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After hot summer, which companies in San Antonio used the most water?

Major commercial water users in San Antonio

During the hottest summer in recorded history, many San Antonio residents turned off their sprinklers and watched their lawns turn the color of hay as they followed water restrictions enacted by the San Antonio Water System.

But what did SAWS require of businesses that consume millions of gallons of water in a single month?

While just one out of 10 accounts with SAWS are commercial users, they consume half of all water sold by SAWS. I requested a list of the top 200 commercial water users from SAWS, and helped business writer Laura Lorek a story about how SAWS tries to encourage conservation.

Related: How to contact an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle

One cool thing about this story is how Mike Howell at mySA posted the data on our Web site and mapped the locations of the major water users, so you can see who’s guzzling water in your neighborhood.