Austin building $17.5 million line for 'reclaimed' water to UT

Pipeline is biggest of several similar projects that will eventually lower rates; recycled water to be used for cooling systems, irrigation at university

The City of Austin is planning a pipeline that will send millions of gallons of recycled water annually to the University of Texas, part of a wider conservation effort that could lead to significant water savings and eventually lower bills for many customers.

Next month, construction is set to begin on an underground pipeline down 51st and Red River streets, completing a system that will cost the city $17.5 million and send reclaimed, or partially treated, water to UT, one of the city's biggest consumers. The pipeline will also serve some neighborhoods around the university.

Instead of being discharged into Lady Bird Lake, wastewater will be partially treated at an East Austin plant and piped to UT, which plans to use it at first for water-intensive cooling systems and later for irrigation and other purposes. Treated water will continue to be used for drinking and bathing.

The "UT line" is the biggest example of a push by the city to use reclaimed water. Some lines are already in place, and the city is planning to spend $180 million on such projects over the next three decades or so. Initially, only some users, such as UT, would save on water bills, but as the system spreads to more of the city, more customers would be able to use partially treated water for lawns and pay perhaps half the rates charged for treated water, Mayor Lee Leffingwell said.

"It's a major water conservation effort," said Daryl Slusher , conservation director for the Austin Water Utility. "Long term, it's an environmentally sensitive way to conserve a finite, precious, essential resource."

In Austin, drinking water is usually used for irrigation and cooling, which don't require that level of treatment. By using reclaimed water, city officials say that by 2034, they can free up as much as 10 percent of the city's supply of drinking water to meet the demand of a growing population.

Reclaimed water comes with a price tag, however. The $180 million in so-called purple pipes — purple to help plumbers and work crews identify them — are necessary because potable water and wastewater cannot be mixed with reclaimed water.

Austin already uses reclaimed water, in accordance with a 2005 master plan . Numerous golf courses, parts of the Mueller neighborhood, Austin Energy's Sand Hill Energy Center and others collectively use about 1.9 billion gallons of reclaimed water per year, according to the city. The goal is use of upward of 5.5 billion gallons of reclaimed water citywide by 2034.

UT now reclaims water on a relatively small scale. The university uses about 800 million gallons annually, with about 50 million of that captured and reused for irrigation or cooling towers.

The university is planning to spend about $1 million , in addition to the city's $17.5 million, for the project. The pipeline will allow UT to use reclaimed water for about half its needs, eventually rising to three-quarters of its needs, said Rusty Osborne , who is coordinating the project for the university.

Calculating total savings to UT is difficult, Osborne said, because the university has numerous meters that are charged different rates, based on volume and other factors, meaning that each meter could benefit differently from reclaimed water. But in most cases, reclaimed water costs about one-tenth what UT pays for treated water, Osborne said.

"Virtually everyone agrees there isn't enough water in the state to serve everyone while people use water like they do now," Osborne said. "We need alternatives."

An advisory group the City Council assembled in 2007 agreed. The group identified reclaimed water as the second-highest conservation priority, after lawn-watering restrictions the city now has in place.

Leffingwell, who was chairman of the advisory group as a City Council member, said reclaimed water allows the city to draw less from the Highland Lakes. The city has a financial incentive to minimize its draw: the Lower Colorado River Authority will charge $15 million per year if the city pulls more than 201,000 acre-feet of water from the Highland Lakes for two consecutive years.

Austin is on pace to hit that mark between 2020 and 2025 , but that date could be pushed back with more reclaimed water projects and other new conservation measures, Austin Water Utility Director Greg Meszaros said .