AUSTIN -- A controversial and costly new water treatment plant is up and running in Northwest Austin.
Water Treatment Plant 4, located off RM 620 near Lake Travis, is one of the largest infrastructure construction projects in recent Austin history. It can pull in up to 50 million gallons of water from Lake Travis each day to be treated and used as drinking water.
It has been operating for a few months now, but Friday afternoon dozens of people gathered to celebrate the official commissioning of the plant.
"It's been a long time coming. Can everybody agree to that," said Austin Water Spokesman Jason Hill. The crowd answered with a resounding 'yes!'
The project has been contentious to say the least. Voters actually approved bonds to build the plant 30 years ago in 1984 and since then it's seen its fair share of hiccups, starting with where it was to be built when construction started in the early 2000s.
"So the original site that was selected in 1984 was the Bull Creek site over on the southeast corner of 2222 and 620," said Mayor Lee Leffingwell. "However, when the city started to work on that, we immediately discovered what a environmentally sensitive site this was."
After talking about other sites, the city decided to purchase land slated to be a shopping strip on RM 620 and use it for the plant.
In addition to location problems, there was also opposition and claims from environmental advocates that another plant was not the solution to Austin's water problem. Instead they wanted more aggressive conservation standards.
Paul Robbins is one of those people.
"This year we peaked at 184 million gallons a day of capacity. Now we will have 335 million gallons a day of capacity. Eighty-two percent capacity over what we need," Robbins said.
Now that the plant is built, he says he will continue to push for conservation.
Another issue many people had with the project was the price tag.
In 2009, the Austin City Council approved spending $359 million to construct the plant alone. An audit conducted in 2012 revealed that would not be enough money. Leaders at Austin Water went back to council to ask for $15.5 million more and noted they would have to shave $40 million dollars off their plans for the plant.
The council considered shelving the project but decided the city had already invested too much money.
Mayor Leffingwell said during the opening moving forward was a good decision that saved the city money.
"We built this plant during an economically tough time. During a recession. Which is a good time to build projects like this by the way because we could never build this plant as cheaply, in the future, we could never build it this cheaply as it was done this time," Leffingwell said.
The total cost for the plant and other facilities near it to deliver water is about $508 million. Money that Austin Water users will partially pay back on their bills.
Still, Leffingwell and other city leaders say the plant was not an option but a necessity. Austin's population is set to double over the next 25 years, which means more people will need water. Leffingwell also said there are security concerns with the city's other two plants.
"Both of our old plants, Ulrich and Davis, drew water from Lake Austin and they're right across, right across the lake from each other. They would both be subject to a single point of contamination and could knock out our entire water supply with one action," explained Leffingwell.
Plus, plants are supposed to have a life span of 50 years but Ulrich is 60 years old and the Davis plant is 45 years old. Repairs haven't been able to be made on the plants because taking one out of commission would effect the water supply. City leaders say they can now make repairs since the new plant adds to the supply.
