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Stop the Billion $$$ Mistake on the Lake

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Contact Austin City Council

Use this form to email the mayor and city councilmembers. Request a full audit of the WTP4 project. We've included a sample message to help get you started, but please feel free to edit or replace it with your own words and thoughts. A copy will automatically be sent to you.

If you prefer to call the mayor and councilmembers' offices or use the city's website to send them email, please go HERE.

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Message

Dear Mayor and Councilmembers,

Please call timeout on the Water Treatment Plant No. 4 project until an independent audit of the project can be completed and council and the community has the opportunity to explore all options to completing the plant.

AWU has covered up cost overruns on the plant, misleading the public that the project is "under budget" by lopping off one of the two budgeted transmission mains in order to hide overruns on the remainder of the project.

AWU customers also deserve an explanation as to why the Utility estimated last year that residential rates would climb only 35 percent over the next five years, while this year city staff admits that rates will increase more than 66 percent over the next five years.

These questions are sufficient to justify a comprehensive audit of the entire project.

City Council and AWU ratepayers should know the full cost of the new plant -- as well as the the costs and savings of mothballing the project for a period of years -- before any further financial commitments are made.

Keeping water rates affordable for both residents and businesses is essential to Austin's prosperity.  Building a very expensive plant 15 years or more before it is needed will drive rates up with no benefit of any kind to ratepayers.

It is past time for ratepayers and the council to have honest and complete information when making decisions on the future of our water.

Thank you for your consideration.