26 Jun Austin Water Resource Planning Task Force: Background and Citizen Input

The Austin Water Resource Planning Task Force was created by a resolution made in April by City Council, and it has been tasked with responding to the recent drought and subsequent low lake levels in Central Texas.  This is an issue many other cities are also anticipating, due to natural or climate change-induced drought. The meetings, supported by Austin Water and Watershed Protection, are spent evaluating Austin’s current water needs and making recommendations to City Council concerning future water supply in the city.  The recommendations by this task force will directly affect the lives of Austin citizens through the implementation of capital projects and conservation programs, as well as changes in water utility price structures.

Every meeting of the task force starts out the same way, with a citizen comment period, and one citizen who has been especially vocal throughout the entire process is Bill Bunch, executive director of the Save Our Springs Alliance. Above all else, he has reminded the task force to maintain a commitment to conservation, stressing that the best way to keep our water flowing, is to use less of it in the first place.

In a conversation with Bunch in the final days before the task force was set to issue its report, Bunch explained that not all recommendations made by the task force are equally sustainable.  For example, the draft currently emphasizes increasing water efficiency and reuse.  Some possibilities outlined in the draft, however, such as transmitting water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer to Austin, are more expensive and less effective than solutions that encourage efficiency.  

Bunch also pointed out that other recommendations outlined in the draft, such as placing a permanent intake on Lady Bird Lake, could be made clearer.  This intake would capture the water of the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Watershed, utilizing water that already exists in Austin. 

When the Task Force’s recommendations make it to the desks of City Council, citizens should be aware of the different water resource plans that will be considered, Bunch continued. He also warned that the Austin Water utility's inclination has always been towards water resource growth, rather than water efficiency.

Currently there is a lot of water wasted on landscaping and irrigation in Austin, and many of the city’s water issues could be reduced by managing the demand for water, Bunch said.  In order to support the growing city of Austin, the utility company will need to work with government and citizens to find new ways to balance rate stability with volumetric rates that discourage water use and create programs that reward system water efficiency.