.png)
Council pushes back on aquifer project, cites impact concerns
BASTROP — City Council sent Austin Water representatives home empty-handed Oct. 14 after rejecting a proposed collaboration agreement on the utility’s aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project.
The city-owned water and wastewater utility, which serves more than a million customers in the Austin area, sought Bastrop’s partnership on field testing for the groundwater project. Council members, however, reiterated their opposition to the plan and concerns about its potential effect on local resources.
“ASR is the right thing to do, for whom? Not for Bastrop. For Austin,” Councilwoman Cynthia Meyer said. “The right thing to do is to do it in your own yard and not our yard. I have no problem with your ASR program if you keep it in Austin.”
The aquifer storage and recovery method allows excess treated drinking water to be piped underground into a storage site where it mixes with groundwater. During droughts, the utility would withdraw less water than it deposits each year to serve customers.
Austin Water Director of Water Shay Roalson said the utility plans to conduct field testing in both Travis and Bastrop counties. After studying an eight-county area, Austin Water identified a portion of the Carrizo Wilcox Aquifer a few miles south of Paige as the most suitable site.
Roalson said Austin Water would treat its water to ensure compatibility with existing groundwater and would not use eminent domain to acquire property.
“ASR is an important strategy in the state water planning process, so much so that the legislature passed a requirement that areas like ours that show significant water shortages must consider ASR,” Roalson said. “Austin’s ASR project has been included in the state water plan since 2016.”
The utility recently completed a scientific desktop study analyzing available data and is preparing for exploratory field testing, expected to take 36 to 42 months. Roalson said Austin Water wants to conduct the testing in partnership with local stakeholders and crafted a collaboration agreement in August for agencies affected by the project to sign.
“We are not asking anyone to support building this ASR project today,” Roalson said. “In fact, we do not have enough information yet to recommend that this project should be built. Today, we are simply asking to work together in partnership to do three years of testing in a lab to gather additional information. At the end of the testing, everyone will have the same data about water quality, and we will all learn more about the aquifer.”
Council members said they remained uneasy about the project’s potential impacts on farmers, water tables and private wells if Austin Water begins pumping during droughts.
Another sticking point was an anti-disparagement clause in the proposed agreement. The clause would prevent signers from taking action to block the testing before first bringing concerns to the partnership group.
“My fundamental concern with it is that it is attempting to build water security on the backs of people who won’t benefit from it,” Mayor Pro Tem John Kirkland said. “In my opinion it breaches the gray line of being immoral. I will continue to take every possible action to stop this project through the legislative process in the next legislative session — and any other opportunity I have.”
An Aust in Water spokesperson said the collaboration agreement was intended to formalize protections and benefits for the Bastrop community and create a partnership approach for the field testing phase.
“We are continuing to seek feedback from Bastrop County entities on the proposed collaboration agreement this month and will provide updates about next steps as we work through this process,” the spokesperson said. “The Austin and Bastrop communities continue to be regional partners on many issues, and especially water supply planning.”
Other ASR projects are also being considered for the Bastrop area that could affect wells in the Simsboro Aquifer, according to officials. City Manager Sylvia Carrillo- Trevino said the council will hear presentations on those proposals in future meetings.
Mayor Ishmael Harris recused himself from the Oct. 14 discussion because he is employed by Austin Water.
