AUSTIN, Texas — Austin is in a drought and has been for a while now.
Austin Water leaders are proposing new ways to conserve water over the next decade. The state requires cities to submit water conservation plans every five years. Austin’s plan was released last week.
But some experts say the plan doesn't do enough to address the ongoing battle with drought conditions in Central Texas.
Whether we're in a drought or not, Austin Water's Water Conservation Division Manager Kevin Kluge said we are always trying to save water.
“This is even more important for us to conserve our water, as our reservoirs have been going down over the last several years,” he explained.
Austin Water tracks droughts by watching for triggers. That trigger is our reservoir levels, like at Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan.
“When it's full, it's about 2 million acre feet of water, and we are now about 42% of that,” Kluge said.
That's less than half of the water Austinites use to drink, water crops and use in businesses.
Kluge said the water conservation plans for the next five years try to help with that problem.
“There are goals for per-person water use, both total per-person water use and residential per-person water use,” he said.
Kluge said right now, each person and business uses 127 gallons per capita daily over five years.
“We hope for the next five years on average to reach 123 [gallons], so going from 127 to 123 over the next five years. The 2034 goal is 116 [gallons],” Kluge said.
He said Austin Water will ask people to switch to lawns that use less water, install fixtures that save water and use reclaimed water more.
Kluge said the plan could potentially save an additional average of 440 million gallons each year.
But some experts don’t think the plans are going to do enough during this drought.
“The lakes are low and it looks like we're going into a critical period, so there's some disappointment there," Robert Mace, vice chair of the Austin Water Forward planning task force, said.
Austin Water Forward is a group made up of members appointed by city council to help improve water plans.
Mace said people may not realize how bad the drought is, saying our last bad drought was just three years ago.
“I attribute it to drought fatigue,” Mace said. "There's a good chance that this thing could go on for another year or two, which could put us into uncharted territories."
Mace said Austin is going through a “green drought”.
“We've not done too bad with the rainfall, so everything's green, you know, gardens doing great. You know, our rainwater tanks are full. But out west, where reservoirs are, that's not been the case," Mace said. "And so, we see a pretty major rainfall deficit. We're seeing near-record low reservoir levels both in Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan. That is Austin's water supply."
Mace said he knows how hard it is to change people's mindsets with saving water, but he thinks the water conservation plans could do more.
“I don't know if there's a tremendous amount of enforcement that's happening there, and so, that's something that can be done as well – trying to reach out to some more people to let them know that things are starting to get serious with our reservoirs,” he said.
Kluge said Austin Water thinks this goal is realistic and attainable for now, and he hopes city council approves it.
“Takes some time to get moving. So we recognize that the first few years may be slower than some people want, but we’re intending to make that up as we go,” he said.
Mace said he feels frustrated that things are not moving more quickly. He said the task force has called a meeting with Austin Water for Thursday afternoon.
“I'm looking forward to the conversation on Thursday and coming up with a way that we can ensure Austin has water for today and tomorrow, and 100 years in the future,” Mace said.
The meeting will go from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the city's Permitting and Development Center.