City Council adopts historic water reuse regulations

City Council on Thursday unanimously and enthusiastically approved mandatory water reuse for most large new developments, with some provisions to exempt affordable housing from the requirement. They also approved an agreement with Travis County to provide reclaimed water connections for the Travis County courthouse, a step forward in partnering with the county on similar projects.

Council approved a new fee of 15 cents for every thousand gallons of water used to give Austin Water some additional funding to expand the reclaimed water system. Austin Water says this will raise the average customer’s bill by $1.47 a month. The “GoPurple” charge does not apply to Customer Assistance Program (CAP) customers.

Council Member Alison Alter, who was wearing purple, pointed out that Thursday was Purple Pipe day. Purple is the industrywide color for pipes carrying reclaimed water. The GoPurple program is projected to save a combined 16 million gallons of drinking water per day by 2040 through reclaimed water and on-site water reuse.

Code changes that are part of GoPurple mainly affect larger developments greater than 250,000 square feet. Projects of that size built within 500 feet of the city’s purple-pipe reclaimed water infrastructure must connect to it or install an on-site water reuse system.

Alter called the vote to adopt the new reuse regulations “historic,” adding that the cost of the program would be “an investment in the future of our city.” She noted that people worried about the cost of the wildland-urban interface regulations when they were adopted, but people who were unable to obtain insurance previously can now do so because of those rules.

“For the past 25 years, Austin has been on the cutting edge of water conservation, sustainability and environmental protection,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said. “Austin Water’s GoPurple Program reinforces our visionary leadership in those areas once again.”

Austin Water Director Shay Roalson noted in a statement to the press that Austin Water’s 1999 water supply agreement with the Lower Colorado River Authority was secured with an initial reservation fee and includes annual water-use fees when Austin exceeds 201,000 acre-feet of water consumption for two consecutive years. By utilizing more reclaimed water for nondrinking water needs, Austin can avoid triggering those use fees – an estimated savings of $10 million annually.

A number of the speakers praised the program, including Bobby Levinski on behalf of the Save Our Springs Alliance. However, Levinski said he wished that the ordinance would apply to all new development and not exclude housing for low-income residents. He added, “I understand the desire and concern about affordability impact. This really is about addressing affordability into the future. The tenants and renters and owners of these buildings will benefit from having a more affordable water supply.”

Council Member Chito Vela offered two amendments, one aimed at making sure that properties for low-income Austinites would be exempt from the new regulations. As Austin Water explained, “properties accredited for Affordability Unlocked or State Low Income Housing Tax Credit are exempt from the adopted requirement. All developments are required to implement water benchmarking to assess water use and identify conservation opportunities.”

Vela offered a second amendment directing the city manager to report back in six months on the costs of the program, the amount of water saved and how the city might fund a purple pipe program for low-income buildings. Interim City Manager Jesús Garza thanked Vela for the six-month time frame. Council is expected to name a new city manager before the end of April.

Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Pool, who chairs the Council Water Oversight Committee, called the reuse program “a critical and really timely component of our Water Forward plan. It’s also been a long time coming. We started on this back in 2017.” She noted that it will take a significant amount of rain to fill local reservoirs, adding that “we have to keep them full. With proposed code changes, we are taking a giant leap toward a sustainable community,” she said.

“Balancing the benefit of achieving Water Forward’s conservation and reuse goals with the cost of implementation are two sides of the same coin,” Pool said. “Benefits and costs are connected, and we’ll come up short if we undermine either side.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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