DALLAS – Taking advantage of a continuing era of low interest rates, the San Antonio Water System has saved more than $55 million on $300 million of refunding deals since October, officials said.
Savings on refunding bonds that were originally issued in 2007 and 2009 come to more than $55 million over the next 22 years, SAWS said.
"These savings will help with future budgets, and should have a positive impact on the level of future rate adjustment requests," said Doug Evanson, senior vice president & chief financial officer.
The most recent refunding of $90 million in January produced net present value savings of 8.2%. With this issue, SAWS has about $1.76 billion of junior-lien debt, according to Moody's Investors Service.
The junior lien revenue bonds carried ratings of Aa2 from Moody's, and AA from S&P Global Ratings. Outlooks are stable.
Evanson said the debt refunding is part of the utility's campaign to minimize costs and ensure fiscal stability.
As one of the largest water utilities in the nation, SAWS provides water and wastewater services to more than 1.6 million consumers in the San Antonio region.
SAWS operates the largest direct recycled system in the country and the largest groundwater.
On Jan. 27, SAWS dedicated a desalination plant that has been under development for 10 years and is designed to convert brackish groundwater to tap water.
"Desalination is another tool in our water portfolio that we are using to serve a growing San Antonio," said SAWS President and CEO Robert R. Puente. "There is an ocean of brackish water under our feet unaffected by drought."
The H2Oaks Center is located in far south Bexar County at the site formerly known as SAWS Twin Oaks Aquifer Storage and Recovery.
Using a filtering process called reverse osmosis, the plant can produce up to 12 million gallons per day of finished water. That is enough to supply up to 53,000 households.
