SAN ANTONIO – The term “nuisance water” might have a negative connotation, but that’s not the case for San Antonio’s newest public park — Civic Park at Hemisfair.
“The nuisance water system that we have here at Civic Park is one of the most unique features about the park,” said Meredith Balzen, Hemisfair director of external relations.
The nuisance water under the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center is part of the unique irrigation system at the park, which officially opened in late September.
“What the design does is capture that nuisance water from the French drains around the convention center,” said Tom Hull, SKANSKA senior project manager. “We’re able to capture that before it went down to the city storm sewer system and redirect it on site.”
The groundwater is then filtered and fed to the great lawn and five connecting springs that represent the Texas Hill Country.
The water does not come from the Edwards Aquifer or the city’s water system, meaning there will be no watering restrictions during drought periods.
“Believe it or not, we installed this lawn in July when we were in the middle of the 103, 105-degree days. This lawn was fully irrigated with that nuisance water. We never had to pull potable water and this lawn was emerald green from the day we put it in.”
Another interesting aspect of the irrigation system is the underground cistern directly below the great lawn. It is a total of 40 feet below ground and collects more than 41,000 gallons of water.
“If you can imagine, it’s as big as a swimming pool, it’s huge,” said Balzen.
“There are 16 different parts that made a kind of clamshell. There’s eight bottom pieces and they go around, they interlock together. They butt next to each other and there’s a top piece that goes over it to create a box,” said Hull. “The excavation was pretty large, pretty impressive. It was a really interesting build, not something you do every day.”
The irrigation system also waters the park’s 200 trees and shrubs, all part of Hemisfair’s self-sustainability and conservation efforts at Civic Park.
“When we were thinking about the design, we were thinking about water sustainability and being able to use nuisance water is one of the most sustainable practices that we could think of,” said Balzen. “It’s been such a joy to watch people come in and enjoy the springs, dip their feet in the water.”
“Nuisance water is a little bit more novel. That’s not really used much around San Antonio, but Hemisfair had a lot of forethought on how to design this park and realized it was easy to capture through construction and really provides this park a sustainable way to maintain the green grass and beautiful trees,” said Hull.
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October 20, 2023 at 02:58AM
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'Nuisance water' being used to keep lawn green, springs flowing year-round at Civic Park - KSAT San Antonio
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