City hopes to save millions of gallons per day by recycling

Every day, the city of Round Rock pours millions of gallons of wastewater from its treatment plant into Brushy Creek, from which it is swept downstream toward the Gulf of Mexico.

City officials, however, have instituted a plan that will allow commercial customers access to the treated wastewater, potentially reducing the city's freshwater consumption by millions of gallons per day.

"We are taking wastewater and treating it and reusing it," Round Rock Utilities Director Michael Thane said. "It is not drinkable, but you can use it for irrigation, manufacturing—all of those type of things."

Round Rock officials view the program as an important piece of a larger effort to conserve water in the face of ongoing drought conditions and a growing population. The city imports most of its fresh water from Lake Georgetown through agreements with the Brazos River Authority. As a backup source, however, Round Rock has also secured rights from the Lower Colorado River Authority to pump in water from Lake Travis—albeit at three times the cost of Lake Georgetown water.

"The City Council keeps asking, 'What is our next water source?' and I say, 'reuse water,'" Thane said. "That is a source we need to maximize."

In August 2013—at the peak of the city's water consumption for the year—2.7 percent of all the water distributed to Round Rock customers came from the wastewater reuse system. With the system being extended to new areas in the coming years, Thane predicts that percentage will continue to rise.

"The more we can grow this, the longer we can push off Lake Travis water, which is extremely expensive—that way the city's rates stay lower," Thane said.

Setup for reuse

Round Rock began offering reuse water in 1998 when it ran dedicated lines to the city-owned Forest Creek Golf Course. The program expanded in 2012 when the city completed a new wastewater treatment facility capable of converting up to 12 million gallons of wastewater per day into reuse water. Since then The Dell Diamond and Old Settlers Park have started using reuse water to irrigate.

By the end of 2014, the city hopes to have new lines pumping reuse water to several subdivisions located in the city's northeast quadrant as well as the Austin Community College and Texas A&M University Higher Education Center campuses. City Council is also working on a resolution to require new developments in northeast Round Rock to install reuse water lines for irrigating common areas.

"It is going to take some of the pressure off of the [fresh] water," Round Rock Councilman George White said. "We are already starting to see some of that benefit."

The approximately $12 million project is being financed through the city's capital improvements fund as well as $3 million in federal funding secured in part by U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock.

Carter said the federal funding was intended to help secure his constituents' economic future.

"The most important key to continued growth is infrastructure," Carter said. "We all know one of the biggest issues [in Central Texas] is water. I'm proud to support our local communities to create a competitive advantage against other regions."

Cost benefit

The reuse system also offers commercial customers a significant reduction on their utility bills. For example, large-volume reuse water customers who use reuse water pay $2.94 less per 1,000 gallons than the standard rate and are excluded from the city's twice-per-week watering restrictions.

For a customer that consumes 1 million gallons of water per month—such as a manufacturing facility, homeowners association or park—the savings would equal $2,940 per month.

Because of the extra cost of running special pipes, the reuse system is only planned for areas of northeast Round Rock that are still developing. Thane said the city has not yet found a way to make the system financially feasible for residential customers, although developers have the option of paying for the lines.

"It is all about the costs of development," he said. "If subdivisions are willing to pay for it, we are amenable to hooking [reuse water] up with anybody."