SAN ANTONIO – When there’s water, there are worries in Encino Park.
“It’s frustrating,” resident Andy Parada said. “This has lasted too long.”
Parada said when it rains, his neighborhood starts to flood. He said that’s because of drainage problems with the Sienna Basin, which his community has been dealing with for more than six years.
“They cleared this entire ridgeline down to the rock bed,” Parada said, pointing to the East Side of the Sienna property.
Parada said his backyard used to back up to a Longhorn ranch. But then construction came for a housing development. Parada said that’s when his community began getting headaches from the drainage.
“We never had run off in the past with the ranch,” Parada said. “The vegetation, the amount of dirt, all that stuff provides enough capacity to absorb.”
Parada said some of the worst flooding in the neighborhood came after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. He said formal conversations between residents and the developers in the area started in 2018 and 2019. Retention ponds were added, but neighbors reported that only made the problem worse.
In 2021, the City of San Antonio got involved.
“When the project came to public works, we verified that the appropriate means were being taken,” Victoria Escobedo, an engineering programs manager with Public Works, said.
The proposed design, which will be constructed by crews hired by the city, will help alleviate flooding by installing a swale to redirect runoff to a new underground storm drain. Construction is expected to start in late July or early August of this year and finish in six to eight months.
“This is the best way to allow for the residents to have the least amount of impact and get the most water away,” Escobedo said. “Once the project’s done, there should be a major relief for those residents.”
But this only covers the southern portion of the basin. Public Works said the northern part of the basin is a separate project.
“The northern area is treated separately,” Escobedo said. “We’re moving forward with the southern pond. The northern pond, we’ve investigated, and we’re working on developing an unfunded project.”
A timeline for the funding is unknown.
“We have a list of all the needs within the city of San Antonio, and as funding becomes available, we identify which projects are appropriate for that funding source,” Escobedo said.
Which is frustrating to residents.
“It’s disappointing,” Parada said. “I think we’ve done at this point; we’ve done about as much as we can do.”
To read more about the construction project, click here.
