The rain eventually came; however, hotter, drier days lie ahead for Austin, according to climate change models. Meanwhile, the city’s exponential population growth rate is expected to continue for decades, increasing demand on its lone water source—the Colorado River—which loses more water each year to evaporation than it does to Austinites. That combination of factors has placed city leaders on high alert.
Toward the tail end of the historic drought, city leaders agreed they needed to prepare for what many consider an inevitable cocktail of more extreme periods of dryness mixed with growth in population and water usage.
“That was a big wake up call that the amount of water could be that low,” said Teresa Lutes, managing engineer with public water utility Austin Water. “We started thinking, ‘What if we had another one? Or a couple in a row?’”
Thus, at the behest of City Council in 2015, a team of water, environmental and sustainability experts from across the city convened to discuss what the future of Austin’s water looked like in the face of uncertainties raised by issues both natural and manmade.
The result: a 100-year water plan that reworks how the city uses water through recommended projects aimed at augmenting Austin’s aquatic supply and policy changes to continue cultivating the conservation culture of its citizens. The plan is the first for Austin and only the third in the nation, and its three-year drafting process is pushing down the homestretch with a City Council vote expected this November.
Regional risks to the resource
Every community’s water system is uniquely complex, Lutes said. In Austin, it is all about location and climate.
The bisecting Colorado River is characterized locally by a series of manufactured reservoirs and dams.
Austin draws directly from Lake Austin, which is replenished by Lakes Travis and Buchanan, two upstream reservoirs. They are part of the Highland Lakes, a series of seven manmade reservoirs owed in part to the work of former President Lyndon B. Johnson early in his congressional career. Central to the region’s water resource, the lakes are managed by the Lower Colorado River Authority with which Austin contracts.
The viability of rivers and reservoirs are impacted by climate, said Luke Metzger, executive director of Environment Texas, a local environmental advocacy group. Austin already experiences hot weather and prolonged droughts, exacerbated by annual evaporation levels of the lakes that exceed the water used by Austinites, according to the LCRA.
With scientists predicting even hotter and drier days ahead and Austin’s population estimated to grow four-fold by 2115, Metzger said the status quo water supply strategy unsustainable.
“The droughts could be longer and more severe,” Metzger said. “We run the risk of running out of water and the risk of water rates going through the roof as the resource becomes more scarce.”
Austin’s ability to grow and succeed is by virtue of a reliable water supply, said Kevin Critendon, assistant director of water resource planning and analysis at Austin Water.
“The only way we grow to 4 million people and it’s a thriving, livable community is that we have a solid water supply,” Critendon said. “It’s pretty fundamental.”
The 100-year water plan
In its third draft, the water plan stresses the need for policy changes that encourage conservation and demand management across the city. It also strongly recommends a diversification of Austin’s water supply sources.
For conservation, the plan recommends requirements for new commercial and multifamily developments to employ alternative water systems that recycle treated wastewater for on-site, non-drinkable use, and water-harvesting systems to collect rain and storm water runoff for treatment and reuse.
The plan also recommends incentives—and eventually mandates—for new developments to install landscapes that use less irrigation water. This might include planting native plants, or eliminating the irrigation system altogether through use of turf or rock lawns.
Jennifer Walker, senior manager with the National Wildlife Federation and vice chairwoman of the city’s water task force, said strategies aimed at conservation would be first priority.
“It’s important to get those going soon because Austin is growing, so every bit that we grow that we’re not capturing those water savings are savings we’ll never get back,” Walker said.
However, the changes add cost to the end user and run against affordability, Critendon said, and will require robust public input before going into effect.
To enhance supply, the plan recommends storing water during wetter periods in natural underground reservoirs known as aquifers, as well as tapping into brackish water reservoirs, which are even further underground.
Critendon said the aquifer storage allows Austin to collect extra water during rainy periods, store it away for the future and shield it from evaporation. Although pumping brackish water requires an expensive treatment process, he said it is a new resource that Austin can tap when necessary.
Critendon said the plan’s strategies match the Austin ethos around responsible use of a local resource.
“We don’t want to go to the Gulf of Mexico to get water,” Critendon said.
As Austin pushes toward an uncertain future, Walker said the plan prepares the city to face challenges ahead.
“This is going to make us more flexible and adaptable,” Walker said. “The sooner we can embark on that path, the better.”
