San Antonio Water System announces 2008 WaterSaver Award winners

July 2008

U.S. Water News Online

SAN ANTONIO — As San Antonio braces for another hot and dry summer, the city's water purveyor continues to work hard to promote water conservation in the city. San Antonio Water System (SAWS) has chosen 15 individuals and organizations in the city to receive 2008 Watersaver Awards for joining in the effort.

SAWS presented the awards at the utility's 12th annual Watersaver Awards luncheon. Local radio station KONO 101.1 and the San Antonio Business Journal are sponsors. Each year, SAWS honors businesses that have either increased their water-use efficiency or have promoted water conservation through education or technology.

Some of the award winners have invested in upgrades in their facility systems, retrofitted plumbing fixtures, converted to drought-tolerant landscaping or made changes to their operations. Collectively, WaterSaver Award winners over the years have reduced water consumption in San Antonio at a rate of 1.5 billion gallons per year. The awards recognition is designed to encourage more businesses to conserve water.

  • The 2008 WaterSaver Leadership Award Recipient is Frank Thomas, who has worked at Northside Independent School District for more than 26 years. As the energy manager for Northside, SAWS officials say his efforts have saved taxpayers more than $25 million in water and energy costs through a range of conservation projects. Thomas also is an 11-year member and former chairman of the SAWS Community Conservation Committee. In this role, he played a leadership role in the development of a pilot program that resulting in retrofitting high-flow toilets in Northside schools. All high-flow toilets in schools in San Antonio were replaced through this program, ultimately saving 100 million gallons of water per year.
  • The 2008 WaterSaver Educator Award Recipient is Sherie Gee, aquatic science and AP environmental science teacher at John Paul Stevens High School. Gee has been the Student Water Action Team (SWAT) sponsor for the last two years. Through this student program, students design and facilitate a service project during the course of the school year.
  • The 2008 WaterSaver Pioneer Award went to SeaWorld San Antonio. The 250-acre marine park has invested in numerous water-saving measures, including an extensive water-recovery system for all marine pools, ice-plant water reclamation for cooling, operating decorative fountains and watering hanging plants with captured air-conditioning condensate, planting and maintaining drought-tolerant landscaping, and retrofitting high-flow toilets at the park. Through these measures, SeaWorld saves more than 25 million gallons of water per year.
  • Three organizations won 2008 WaterSaver Awards: The Courtyard Marriott, which retrofitted 149 hotel rooms with high-efficiency water fixtures and is saving about 3 million gallons of water per year. The Hilton Airport Hotel, which retrofitted 396 rooms with water-saving fixtures for a savings of 7 million gallons of water per year, and The Holiday Inn Select, which retrofitted 397 hotel rooms at a savings of 7 million gallons per year. Seven organizations won WaterSaver Too Awards. Collectively, these groups helped distribute more than 1,200 high-efficiency toilets to qualified SAWS customers.
  • The East Central High School Choir Booster Club's efforts helped retrofit 197 toilets to save 2.3 million gallons per year.
  • Bexar County 4-H helped retrofit 364 toilets to conserve about 4.3 million gallons per year.
  • House of Prayer Church helped retrofit 324 toilets to save nearly 3.8 million gallons per year.
  • The Valencia Homeowners Association helped retrofit 319 toilets for a savings of 3.8 million gallons per year.
  • The Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas designed its Sally Cheever Girl Scout Leadership Center's new building to capture both rainwater and air conditioning condensate for irrigation of drought-tolerant landscaping.
  • Lee Dental Centers converted all dental-vacuum systems at each of its four locations from water-cooled to air-cooled units to save 500,000 gallons.

Finally, Kelly Gambill and Xamara Caballero have been selected as the 2008 Water Conservation Fellowship recipients. Gambill is a junior at the University of Texas at San Antonio and is pursuing a degree in civil engineering. Caballero is a graduate student at St. Mary's University and is pursuing a master of public administration degree. Caballero is a student member of the Texas City Management Association and has played an active role in many natural resource issues.

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