Austin staff outline draft rules for "high-impact" water users; task force debates cooling rules and thresholds

Austin Water staff told the Waterford Task Force they were developing a customer-application process for high-impact water users in response to a July 23 council resolution. The proposed threshold cited in staff slides was 85,000,000 gallons per year; customers at or above that threshold would be required to submit water conservation plans, water benchmarking at the site-plan stage, and annual reporting. "These individualized water conservation plans would then explain what conservation measures and technologies the site would use to reduce demand," staff said, and staff said plans that failed to meet standards could be escalated to council.