21 Jul 10 Highest Austin Water Users Brought into the Spotlight

Austin's "Top" 10 water users of 2010 were publicly mentioned on KXAN in what seemed like a harmless call to awareness for Austin Water users. The message was that dispite our current drought, people need to pay attention to the water restrictions placed by the city in order to ensure that everyone has the water that they need. After all, a few greedy or unattentive users could put us all high and dry.

Aside from listing the top 10 violators of water use restrictions and how much they used, usually 12-17 times more water than the average user, the report goes on to  mention that August is just around the corner and the city is considering moving into Stage 2 use restrictions. Currently, under Stage 1 restrictions, outdoor watering is limited to two days a week depending on your zip code. According to another article by KXAN, If Stage 2 restrictions are put into place outdoor fountains will be shut off, outdoor watering limited to once a week, you will have to ask to get water at a restaurant and car washes will be limited as well. Oh and there is a $400 fine for not complying. 

To me these Stage 2 restrictions make sense. We are in one of the worst droughts in 100 years and the summer heat is causing a pretty high loss of water through evaporation already. To conserve in times of scarcity, to me, is a no brainer. As is mentioned in the top 10 report by Paul Robbins, if we limit our use, there will be more available to everyone. More conservation also equals and lower capacity need for Water Treatment plants, saving us all energy and resources. What we need now we need is a real Top 10 list of the best conservationists. 

By Paul Robbins:

TOP 10 AUSTIN WATER — USERS JUST RELEASED

Top Residential Users Consume As Much As 17 Times the Average Home

 

An Open Records request to Austin Water Utility by environmental writer and activist Paul Robbins has just revealed the top 10 consumers for each class of customer for the last fiscal year, 2010.  In the case of the top residential users, they consumed between 13 and 17 times what the average Austin home used in the same time period.

 

Given that 2010 was one of the rainier years in the last decade, this huge consumption is particularly telling, and in the current drought Austin is now experiencing, top consumers are probably using even more.

 

Austin Water Utility is ignoring programs and strategies that can reduce water waste and irrigation use. 

 

1. The utility has delayed two programs to audit large commercial and residential consumers by over four years.  These programs were first proposed in January 2007 and approved by City Council in May of the same year.  The combined programs were predicted to save over 2 million gallons per day of peak demand.  They would cost a small amount of money, yet they have been deferred while a half-billion water treatment plant is under construction.

 

2. The utility has delayed water conservation rate structures for multifamily and commercial buildings, even though these were also proposed and approved over four years ago

 

3. The utility has a mandatory two-day-per-week watering ordinance.  There are only two part-time inspectors for the entire city to enforce the program.  In the last 9 months, these inspectors were only in the field less than 7% of the time.

 

There also appears to be little in the way of advertising or education to remind the public of the ordinance’s existence, or to urge people to conserve because of the ongoing drought.

 

 “It seems Austin Water Utility is more interested in justifying its half-billion water treatment plant now under construction than avoiding the need for it,” said Robbins.  “Delaying new water conservation programs and running existing ones without adequate staff raises consumption and justifies more capacity.  At this point in the City’s history, Water Treatment Plant #4 will be a direct competitor to water conservation.”