City Council Approves Water Conservation Plans in Austin, For Now

As anticipated, the City Council gave their backing to new updates on Water Conservation and Drought Contingency plans at its Thursday meeting. Despite significant dissatisfaction from key stakeholders stating that the plans don’t do enough to conserve water, the plans were unanimously forwarded to the state.

The Approved Conservation and Contingency Plans

The approved plans look into the regulations of how water consumers in Austin use water. The conservation plan sets a benchmark for the consumption and conservation of water in the city on an annual basis. Meanwhile, the drought contingency plan becomes active during periods of drought, setting down regulations on drought stages, emergencies, and limitations on water use. The Council unanimously ratified the plans, preceding a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality deadline this month.

The Conversation isn’t Over Yet

However, Anna Bryan-Borja, Austin Water’s assistant director of business services, clarified at Tuesday’s session that the approved plans were “not the end of the story.” She informed the Council that the water utility was in talks with the Water Forward Task Force and was prepping to update that plan during the summer.

“Updates to the water conservation plan go hand in hand with updates to the Water Forward plan. So we want to bring them back to Council in November,” Bryan-Borja stated, adding, “Council will have the opportunity to adopt those updated plans and we will resubmit them to the state.”

Austin Water’s Affirmation on Water Conservation

In Thursday’s meeting, Austin Water Director Shay Ralls Roalson confirmed that the utility is committed to water conservation as a foundational principle. She reaffirmed the plan’s revision timeline, saying, “We’re committed to engagement and we will revise those plans alongside the Water Forward 2024 Plan. We look forward to working with all of our stakeholders to make those plans as robust as they can be.”

Concerns from Stakeholders

Bill Bunch, the Director of Save Our Springs Alliance, pushed for returning the plans to the Integrated Water Resource Planning Community Task Force for further assessment and feedback, as they declined to endorse the plan last month. He voiced concern that no one was allowed sufficient time to review the new drafts of plans and pointed out that only Council members Alison Alter and Ryan Alter confirmed having read them.

Future Challenges

“Y’all are sleepwalking through a crisis,” Bunch exclaimed, pointing to the lack of dissent, discussion, or questions on a plan that he believes “literally goes backwards on our conservation growth for the first time since, literally, the 1980s.” Bunch stressed that it was essential to set conservation goals that would keep the use of the Highland Lakes sustainable and steady, especially given the weather forecasts that predict a La Niña weather pattern that would be hotter and drier.

He warned that if these measures are not taken, Austin might be facing a repeat of the record drought from the 1950s in a few months’ time. The approved plans, while contested by some, represent a crucial step in managing Austin’s water usage and conservation in the face of increasing drought periods. The conversation is expected to continue in the months to come as the Council, Austin Water, and stakeholders collaborate to revise and update these crucial water conservation plans.

This story is an essential follow-up to the future of water management and conservation strategies in Austin City, and the debate around their effectiveness. All stakeholders awaiting further developments as amendments to the current plans are anticipated later this year.