Austin Utility Focus: Debt, Reclaimed Water, Smart Meters

The city of Austin, TX, is entering the latest phase of an infrastructure project that will enable it to use more reclaimed water.

“The project will connect to the Capitol Complex Reclaimed Water Main project that is currently under construction. While the water isn't drinking water, it's still clean and can be used for things such as irrigation. This segment of the project costs nearly $5 million, but officials say the water savings means the project will eventually pay for itself,” Time Warner Cable News reported.

“Right now, the reclaimed water system has 50 miles of mains and pumped 1.2 billion gallons of reclaimed water last year alone. The city says reclaimed water is highly purified wastewater that is ordinarily discharged to the Colorado River. The utility said it takes some of the water, stores it in tanks and pumps it to customers for non-drinking uses such as irrigation, cooling, toilet flushing and manufacturing,” the report said.

For the city of Austin, infrastructure, water meters, and debt have been top issues this year.

“Issuing and selling bonds, paying off debt and applying for state loans for the Austin Water utility will be up for discussion at” a city council meeting in April, according to the Austin Monitor.

Meanwhile, the city is working on a major water meter project that has come with some controversy.

“Following hundreds of complaints about unexpected water bill spikes last summer, Austin Water is applying for an $80.2 million loan to switch all customers to smart meters that electronically transmit data about water usage,” the Austin American-Statesman reported.

“Such devices could provide earlier indicators of unusually high water use, giving customers more time to address a leak or rein in their water use before getting a large bill. As it stands now, customers don’t find out about their usage until they receive their monthly bill, which is based on the read a city-hired outside company manually takes from the meter,” the report said.

To read more about the ways that city’s manage their water costs visit Water Online’s Funding Solutions Center.