For four years, volunteer members of the Integrated Water Resource Task Force have been crafting a plan to conserve Austin’s water supply over the next century. While experts have long warned that a warming climate, coupled with a growing population, poses a serious risk to the world’s water supply, the weeklong boil notice that Austin […]
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Boil water order may be lifted Sunday
Austin Water Director Greg Meszaros said Thursday he expects a boil water notice for water utility customers to remain in effect until Sunday evening. In the meantime, the utility is working to satisfy all of its internal requirements as well as Texas Commission on Environmental Quality regulations. Although the city issued the boil water notice […]
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Boil water rule could end this weekend
Although a Travis County emergency management official told commissioners Tuesday morning that the current boil water advisory for Austin Water customers could continue for 10 to 14 days, city officials said Tuesday afternoon that such a scenario was unlikely. Mayor Steve Adler told a news conference gathering at City Hall that the boil water notice […]
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Water and Wastewater Commission holds off on billing recommendation
Over a year after the water billing saga surfaced in the news, Austin Water and Austin Energy are still working to adjust internal processes in order to proactively prevent a similar situation from reoccurring. In their effort to do so, several months after the misreads were identified, Austin Water and Austin Energy formed a working […]
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Austin Water lays the path forward for the next 100 years of water conservation
There’s no denying it: The climate as we know it is changing, but access to water sources is not. Three years ago the second iteration of the Water Forward Task Force convened in an effort to draft a 100-year water supply plan and shift the way the city thinks about its water resources. The task […]
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Commissioners: Water bills should be overseen by Austin Water
Following the water bill fiasco from last fall, Austin Energy and Austin Water teamed up on a working group to uncover the puzzling reasons behind the unusual spikes. Although the group started off with one question, Commissioner Mickey Maia reported back to the Water and Wastewater Commission at its July 11 meeting that, “as we […]
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Despite low water usage from Austinites, Austin Water continues to pay down debt
As it happens every year, Austin Water, the city-owned water and wastewater utility, is currently in the midst of planning its budget for the next fiscal year, which will also reflect an updated financial forecast until the year 2023. Although this financial forecast is just a preliminary budget according to David Anders, assistant director of […]
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Purple pipe to save water, Travis County tax dollars
Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea gathered members of the media at the Heman Marion Sweatt Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon to tout a water conservation program that will save millions of gallons of drinking water per year. Those savings are courtesy of a new connection to a so-called purple pipe that will pump treated sewage water […]
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Austin Water still repairing shattered trust with water bill smoothing
After months of investigation, Austin Water and Austin Energy have an answer for the unusual spikes that Austinites saw in their water bills last September. Although Austin Water responded and changed its meter-reading contractor after the rash of misreads came to light, it is only now that the utility is discovering what precisely went awry. […]
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New flood warning website should give Central Texans a closer look at risks
A website that warns Central Texans about road flooding is getting an overhaul this month. The designers of the new site say the changes should give visitors more detail about flooding near them. ATXfloods.com is basically a map that shows which low-water crossings are underwater. On a sunny day, it should be full of green […]
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Austin Water pitches rate reductions in 2018
It has been 15 years since the last time Austin Water reduced the rates for the utility. There is a chance, however, that this trend may end in January. On Dec. 13, the assistant director of Austin Water, David Anders, presented the Water and Wastewater Commission with the results of its Cost of Service study, […]
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Phantom water bill charges remain an unsolved mystery at Austin Water
For several years, water bills have been mysteriously spiking and leaving homeowners clutching their wallets and demanding answers. However, even when the public came en masse to plead that the Electric Utility Commission demand answers from city staff after the most recent surge, Austin Energy and Austin Water had none to give. On Dec. 11, […]