Did you know that Austin’s water use peaked almost ten years ago when Austin used a total of 240.3 million gallons on a single day?
15 facts you need to know about where our water comes from and how much we use.
1. Austin’s water use peaked almost ten years ago, on August 13, 2001, when Austin residents and businesses used a total of 240.3 million gallons on a single day.
2. Every summer since 2001 our peak day of water use has been lower. In the drought summer of 2009 Austin water use peaked at 228 million gallons (MG), the day before the one-day per weak drought water restrictions were to begin. In 2010, a relatively wet year, Austin water use peaked at 193 MG on a single day.
3. Austin currently has 285 MG per day (MGD) water treatment capacity and 167 MG of storage capacity. Treatment and storage must combine to meet “peak” demands on a reliable basis.
4. In 2007 Austin completed a 67 MGD capacity expansion to its Ullrich water treatment plant, for a total of 167 MGD at the Ullrich plant. Austin’s “Davis” plant can treat 118 MGD. Both plants are segmented, so that parts of the plant may be shut down for maintenance and repair without shutting down the entire plant.
5. The 67 MGD Ullrich expansion was completed at a cost of $85 million. Compare to the City’s estimated cost of building a 50 MGD “Water Treatment Plant No. 4” for $508 million (not counting interest).
6. In 2008 Austin shut down the 42 MGD capacity “Green” water plant years ahead of schedule in order to make way for Town Lake redevelopment. The plant could have been refurbished to operate effectively for decades into the future; doing so would have been far cheaper than building a new plant at a new site for the simple reason that the City’s water distributions system was built to take water in at the Green plant site.
7. The City rejected a proposal by Corollo Engineering, the same company that ended up with the WTP4 engineering contract, that would have redeveloped the “Green” plant to a 90 MGD treatment capacity for a cost of only $122 million.
8. On hot summer days, when water use peaks, roughly half of the water used in Austin is for outdoor, non-essential lawn and landscape watering. Total Austin water usage in winter months averages between 95 and 115 MGD.
9. From 2001 to 2009, Austin added over 200,000 people to its water service population, yet peak demand dropped slightly.
10. Total Austin water use in 2010 was lower than any other year since 1997, despite population growth.
11. Austin is not alone: many growing cities in the American west are seeing water usage decline at rates faster than population growth rates, year after year.
12. Across the board, residents and businesses are reducing their water use for 3 simple reasons: to save money in light of increasing water rates; because affordable and reliable conservation measures are readily available (and/or are being mandated); and to help protect their families and the environment in light of climate change and the health benefits of landscaping with native, drought tolerant plants that require less water and no pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers.
13. In May 2010 a unanimous Austin City Council approved a policy to reduce Austin’s per capita water use to below 140 gallons per capita per day (gpcd) by 2020. This is in an “average” year – not a “wet” or “dry” year. Several cities, including San Antonio, are already below this very reasonable usage goal. See Austin’s initial “140 GPCD Plan” here.
14. Factoring in the Council approved 140 gpcd by 2020 goal and projected population growth, Austin will not match its 2008 total water usage until 2022 or later.
15. All of the City of Austin’s water supply comes from the Colorado River, through water rights held by the City of Austin and contracts for storage in the Highlands Lakes and water sharing with the Lower Colorado River Authority. Most of Austin’s suburbs also get their water from storage in LCRA’s Highland Lakes, though Buda and Kyle and other areas on the Austin’s southern border get their water from the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer.