San Antonio River Authority

The San Antonio River Authority is charged by the state of Texas to preserve, protect and manage the resources and environment of the San Antonio River and its tributaries. The San Antonio River Authority was established as the San Antonio River Canal and Conservancy District by the 45th Texas Legislature in 1937. At that time the district's boundaries were limited to Bexar County, but it had the authority to acquire easements outside the county. The agency's original purpose was to seek development of a barge canal from the Gulf Coast to the city of San Antonio, but its functions were expanded in 1939 to include the promotion of flood control. Early studies addressed both the canal project and flood control concerns, but after floods in September 1946 cost San Antonio six lives and $2.1 million in property damage, the district discontinued its navigation studies in favor of flood control efforts.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed its study of the San Antonio River Basin in 1951, recommending the channelization of 2.1 miles of Escondido Creek in the city of Kenedy and thirty-one miles of improvements along the San Antonio River and its tributaries in San Antonio. Both the San Antonio Channel Improvement Project and the Escondido Creek Channelization Project were approved by Congress with the passage of the Flood Control Act of September 3, 1954. The San Antonio River Authority (as the San Antonio River Canal and Conservancy District was renamed in 1953) acted as the local sponsor of the projects and was responsible for obtaining partial funding and all necessary rights-of-way, as well as for relocating all utilities and constructing all required bridges and in-channel dams. The river authority was initially funded through the proceeds of a state flood-control tax, but this source of money was eliminated by a 1948 constitutional amendment. In 1951 Bexar County instituted a thirty-cent ad valorem tax, fifteen cents of which was to be used by the district to finance the nonfederal cost of its flood-control projects. In 1955 Bexar County authorized the sale of $12 million in bonds, to be repaid over thirty years through the flood-control tax.

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