One of San Antonio's leading water conservationists, Fay Bloom Sinkin, grew up in the concrete canyons of New York City---her only childhood exposure to greenery was Central Park and occasional visits to an exotic Japanese garden owned by editor and publishing magnate Herbert Kaufman. When she moved to Texas after her marriage to San Antonio businessman William Sinkin in 1942, she told her family that her new home was "flat and barren and miserable-looking and hot." But it wasn't long until she reported that she had fallen in love with San Antonio and had discovered a remarkable treasure within its surrounding landscape.
The Edwards Aquifer is a 3600 square mile honeycomb of limestone formations that is one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world, serving the diverse agricultural, recreational, and domestic water needs of two million users in south central Texas. Sinkin immediately recognized its importance, vowing to become a "water warrior" to protect it; and for more than six decades she did just that.
As president of the League of Women Voters in 1947, she pushed hard for access to water and sewage systems in impoverished areas of the city; her team went door-to-door counting all the privies and documenting the lack of sewage infrastructure on San Antonio's predominantly Hispanic West Side. She added education reform and social justice to her growing list of community service activities, and was a powerful voice for integration in the 1950s and early 1960s.
A deep commitment to community is an integral part of the Sinkin dynasty. Fay's husband Bill worked with city leaders to organize HemisFair, the 1968 world's fair that led to the development of the River Walk (which you are exploring) and to the transformation of San Antonio into an international city. Her son Richard founded the InterAmerican Group, which helps companies do business in Latin America. Her son Lanny is an environmental attorney who served as executive director of the Urban Coalition of San Antonio and Solar San Antonio, a nonprofit solar advocacy group founded by his father. He remembers that "long before 'Water for Life' became an international rallying call for environmental protection, Fay sounded the call."
Fay Sinkin clearly understood that San Antonio's unique groundwater system was a key component of its future. Her commitment to water conservation led to the creation of the Aquifer Protection Association in 1976 and to her election as the first woman member of the Edwards Underground Water District board. In partnership with the San Antonio Botanical Garden, she introduced xeriscaping, using drought-resistant indigenous plants to landscape the city's parks in the 1980s. In 1990, Sinkin founded the Edwards Aquifer Preservation Trust, which helped purchase and preserve the land over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone that eventually became Government Canyon State Natural Area. Her public recognition as the "Mother of Aquifer Protection" is a fitting title for Fay Bloom Sinkin.