Mayor waxes nostalgic for water regs

Tuesday’s budget talks sparked a trip down memory lane for Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who chaired the 2007 Water Conservation Committee. During a discussion about individual water meters for multifamily housing, which was a recommendation from the committee that has yet to be implemented, Leffingwell noted that it might be interesting to see what recommendations had actually taken hold in the past seven years. “I would be curious. The city actually got a Conservationist of the Year Award from the American Waterworks Association for that program. I would be interested to see how much we have done, and if we have to give that award back,” he said. Austin Water Utility Assistant Director David Anders said that, as far as he knew, all of the “major” recommendations had been implemented, but Leffingwell recalled several, presumably “non-major” ones that had not. Those included water-free rinsing stations for dentists, carwash appliance transitions, and soil depth regulations.