San Antonio, Texas’ first artesian wells that supplied water to downtown will receive repairs, although they are still in use.
According to KSAT news, these repairs are why the San Antonio Water System has recently shut down part of the Riverwalk and part of Market Street.
“This is the first well that San Antonio had to supply water to the very rapidly growing city,” said Anne Hayden, director of communications at San Antonio Water System, reported KSAT News.
The artesian water wells in downtown San Antonio are historic, located near Market Street and Presa Street, and were the first wells to supply water in 1891. According to Hayden, they were placed in the heart of downtown to supply water to the growing city, reported KSAT News.
By 1895 all of the water used by the San Antonio Water Company came from artesian wells, reported University of The Incarnate Word.
“It’s actually artesian, something that is unheard of in the water world. It pushes water up and these pumps hold the water down,” Hayden said about the wells, reported KSAT News.
The San Antonio Water System crews pumped 12,600 gallons of mud into the well to pull down the water in order to retrieve the water pumps that need the repairs, which involved a crane and 18 big rig trucks to haul in all the mud, reported KSAT News.
Crews will then take out the pumps in the artesian wells and repair them in 10 to 12 weeks and repeat the same process to replace the repaired pumps.
