Bill McCann

The Austin Water Utility’s is proposing a fiscal 2009-2010 budget that includes flat expenditures for day-to-day operations and a 4.5 percent system-wide rate increase to help pay for $1.4 billion in planned construction projects over the next five years, including Water Treatment Plant 4.   Council is scheduled to hear two water briefings on Thursday, […]

Preparing for continued population growth in the far North Austin area, the Austin Water Utility is moving forward with plans to buy a share of the Brushy Creek Regional Wastewater System from the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA).  The system came up for sale after its two biggest users, the cities of Round Rock and […]

The $400 million Austin Clean Water Program, established to fix the city’s sewer system and prevent sewage overflows, is paying off with greatly reduced overflows and cleaner creeks citywide, according to a report to the Environmental Board last week.   Recent stream tests indicate that water quality has improved in at least a dozen urban […]

The Texas Water Development Board on Thursday approved $31.8 million in federal economic stimulus funding for the City of Austin to expand and upgrade the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant.   Austin Water Utility officials say the funding, which will be in the form of a 30-year, zero-interest loan, will save the city about $22 […]

With 3,600 miles of pipes connected to 200,000 customers over a 538-square mile service area, the Austin water system is a complex maze where some of the water is bound to get lost before it reaches homes, schools and businesses. In fact, a city audit report recently estimated that the total water loss from the […]

The Austin Water Utility is eyeing as much as $53.7 million in federal economic stimulus funds for priority wastewater projects, including extensive and innovative upgrades at the city’s Hornsby Bend Biosolids Plant.   Utility officials believe the city is in excellent position to get at least some stimulus funding because the $31.8 million Hornsby Bend […]

The first batch of energy audits required of houses going up for sale in Austin show that most of the houses are wasting a lot of energy—and money—through leaky air conditioning and heating ducts in their attics. Some 86 percent of the first 310 audits conducted under a new city ordinance have leaking air ducts […]

As the summer of 2009 sweeps in with its hot, mostly dry weather, Austin’s water and electric utilities say they are prepared both with their physical facilities and with their continuing aggressive efforts to promote efficiency in water and power use.   Both utilities experience by far their highest demands in summer. Keeping those demands […]

Using global positioning system (GPS) units for measurement, city scientists have discovered that man-made vertical walls, or bulkheads, block almost half of Lake Austin’s shoreline. That’s a problem, according to a City of Austin scientist who reported his findings to the Environmental Board last week. Property owners build the bulkheads to reduce erosion from floods […]

Concerned that the growing presence of feral hogs in far northwest Austin neighborhoods may pose health and safety risks to residents, the City of Austin is planning to take out a contract on the porcine pests. Two contracts actually. The City Council is scheduled on Thursday to consider two contracts with the Texas AgriLife Extension […]

Concerned about the impact of a proposed six-home subdivision on Lake Travis, the source of Austin’s drinking water, the Environmental Board on Wednesday decided to do more fact-finding before deciding whether to recommend a variance to allow the project.   At issue is a request by developers of a subdivision, called The Estates at Commanders […]

To Lew Aldridge, who considers himself a practical businessman, Austin Energy’s program that offers substantial rebates to customers who install solar power is a “no brainer.”   The rebates, combined with federal tax credits, make solar power “an incredible investment for residents and commercial businesses in Austin,” Aldridge said. “With the environmental and financial benefits, […]