Despite water being on earth for the past three billion years, we sometimes forget it's not easy getting it into our daily lives. That gigantic hurdle depends on the capacity to treat it – lots of it – to reliably meet the steadily increasing demands of our residential, industrial and agricultural sectors. Growth projections for the City of Austin predict that our population will increase by half a million people by the year 2040. More people, of course, means more water consumption.
Today, faced with an aging water treatment infrastructure, the City of Austin must reinforce its ability to reliably treat and deliver quality water to its customers. Austin currently has just two operating water treatment plants that are collectively nearly 100 years old. The Davis treatment plant was built back in the '50s, and the Ullrich treatment plant in the '60s. While the Davis and Ullrich treatment plants are meeting Austin's current water demands, the system needs a new facility to ensure sustained reliability.
Projected water demands, despite Austin's increased conservation efforts, will at some point exceed treatment and delivery capacity of the city's current infrastructure. That's why Water Treatment Plant 4, or WTP4, is the right project for the right time. It will supplement the existing water treatment capacity and allow Austin Water to make repairs and improvements to its older treatment plants without impacting service.
Another benefit is that WTP4 will draw water from Lake Travis rather than Lake Austin. This will allow the plant to rely mostly on gravity rather than electric pumps to distribute the water, thus saving an estimated 20,000 megawatt hours annually. That's enough to provide electricity to more than 2,000 homes for a year.
WTP4, located near R.M. 2222 and R.M. 620, is currently under construction. The $500-million multi-faceted project includes an intake system in Lake Travis; a raw water tunnel and pump station; a water treatment plant; and transmission mains, which are large underground pipelines connecting the plant to the Jollyville Reservoir located at U.S. 183 and McNeil Drive. The first phase of the plant is expected to be operational by 2014 and will produce 50 million gallons of water daily, the equivalent average daily use for nearly 175,000 households.
What would life be like without a new water treatment plant? Austin's current system treatment and pumping capacity would be stretched thin due to increased demands. Ultimately, a static water system would limit growth within the city and surrounding extraterritorial jurisdiction, and subject customers to tight water restrictions. Depending on growth, the utility could experience severe Stage 3 restrictions, meaning no water for swimming pools, plants or car washes. Limits on landscaping and even recreational areas could potentially be enacted.
Another possible side effect of a water system operating full-throttle could be inadequate water pressure from fire hydrants. During a recent fire at the Echelon building in Northwest Austin, the fire department needed three million gallons of water in half an hour. That amount of water would be difficult to deliver when a treatment infrastructure is strained.
Additionally, Lake Austin is the water supply for both the Davis and Ullrich water treatment plants. By drawing from Lake Travis, WTP4 will provide a redundant water supply – an added safety benefit to the community.
Because of environmental concerns, the City of Austin has designated the area east of MoPac (Loop 1) as the Desired Development Zone, or DDZ, to encourage development outside the Edward's Aquifer Recharge Zone. WTP4, in conjunction with the Jollyville Reservoir, is designed to serve the neighbors in the DDZ areas. WTP4 will also serve neighborhoods such as Harris Branch and Pioneer Crossing, along with businesses like Samsung, which will bring 500 new jobs to the area.
Austin Water, the city's water utility, has assembled a diverse, highly trained team to design, construct and operate WTP4. The team is confident this state-of-the-art facility will ensure the project's environmental and operational viability, and will help sustain Austin's current and long-term water needs.
For more information about WTP4, visit www.austinwater.org/wtp4.
