29 Apr Water Conservation in Austin – Update
Photo Credit © 2011 Chase A. Fountain, Texas Parks and Wildlife
This week began with the Highland Lakes at 40% of capacity, and 92% of Texas in some stage of drought. Travis County is in stage 2 (Severe) drought. This prompts the question of what Austin is doing to conserve its water resources and turn the city into a water-efficient economy.
Two years ago, I wrote an analysis of Austin’s water conservation efforts entitled Read It and Leak. It found a multitude of problems, including poorly designed programs, lack of savings documentation, and lack of achievement of many stated goals. The third update to this report has just been released, online at: http://environmentaldirectory.
Sad to say that two years later, many of the same problems still exist, and a new deficiency has been identified. Of 68 recommendations in the 2011 report, only 14 have been acted on in some way. Contrast this to 52 where no action or token action was taken. (Two of them were hard to quantify.)
A brief summary of the high points (or more accurately described, low points) of this update follows.
1. The Austin Water Utility (AWU) has under-spent its water conservation budget by an average of 33% over the past 5 years.
2. About 2% of Austin’s total water use could be saved by conversion of older toilets to high-efficiency fixtures. The original report criticized various aspects of this program, suggesting that the savings might be done more cost effectively. AWU dropped the program entirely instead of finding a more cost-effective strategy. Mandatory conversions or rebate programs with lower levels of incentives have been ignored.
3. While the commercial and industrial sectors consume a third of Austin’s water, almost no savings is being achieved from a conservation program to serve this sector. One reason is the lack of dedicated staff for over 4 years.
4. AWU has spent over $51 million to build a pipeline system for reclaimed water. This takes wastewater treated to a very high standard and recycles it for non-potable uses such as landscape irritation and cooling towers. This saves water that would otherwise be drawn from the Highland Lakes.
Despite this large expense, AWU has seen recycled water sales go down between 2008 and 2012. Strategies to accelerate adoption of this new water supply are being ignored, including long-term financing for the customer side of reclaimed water hook-ups, and extra staff hired to market the new system.
5. Leaks in water mains are considered normal. However, utilities do their best to minimize them. Austin has a leak rate of about 8%, or a water loss of about 4 billion gallons per year. This is not bad as water utilities go, though not the best either.
Austin has about 3,700 miles of water mains, yet it only replaces or rehabilitates about 15 miles a year. In the last two years, about 28% of the money allocated to this water loss prevention program went unspent.
6. A considerable amount of Austin’s water and wastewater pipe is made of Polyvinyl Chloride, which is the most toxic of all common plastics to manufacture. Various utilities around the country are using an alternative material made of High Density Polyethylene. As well as being much less toxic to manufacture, it is often less expensive to install.
Polyethylene's use can also save water. Since one segment of this material is usually heat-melted to the next segment before inserting it in the ground, there are no gaskets or fasteners to fail. Some experts consider the material virtually leak proof, and polyethylene pipe has been known to survive earthquakes intact.
Despite these financial and environmental benefits, AWU does not have conversion to environmentally preferable materials as a priority.
7. AWU has large problems estimating and documenting its savings from water conservation efforts. In some cases, savings estimates are unfounded. In other cases, adequate documentation to prove savings does not exist, or the efforts to document them are inaccurate.
Perhaps the most outrageous of these problems is AWU’s assertion that substantial savings is coming from high rates. In 2012, I documented that Austin had the highest combined water and wastewater rates of the top 10 cities in Texas. (See Hard to Swallow, at http://environmntaldirectory.
Now make no mistake, high rates do discourage consumption. But to try to equate high rates with efficient equipment that saves water borders on extreme.
8. AWU is one of the highest electric consumers in Austin; almost 2% of Austin Energy’s annual production goes to the water utility. In 2010, AWU announced an aggressive goal to conserve energy at its buildings and facilities. But to date, no conservation plan has been created to achieve this.
As Austin approaches the summer, I wince when I think of how much lower the Lakes might get. While there is almost nothing Austin can do to stop another drought, there is a lot it could do, and is not doing, to prepare for one.
I am not sure these water conservation programs are going to achieve their potential until the City Council develops the will to make them a priority. I still believe strong consideration should be made to move most of the water conservation programs to an agency outside the water utility. It is a conflict of interest for a utility that sells water to simultaneously save it.
Paul Robbins has been an environmental activist and consumer advocate since 1977.
1 Comment