Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Supply Strategies topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Austin Water withdraws Bastrop ASR collaboration; shifts field testing to Travis County and studies desalination and reuse
Summary
Austin Water announced it withdrew a Bastrop County ASR collaboration agreement and will not pursue field testing in Bastrop; staff plan field testing on city-owned land in eastern Travis County, to study both ASR and brackish groundwater desalination and to advance planning for indirect potable reuse and Lake Long.
Austin Water leadership told the Water Forward Implementation Task Force that a draft collaboration agreement for aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) field testing in Bastrop County was withdrawn from the City Council agenda and that field testing will not proceed in Bastrop.
"Austin Water is not pursuing field testing for ASR in Bastrop County," Director Shay Rolston said, adding that staff "worked diligently" on the collaboration but did not reach the partnership needed to move the project forward. Staff said ASR remains part of the Water Forward portfolio, but that near-term field testing will proceed on city-owned parcels in eastern Travis County (the Trinity Aquifer) so site-specific data can be gathered.
Task force members reacted strongly. One member, speaking without a name listed in the transcript, warned that local opposition in Bastrop had made the project untenable and said, "The ASR project in Bastrop County is dead. I will go to the legislature," a statement that staff disputed and that task force members debated during the meeting.
Staff also said they will study brackish groundwater desalination in parallel with ASR field testing. They reiterated the project's primary technical constraint: disposal of brine, the salty byproduct of reverse-osmosis treatment. Staff noted the strategy is costly; meeting remarks cited a plan estimate of about $2,688 per acre-foot for brackish desalination. Participants urged careful review of disposal options (deep-well injection, evaporation ponds, zero-liquid discharge and other approaches) as a critical feasibility question.
Marissa and other presenters described indirect potable reuse (IPR) planning and Lake Long work streams: staff are advancing concept reports, permitting strategies and community engagement for IPR and Lake Long. The presentation noted that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) issued a water-right amendment that allows diversion of up to 16,150 (units not specified in the transcript) from the Colorado River to store in Lake Long for municipal supply; staff said the current projection of combined storage makes emergency triggers for IPR unlikely in the immediate term.
Next steps: staff plan phase-1b field testing (drilling, sampling, laboratory analysis) for both ASR and brackish desal, to form a technical advisory group and to engage communities; city council action will be required to authorize additional funding to proceed with the revised phase-1b contract.
