29th Street Ballroom
Astounding Lack of Ambition
RECEIVED Thu., Dec. 5, 2024
Dear Editor,
Just read Lina Fisher's piece on the Austin Water Forward plan update ["Council Updates Austin’s 100-Year Water Forward Plan," News, Dec. 6], which listed "implementing non-potable reuse" among the strategies to meet Austin's water supply needs over the next several decades. While that article focused on what might be termed crowd participation conservation, how much supply from reuse we can attain will indeed be a critical part of the overall strategy.
My reading of the 2024 plan update is that in this arena, Austin Water has shown an astounding lack of ambition. Today I posted "Astounding in its lack of ambition" on the Waterblogue (waterblogue.com). I urge you to read the argument posed, that we have the opportunity to greatly increase the supply from wastewater reuse, and do this while saving money, by changing the infrastructure model, focusing more on project-scale and building-scale reuse systems. Instead of piping the wastewater "away," and only when it's passed through an expensive array of pipes and pumps, and issues from the treatment plant do we start to think of it as a resource. At which point, we have to build another set of pipes and pumps to get this water to where it can be used as a water supply. All very expensive, thus following that model, by Austin Water's own reckoning we would be reusing only about 12% of the total wastewater flow by 2080, after 55 years! While each project-scale system would likely attain 75-80% reuse, and building-scale systems could approach 100% reuse. So should we accept a plan that is astounding in its lack of ambition?
Just read Lina Fisher's piece on the Austin Water Forward plan update ["Council Updates Austin’s 100-Year Water Forward Plan," News, Dec. 6], which listed "implementing non-potable reuse" among the strategies to meet Austin's water supply needs over the next several decades. While that article focused on what might be termed crowd participation conservation, how much supply from reuse we can attain will indeed be a critical part of the overall strategy.
My reading of the 2024 plan update is that in this arena, Austin Water has shown an astounding lack of ambition. Today I posted "Astounding in its lack of ambition" on the Waterblogue (waterblogue.com). I urge you to read the argument posed, that we have the opportunity to greatly increase the supply from wastewater reuse, and do this while saving money, by changing the infrastructure model, focusing more on project-scale and building-scale reuse systems. Instead of piping the wastewater "away," and only when it's passed through an expensive array of pipes and pumps, and issues from the treatment plant do we start to think of it as a resource. At which point, we have to build another set of pipes and pumps to get this water to where it can be used as a water supply. All very expensive, thus following that model, by Austin Water's own reckoning we would be reusing only about 12% of the total wastewater flow by 2080, after 55 years! While each project-scale system would likely attain 75-80% reuse, and building-scale systems could approach 100% reuse. So should we accept a plan that is astounding in its lack of ambition?
David Venhuizen