.

So we're eager to start we think it's a great solution for people, especially.

We sometimes lose sight of all the students that exist between U. T. S Texas State all the colleges in San Antonio.

There's a tremendous amount of students.

And with all the growth, we're expecting to have 7 million in the whole year.

Yes.

And the whole nine yards by 20 and off.

The 2040.

All right.

Well, thank you very much and good luck with that.

Diane Rath, executive director of ACORN.

Thanks.

Thank you, Randi.

Appreciate it.

The latest now on the ongoing plans for redevelopment at Alamo Plaza.

The Historic Design and Review Commission just gave the green light for the next step in the process of a reconstructed gate at the southern end.

What was the mission compound in 1836?

Joining us to talk about that is Kathy Rhodes, who is president of the Conservation Society of San Antonio.

Thank you very much for coming in.

What is your take your reaction to this part of the plan at the what was the southern end of the mission in 1836.

Well we have several concerns.

One is it's supposedly presented as temporary.

We want to know what temporary what that means also we're concerned if it blocks the view shared for world heritage status.

We can't block the view share of the chapel and the long barracks.

So we have several concerns.

The gate was there during the mission period but the Luna that they also want to build was only there for about a year and a half.

So at what point do you decide what goes, what's physical and what's virtual?

Well and that was a thing when they talked about the one of the plans was the plastic wall and that just, you know, blew everybody's minds and that was quickly discarded that also, as I understood it, reconstructing anything at a historic site like that is generally frowned upon.

So this would be temporary to get around that.

That's a good question.

I don't know.

They haven't define temporary.

And from what you've seen, we talked moments ago about what you've seen of the plans.

There are other things that you're concerned about in terms of plants and trees on the plaza.

Yes.

One, we want it to look pretty.

We all want it to look pretty.

And it did from the drawings.

But there were several areas and they also talked about on HDR, see, and Northgate and so we're concerned.

Are they closing in the plaza really with that with these gates?

And then the Paseo del Alamo, which was built a 20 or so 30 or so years ago, that that's all planned.

I didn't realize that the city had given that in the package with the plaza.

So what about the vision of recreating the battle era versus the plaza, the community that grew up around it and San Antonio.

And we all used that as a place of gathering.

Yes.

Are you concerned about that?

I sure am.

We're losing public space.

The Spanish settled San Antonio with military and on mission civilians to have a city grow up around the mission.

And it happened and were great success.

I sold it for many years, so I know that.

But do we want to get too slick?

Do we want to?

They're going to have virtual reality, which is a wonderful thing.

But do we need that?

Let the virtual reality tell people what it was really like.

We don't have to show them everything or build new structures for that.

And now the next step, the Historic Design Review Commission here.

OK, it goes to the state Texas Historical Commission, and you expect that will just be rubberstamped or signed off on?

We don't know.

You never know.

So there's some things that they have to clear, like archeological problems.

They're only going to go into the ground, I think.

11 inches.

But that still all has to be cleared they don't think there bones there but there could be and we will probably be there if we're allowed to speak as well.

I'm sure you will.

Thank you very much.

Keep us posted on what's going on.

Kathy Rhodes, president of the Conservation Society of San Antonio, thanks.

Thank you.

We have the latest now on a controversial development planned in the hallowed US area for 2900 homes on 1100 and 60 acres.

And the concern is about the waste water from this development being discharged into a Lotus Creek.

It's a holiday development by a in our homes.

And with us today is Ron Green who's a former Southwest Research Institute technical adviser.

You worked on a study on this in 2020.

And as this project has moved, it's become controversial with neighbors concerned about the whole Lotus Creek Health and the whole watershed in that area.

There's something we haven't heard about a lot.

This is over the contributing stone of the aquifer.

We used to hear a lot about the recharge zone and concern about the health.

But tell us about this project and what the concern is that it could do in that whole area.

Well, the concern is that it could impact both Lotus Creek and recharge to the Edwards.

So the Hollow Creek has been deemed to be very close to the threshold of being a less than desirable creek.

And the nutrient levels are already up close to levels that would render it undesirable so it would have lower dissolved oxygen to many nutrients.

And why is that the development already in that area?

That's just because of the development that's already already there.

The sparse housing has had an impact.

So the nutrient levels are up close to levels that raise concerns that leads to algae growth.

That leads to which leads to the, you know, the die off of the fish and other, you know, wildlife that's in the creek.

That leads to odors in the creek, loss of clarity, that's the creek.

The other concern is what happens to effluent from any development in that area as it goes downstream and enters the Edwards Aquifer as recharge.

And one of the things that struck me, what you wrote in that report was, quote, It could significantly degrade the watershed and the quality of water recharging the Edwards aquifer.

And that's one of those things that would set off alarm bells in people just hearing that even though it's not technically over the recharge zone.

That's correct.

And so the the former way of understanding how recharge occurs in the Edwards is that water falls on a contributing zone like a tin roof runs downstream enters the recharge zone and then goes into the subsurface, recharge in the air.

And it's filtered through the ground, supposedly as it goes down that that contributes.

So it's it's filtered somewhat.

But this is a car system, so it moves very quickly a matter of days from the time it hits the ground to get gets into the aquifer.

So it doesn't have that opportunity to be filtered quite as much.

And what do people want in this area?

Right now from where they are and also from San Antonio water system.

They don't realize there are limits as to what the San Antonio water system can do.

In this area.

That's correct.

But it's not just this area.

San Antonio relies on a large area for their water.

It's a car system.

So water enters the system.

You talk about.

This.

It's a carbonate and limestone from the Cretaceous age.

And because it's a limestone, that's to develop these dissolved channels that allow for very fast transport of water.

Typically in a limestone, you may experience travel times that exceed a half mile to a mile a day.

So the water.

And also in this area, it's outside the San Antonio water system.

Treatment area.

They don't supply the wastewater treatment, but they do supply the water.

That's correct.

And so they gave or they talked about with what are some options, what were those options and how would they have affected this whole.

Plan, the options for the facility, for.

The sewage?

There are four options.

The first is to pipe it into the San Antonio sewer system, which is some miles away.

The second is to have a centralized direct discharge into the creek that may be into the dry portions of the creek.

The third is a land application called a T Lab, Texas land application where they spread it over the surface and allowed to infiltrate over time.

And then the third would be individual septic systems.

And the best would be.

Well.

Ecologically.

Ecologically, it would be the individual septic systems.

And that is because it doesn't really matter how things are treated.

It's the total amount of effluent that's discharged into the environment.

Now, what they've decided to do though, are to go ahead with in their plan is the treated wastewater that would be discharged into the river and that's actually one of those things that's happening more than we think.

Yes.

Is this a concern, obviously with all the development throughout the whole country, how how wide is this problem going to be going forward?

That's a very big problem.

The creeks and the streams and the hill country are naturally very clean.

They have very low nutrient levels.

So the effluent, even if they treat the pathogens, they're going to have high levels of nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus.

And that leads to algae growth.

And you don't need a lot of nutrient in order to develop algae.

Once the algae develop, then you decrease the dissolved oxygen.

You kill off the fish.

And in other wildlife, the clarity of the water is degraded.

There is a smell factor that that comes along with this degraded water.

Now the study that you did, a two year study from 2020 when you were a Southwest research institute that was commissioned, San Antonio River Authority and others, I believe what force does that have?

I mean, this is something that some people want to take to the legislature to help change laws about this do you think that's likely.

Well, the legislature has considered taking action in order to protect these little country streams.

That hasn't happened yet.

This study was useful in showing the comparative impact of these different types of effluent discharges into these hill country watersheds and creeks.

And it's hard to predict.

But what do you expect now giving or given how much concern there is and talk about this and the focus on this right now, what do you expect to be next.

Well, I don't know what's going to be next, but, you know, the there are two issues.

One is the health of the stream and the other the recharge.

So this single development is going to impact this.

The stream and the stream of discussion is hello, TOS Creek.

And it is already close to levels of being degraded.

It has nutrient levels, phosphorus and nitrogen that are above background.

So it's not going to take that much more to degrade them.

This single development may not impact recharge to the degree that is a concern but what it can do is set a precedent so that other developments come in to this very nice area.

And then the cumulative impact of many developments could impact the quality of research so the Edwards to to become a real problem.

All right.

Well, thanks very much for letting us know about the latest on this.

Again, the TCU.

Q They filed an application for the wastewater treatment and we'll keep an eye on it.

Of course, the legislature may take this up as well.

In the Hill Country Alliance and Greater Edwards Aquifer Authority.

Authority.

No Alliance.

Alliance here.

Yes, the EAA is going to be all over this as well.

Thank you very much, Ron Green, appreciate it.

You're welcome.

On Reporters Roundtable this week, Chris Tomlinson, who is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle.

We had a great article recently about electricity and transmission lines across Texas, joins us to talk about that now.

First of all, this issue is one that we haven't really talked about in terms of concerns about having enough power.

How do you describe it to people about how important this issue is about power lines and transmission and how close you are to an energy plant?

Well, you know, transmission is probably one of the most important and boring topics when you talk about electricity, which is why we don't bring it up very often.

But essentially, right now, Texas has a dilemma.

It has way too much renewable energy out West, and it does.

And we don't have enough transmission lines to bring that to the cities.

And I-35 eastward.

And the big debate now is, do we build more transmission lines or do we build more natural gas power plants?

Close to the big cities?

And there are billions of dollars at stake.

And you talked about how much can be the cost of energy out in West Texas at certain times.

Compared to Houston, the huge differences.

Yeah, and certainly with San Antonio, too, you know, the way Texas prices, electricity is based on 11,000 little nodes all over the state.

And so when you've got too much renewable energy in West Texas, you can have negative prices.

It's not unusual to have 15, $20.

And at the same time that electricity costs thousand dollars in San Antonio, or $2,000 in Houston, depending on whether or not the transmission lines are overloaded.

And so there was a debate recently a literal debate where somebody dressed up as Lincoln, somebody dressed up as Douglass to illustrate the two sides.

As I understand it, people pushing for more transmission lines and others wanting the free market to dictate where the power plants are built.

Right.

The Gulf Coast Power Association is an industry group It has all members from all different aspects of the power industry.

And they decided to tackle the elephant in the room by having a lobbyist for energy dressed up like Abraham Lincoln with the cap and the beard, and then had a lobbyist for clean energy dressed up like Stephen Douglas.

And they had this debate.

Will transmission lines hurt the better?

The wholesale electricity market will it help?

And certainly the fossil fuel companies, they want to build more natural gas generators.

And the clean energy companies want to build more transmission lines and it's going to be the public utility commission that decides.

So we have all these power plants, the solar and wind and whatever out in West Texas is producing this can't store it.

If it could get faster to other parts of the state, it would help us all out.

And the legislature is going to take this up next session.

What do you expect to happen?

Right.

Well, the Public Utility Commission can only do so much.

Right now, lawmakers are telling me that we're looking at the biggest overhaul in the electricity market in 20 years when the legislature meets next year.

And you can count on the fossil fuel companies and the clean energy companies to be fighting it out in the halls of the Capitol in Austin this spring.

But those fossil fuel companies have a lot more resources, at least right now, and have really I don't want to say ruled the legislature, but have been, you know, a much bigger impact.

Do you expect that to continue?

Oh, absolutely.

You know, because the Texas natural gas producers want more natural gas power plants because that's more that gets more customers for their product.

So the entire fossil fuel industry is going to war with the clean energy industry and the clean and clean energy industry just doesn't have the money or the backing or the numbers.

So I suspect it's going to get pretty ugly for renewable energy next year.

And this Lincoln-Douglas debate, who won?

The fossil fuel or the clean energy people?

Well, you know, it was it was a fierce battle.

And it's a divided audience.

And so it turned out there was rounds of applause for both.

They were basically equal.

So the the power association called it a draw.

Interesting.

Oh, that was before a civil war.

So I don't know what we're looking forward to, but thanks very much.

Check out his articles in the San Antonio Express-News or Houston Chronicle.

Chris Tomlinson, thanks Finally, I like to take a moment to honor and remember one of the best known patrons of the arts in San Antonio really made a big difference in this community.

J.C. Straus passed away over the weekend at the age of 91.

Now she helped lead the efforts to restore the Majestic, an Empire theaters here downtown that might have been turned into parking lots.

It was back in the eighties, but the Las Casas Foundation, the CEO, founded Charlene McCombs.

Well, they have helped lead the fight to save them.

In fact, the loss cost, this foundation is still paying for the ongoing renovation, the maintenance and restoration work, which is year round because of the gold leaf and the theaters, the ornate detailing, the historic structures and the Joshy awards that were named in her honor.

Well, that is the largest scholarship program of its kind in the country.

They've now awarded more than 1.2 million in performing arts scholarships over the years to deserving young people.

I'm honored to emcee that every year.

She was so gracious.

Just a force of nature, really.

Again, made a huge difference.

We will not see the likes of her again.

I think Jesse's probably somewhere with Charlene now, and and they're in a theater watching a show we will miss you, Joshy.

Rest in peace.

Thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see the show again, a previous show, as well as our podcast at klrn.org.

We'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele.

Dufilho.