Austin focuses on long-term water supply

Austin’s recent water troubles gave new urgency to the city's first look at a water resiliency plan, now years in the works, that local officials Tuesday said may be unprecedented nationwide.

Unlike long-range planning for future growth and droughts in many other cities, the Water Forward plan doesn’t look for new sources of water further from the city. Instead, it proposes giant artificial aquifers that could store billions of gallons of potable water underground, as well as recapturing and reusing water locally from sources such as sinks and air conditioners.

“I truly believe that the water plan you are considering today is the most important water plan that’s been produced in the United States,” said task force chairwoman Sharlene Leurig. “We are turning on its head a fundamental notion that has governed nearly all water planning in the western United States, that for a city to grow it must take water resources from other communities.”

Drafting of the Water Forward plan has been underway since 2014, when years of drought led Austin City Council members to call for consideration of the city’s long-term water future. Council members received their first briefing on the result just as Austin Water officials lifted water-use restrictions in place since upstream flooding and silt-laden water forced residents to boil drinking water for a week last month.

Water Forward strategies “will help us meet resiliency, both in terms of drought, as well as in terms of river quality upset as we experienced here recently,” said Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros. “So it’s a red-letter day for the utility to be unveiling this plan.”

Demographic estimates suggest the number of people drinking water in Austin will rise from about 1 million currently to about 4 million over the next 100 years. Meanwhile, climate change is expected to create hotter and drier weather, more extreme droughts and greater evaporation — as well as, periodically, heavier rainfall and more flooding.

Eight of the 12 years with the lowest amounts of water flowing through the Colorado River basin have occurred since 2006, including all five of the lowest inflow years on record.

The city consumes about 39 billion gallons of water annually, about 60 percent of it in homes and apartments. Water use has stayed under projections despite a growing population because conservation efforts have significantly reduced per-person water use.

Water Forward’s proposed ways of dealing with more people and less water include a mixture of intensified conservation efforts and looking locally for new water sources. That means using advanced water meters to let people manage their water in real time, passing ordinances and incentives to promote water-efficient landscaping, and reducing leaks in the system.

The new sources may include rain, "graywater" that runs leftover through sinks and faucets, toilet wastewater and air conditioning condensate. Large commercial and apartment buildings could install systems to recycle some of that water on site for nondrinking purposes.

Meanwhile, the aquifer storage system would create an underground reservoir — tucked away during rainy periods and safe from evaporation — to tap when needed.

Water Forward estimates that the aquifer system, along with other new strategies, could cost $429 million over the next 21 years. Other water initiatives and capital upgrades during that time will be about $614 million.

City Council members will wait until the week of Nov. 29, when Water Forward is expected to be posted for a formal vote, before weighing in on it in detail.

In the meantime, Mayor Steve Adler said he wants more information about how conservation affects Austin Water’s fiscal planning because the utility is essentially becoming a business trying to sell less and less of its product.

Council Members Ann Kitchen and Alison Alter asked for more information on the plan’s proposed timeline and whether it should be accelerated.

Council Member Ellen Troxclair noted that Water Forward makes no mention of expanding water treatment plant capacity and asked what she should tell constituents who assume the boil notice could have been avoided with greater capacity.

Austin Water officials have said the system has plenty of capacity to handle the city’s growth for the immediate future. But, Water Forward's efforts are focused on the city's long-term water supplies, not how it is treated.

“Of course your constituents connect them, because it’s the water that comes out of the tap,” said Jennifer Walker, vice chairwoman of the task force. “But we’re strictly looking at water supply.”