Task force reviews 2025 water-management highlights; forms working group on large-volume users
Loading...
Summary
Austin Water presented Q4 2025 Water Management Strategy highlights, reporting rebates that staff estimate saved over 30 million gallons and a drop in annual GPCD to 128; the task force agreed to form a two-meeting working group "Planning for large volume users" to review whether the Water Forward update accounts for rapidly growing high-demand customers.
Kevin Cloughey, Water Conservation Division Manager, presented highlights from the Q4 2025 Water Management Strategy Implementation report and described planned next steps and performance tracking.
Cloughey said staff completed about 1,600 irrigation inspections for new single-family homes in 2025 and that rebate programs were a five-year high, which staff estimated saved "over 30,000,000 gallons" through participation. He also reported that the systemwide gallons per capita per day (GPCD) for 2025 fell to 128, down from previous years. Staff described continuing water-loss reduction activities including zone-scan leak detection and ultrasonic meters to improve leak detection and called out an Aquifer Storage Recovery field-testing effort as separate from the conservation metrics.
During discussion members asked for more volumetric context tying quarterly metrics to the Water Forward plan's yield targets; staff said they are preparing an annual implementation summary for calendar year 2025 that will convert program activity into volumetric yields so the task force can track progress against plan targets. Staff also explained that new irrigation-system component requirements will receive warnings in April and move to full enforcement by June 6.
Members proposed a short working group to review whether the 2024 Water Forward update adequately considered recent growth among large commercial users (including data centers) and to recommend whether additional policy steps are warranted. The task force named the working group "Planning for large volume users" and volunteers included Sarah Faust, Paul DiFiore, Mallon Mathison and Lee Ann Haney, with one additional seat to be offered by email. Staff said membership must remain below a quorum.
The presentation included outreach metrics (impressions, email open rates) and a discussion about how to target outreach to audiences that can yield further water savings. Staff committed to producing the annual volumetric summary for mid-year and to follow up on requests for detailed water-loss and reclaimed-water metrics.
