Posted: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:25 PM - 8,608 Readers
By: Karina Kling
Thursday was the first Austin City Council meeting with its newest members. However, their agenda contained one of Austin's oldest issues -- water.
The City of Austin is continually looking for ways to conserve water. On Thursday, the council got a few ideas from Greg Meszaros.
Meszaros is Austin's lead water utility expert. He said current conservation strategies, like limited watering days have helped, but he is pushing to get a water treatment plant built as soon as possible.
"Just in the five years between now and when plant four will open, we expect our customer service base to grow by over 100,000 [clients], and we see that [progress] continuing [to grow] well into the future," Meszaros said.
The $508 million water treatment plant has been in discussion for decades. Its planned to be built out near the Oasis on Lake Travis.
Meszaros has insisted that now is the time to build because, the water will soon be needed, and rates are low.
"Right now infrastructure projects are coming in at some of their lowest costs across the nation," Meszaros said.
Some city council members said it might be a strain to start right away.
"Constructing a plant today, in the middle of a recession, with money coming out of people's pockets -- I think it could probably
be spent somewhere else, better, if we don't need it," Council member Bill Spelman said.
Other people agree with Spelman, suggesting that the city does not need an additional plant.
"The Austin Water Utility wants to raise everybody's rates for a water treatment plant that we really don't need," Save our Springs spokesperson, Colin Clark, said.
Save Our Springs is one of several environmental activist groups asking the city to delay construction and work more toward conservation efforts.
"If we save water, we save money," Clark said.
But, if the plant proceeds as proposed, Austin residents could be paying $3 to $4 more a month on their utility bills over the next five years to help pay for it.
Officials with Austin Water Utility said the plant would pump 50-million gallons per day. Possible future expansions would bump that number up to 300 million gallons per day.
AWU also said the construction of the plant would produce about 3,000 local jobs.
City council has until the spring to decide if expenses should be put off for another year or two.
