Preserving water for the future

Preserving water for the future

Written by Tiffany Young Friday, 23 May 2008

While Austin has enough drinking water today, according to Charles Maddox, water regulatory manager for Austin Water Utility, the City of Austin is trying to preserve water for generations to come.

Austin’s population is expected to double in the next 20 years, which will take a toll on Austin’s natural resources.

“I would just like to point out, as we have talked about water treatment plant four and the efforts to conserve and balancing those interests, that we are, as a council, trying to do that,” Mayor Will Wynn said at a recent city council meeting. “We have other cities throughout the world that have pointed out to us if we don’t make these tough decisions, then we could very well face the situation where the only water you can get is bottled water.”

Conservation necessary

The Lower Colorado River Authority has a contract with the City of Austin stating that it will provide Austin with water through 2050. Under the contract the city has with the LCRA, the LCRA agrees that the water will be there through a drought as bad as the worst drought for the area on record.

Why the city preserves water

According to Dan Strub, AWU’s water conservation manager, there are short-term, mid-term and long-term reasons for Austin’s water conservation efforts. In the short term, it saves the city from going over their prepaid amount.

Under the city’s current contract with the LCRA, the city has prepaid for a certain amount of water. If the city uses more than 201,000 acre feet* in a year for two years in a row, it must start paying for all the water above 150,000 acre feet. Strub said recent estimates on the financial impact for the city would be between $8 and $13 million dollars per year.

“We are projected to hit that approximately in 2018 or 2019, and the longer we put that off, that’s savings in our pocket,” Strub said. “Long term, under the projections of the contract with the LCRA back in 1999, under the growth transit they were projecting at that time, the amount of water we had contracted for, we were expected to reach that amount in 2040. With advanced conservation efforts, we will be able to stretch that amount until 2050.”

However, conservation efforts are needed to be certain that the Austin area will have enough water beyond 2050.

“Water is a life force that dictates survival,” said Gary Franklin, LCRA environmental laboratory services project manager. “I do what I can to help conserve and protect, but the demand projections far outweigh the source at the per capita rate that we are currently following.”

Executive Director of the Save Our Springs Alliance Bill Bunch also believes that Austin must conserve more water.

“If we’re going to be responsible stewards of our water resources, if we’re going to be responsible to the ratepayers, if we’re going to set a green standard that we want to set as being the leader, we will be serious about conservation,” Bunch said at a recent city council meeting.

While the city has not negotiated water beyond 2050, Strub believes it is too early now to do so.

“There’s generational equity issues, there’s a whole slew of unknowns about what the water situation will be in 2050, so I’m sure well before the time we get to 2050, we’ll be in negotiations for extending our water supply, but just right now it’s a little premature,” Strub said.

Meanwhile, the city has water restrictions and incentives for residents to conserve water.

Water restrictions

The city recently passed a water use management ordinance that makes it a misdemeanor and up to $2,000 fine for flagrant and repeat offenders violating water restrictions that took effect May 1. Through Sept. 30, Austin residents are banned from watering lawns between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Other restrictions include watering on specific days depending on the type of customer and street address. Watering days for commercial and multifamily are Tuesdays and Friday’s year-round.

Residential customers that have odd-numbered addresses are restricted to watering outside on Wednesdays and Saturdays, while residential customers with even-numbered addresses are restricted to watering outside Thursdays and Sundays through Sept. 30.

If conditions get very dry, AWU may implement additional restrictions by further reducing the hours customers may water lawns and prohibiting restaurants from serving water unless it’s requested.

Stop wastewater

The city also has regulations against water waste year-round. The city defines water waste as failing to repair a controllable leak; operating a permanently installed irrigation system with a broken head; using a head that is out of adjustment where the arc of the spray head is over a street or parking lot or a head that is misting due to high water pressure; and allowing water to run off a property where a trail of water is running in the street for a distance of 50 feet or greater or allowing water to pond in the street or parking lot to a depth greater than a quarter of an inch.

Each instance of a violation is a separate offense, and a Class C misdemeanor punishable by fines.

Austin Clean Water Partners Program

The Austin Clean Water Partners Program is a cooperative effort between the City of Austin Watershed Protection and Development Review Department and local businesses meant to reduce pollution and water quality degradation of creeks and lakes by local businesses. The program is designed for automotive repair and fueling businesses.

“The particular businesses we chose were ones we already regulated for stormwater regulations,” Sharon Cooper of the Watershed Protection and Development Review Department said. “We wanted to give something back to them, so we came up with a few basic criteria. We inspect these businesses typically on an annual basis. [They are businesses] we felt were always in compliance and went beyond what was necessary for compliance.”

In order to be recognized, businesses must have received an inspection by the Stormwater Discharge Permit Program within the last three years, have a written spill contingency plan posted for employees, maintain records of all waste disposal activities, verify where all exterior and interior floor drains, traps and sumps are plumbed, and participate in the Waste Reduction Assistance Program.

Water Use Management

To help conserve treated drinking water, the City of Austin has adopted a water use management ordinance (Chapter 6-4 of city code [PDF]). Violations are Class C misdemeanors, with each instance punishable by a fine of $500, up to $2,000. The ordinance is enforced, but the primary goal is to work with customers to obtain compliance. To report violations, call 974-2199.

*According to Western-Water, an acre-foot is a common unit to measure volumes of water, typically for use in irrigation. One acre-foot is the volume of water sufficient to cover an acre of land to a depth of 1 foot (43,560 cubic feet, approximately 325,851 U.S. gallons, or approximately 1,233.48 cubic meters).

Year-round: No watering with automatic irrigation systems between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

May 1 - Sept. 30: No watering between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., except with hand-held hose.

Source: www.cityofaustin.org/watercon/summer.htm

Is bottled water better?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates bottled water, by “standards of identity.” In other words, if a bottle of water is labeled as “spring water,” it must meet certain criteria, but if the bottle of water is just labeled as water, then it does not have to meet stringent standards required for tap water by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Natural Resources Defense Council conducted a four-year review of the bottled water industry and the safety standards that govern it, including a comparison of national bottled water rules with national tap water rules, and independent testing of more than 1,000 bottles of water. Their conclusion is that there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap. And in fact, an estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, St. Louis and many other cities have recently banned bottled water, making it illegal to spend city dollars on bottled water, mainly because of the high amount of bottles winding up in landfills. On May 22, the city council approved a resolution to eliminate city purchases of plastic water bottles for government use within City Hall.

Austin Clean Water Partners

The City of Austin is partnering with local automotive repair and fueling businesses to reduce pollution and water quality degradation of our creeks and lakes. The partnership’s logo is an easy way for customers to recognize those businesses that go the extra mile to protect the environment. For more information, visit www.cityofaustin.org/watershed/clean_water_partners.htm

Benefits to businesses include a window decal, customer brochures, T-shirts, a poster demonstrating appropriate shop practices and the companies recognized through advertisements and news releases distributed to local media.

• Arbor Car Wash, 10401 Jollyville Road, 346-8050
• Bridgestone Firestone #019917, 2500 W. Parmer Lane #170, 388-6060
• Charlie and Ann’s Exxon, 5400 Balcones Drive, 452-5422
• Great Hills Automotive, 5346 Thunder Creek Road, 795-2995
• Import Auto Center, 9604 Gray Blvd., 837-6335
• Jiffy Lube #2926, 3704 Spicewood Springs Road, 345-1274
• Lamb’s Tire & Automotive Center #4, 3564 Far West Blvd., 345-6600
• Lexus of Austin, 9910 Stonelake Blvd., 343-3400
• MoPac Auto Service Inc., 3500 Hyridge Drive, 346-0438

What is the Lower Colorado River Authority?

The Lower Colorado River Authority is a conservation and reclamation district created by the Texas Legislature in 1934 that provides water to municipal water suppliers, industries, power plants, and irrigated agriculture. The LCRA operates solely on utility revenues and fees, having no taxing authority.

The LCRA is also a power provider. LCRA’s power is created by 13 hydroelectric units and plants located at six dams on the Highland Lakes that generates about 281 megawatts of power.

With six hydroelectric dams and wind power purchased from West Texas wind farms, LCRA ranks as the largest publicly owned supplier of renewable energy in Texas.

“Many people think that the LCRA produces most of their power through hydroelectric energy, but only 4 percent of the power that we produce is created by our hydroelectric generating units,” said Suzanne Giesecke Zarling, executive manager of water services of the LCRA.

According to Zarling, the dams were created for several purposes. Originally they were created to electrify the Hill Country to create a reliable and dependable water supply from the Colorado River Basin and to manage floods. Those dams are still used for today,

However, they can no longer be used just to generate power. They can also turn on the hydroelectric generators if there is a down stream demand for the water to protect environmental conditions in the river or if the water is needed to meet demands of down stream water users.

Most of the power generated comes from power plants that are fueled by natural gas or coal. The LCRA has three natural gas power plants that generate 1,540 megawatts of power and one coal power plant, jointly owned with the City of Austin, that generates 1,641 megawatts of power.

About 20 percent of the water that is used out of the Colorado River is used by the city, by LCRA and others in the area to generate power to serve the people in Texas.

Electric power production is the third largest use of all the water in the Colorado River Basin, behind agricultural irrigation and municipal and industrial needs.

“There is a huge connection between water and energy in the Colorado River Basin,” Zarling said. “Power costs make up about 7.5 to 10 percent of the cost of producing water and treating sewage in the LCRA system.”

The LCRA is facing the issue of balancing all the water needs for future power demands along with the needs of water for other purposes, such as keeping water in the rivers for the environment, water for growing municipal customers and industrial customers.

Because of the amount of water in the Lower Colorado River, power plants are approaching the LCRA to locate nearby.

“We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest from power companies looking at potential sites for new power plants, because there’s water available,” Zarling said. “The big challenge that LCRA faces in the future is how to balance the need for water for those big power plants outside the water basin with the needs of the people and the environment inside the river basin for that same water supply.”