UT report offers ‘roadmap’ for changes at Austin Water

In the wake of five incidents between 2018 and 2022 related to water quality problems, including three boil-water notices and a zebra mussel invasion, Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros resigned and City Council asked the city auditor to identify a group to study problems at the utility and report back.

City Auditor Corrie Stokes led the search, contracting with the University of Texas Center for Water and the Environment. The 203-page report was issued Wednesday and its authors are scheduled to appear at next week’s Council Audit and Finance Committee meeting.

Although Austin Water operates three treatment plants, including Handcox, Davis and Ullrich, the review focused on Ullrich, which was “at the center” of four of the five incidents.

The review found that the city water utility faces a number of barriers that hinder staff at the Ullrich plant from consistently delivering high-quality water to customers, especially during extreme events. One of the most serious problems relates to what the study called “organizational conditions that include structure and management, human resources, communication (internal and external to Austin Water), and capital improvement processes.”

According to the report, these problems “directly affect the plant’s ability to respond effectively to emergencies, maintain and upgrade infrastructure, prepare for emerging potential source water quality issues, and recruit, train and retain staff.” The study’s authors noted that some of the issues are not under the department’s control “and must be addressed at the city level.”

The report noted, “A critical communication need within (high reliability organizations), like utilities, is sharing consistent knowledge through job-related training. As mentioned, inadequate staffing, indicated by the high vacancy level at the plant, has compromised Ullrich WTP’s ability to prioritize training and engage their staff in continuous learning. The lack of training noted by operators and supervisors has led to noteworthy concerns, such as inconsistent knowledge across employees of the same or similar job functional roles.”

According to the study authors, Austin Water was highly cooperative, agreeing with the vast majority of the report’s 50 recommendations for improving resiliency at the plant. The report also addressed improving communication between Austin Water and its customers. However, the writers of the report stressed the greatest priority should relate to staffing.

City Manager Spencer Cronk appointed a new director, Shay Ralls Roalson, whose new role started Jan. 1. She has worked for Austin Water since April 2020 as the assistant director of engineering services.

Roalson released the following statement Wednesday in response to the recommendations: “Austin Water has been and continues to be an industry leader serving customers for more than 100 years. We have a dedicated workforce that strives to provide excellent and reliable service for our community, and we have all been discouraged by recent water quality events. While we have learned from these events and implemented enhancements to increase our resiliency, we welcome an outside perspective to help us evaluate where we can continue to improve.”

She added that the external review “has provided a roadmap of recommendations to help us restore trust with the community and strengthen our staff. I am committed to working through these recommendations and will share our implementation progress with the Austin Water Oversight Committee on Feb. 15.”

The report indicates that the city allocated about $816,000 for the review.

Council Member Alison Alter, who chairs the city’s Audit and Finance Committee, authored the resolution directing Stokes to find an appropriate group to do the review. The committee is scheduled to hear from the report’s authors at next week’s meeting.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Alter said she was still reading the lengthy report and that she found it “a really useful guide” to help understand what Austin Water should do during extreme events.

She was particularly interested in the critique of how management is structured. She also said she could see “how similar the challenges seem to other departments and some of this may be systemic.” She added that she thought a number of other departments are, like Austin Water, understaffed.

Council members Leslie Pool and Mackenzie Kelly also serve on the Audit and Finance Committee and supported asking the auditor to find a group to investigate problems at the utility. Kelly said, “I look forward to closely reviewing the completed Austin Water audit and addressing any issues and concerns during next week’s Audit and Finance Committee meeting. I anticipate having robust conversations with my colleagues to address the audit’s outcome in hopes of preventing operational oversights in the future.”

Pool told the Austin Monitor via text, “We are looking forward to reading the report and hope that it helps to inform better policies and procedures for the future, so that we don’t find ourselves in the position of multiple water-boil notices again.”

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