Envisioned in the 1970s, Water Treatment Plant 4 was designed a decade later on Lake Austin, the cleanest of the Highland Lakes chain, said Austin Water Utility Director Greg Meszaros to the Four Points Chamber of Commerce membership at its May 16 meeting. The project stalled but resurfaced as a priority in 2000 and is expected to begin servicing the community next summer.

Meszaros said that the plant is on target for a May 31, 2014, startup.

The plant's projected final cost of $518 million includes land, plant design and construction fees of $360 million, Meszaros said. The system incorporates a raw water intake station on Lake Travis and a tunnel to pump the water to a station on Bullick Hollow Road and then to WTP4 for sanitizing. The treated water travels through the Jollyville water transition main to a reservoir for distribution.

WTP4 can process up to 300 million gallons of water per day, but it will start with a smaller production of 50 million gallons daily, Meszaros said. The plant will blend into the architecture of its surrounding homes, a condition the city agreed to when it bought the property from Oasis, Texas owner Beau Theriot, Meszaros said.

The raw water system is almost complete; the WTP4 facility is 65 percent to 70 percent finished, and the transmission main is about 90 percent excavated, Meszaros said.

"We won't probably build a plant like this for another 100 years," Meszaros said. "It's geared to service Austinites not even born yet."