Res: immediately move Stage 2 to Stage 1 water restriction

[Don Zimmerman]

RESOLUTION NO._________________ (DRAFT)

WHEREAS, according to “City of Austin Drought Contingency Plan” of August, 2012, adopted by City Council Resolution 20120816-005, Table 2, Stage 1 water restrictions may be imposed when “Combined lake storage falls below 1.4 million acre-feet (MAF)”, and Stage 2 “when storage falls below 900,000 MAF”
(REF: https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/defau ... 6-2012.pdf); and

WHEREAS, according to the Drought Contingency Plan, Table 2, Stage 2 water restrictions “may be lifted when levels reach 1.1 MAF and are projected to stay above 900,000 MAF for four months”; and

WHEREAS, according to LCRA documentation, current lake levels are above 1.5 MAF, and have already been above 900,000 MAF for nearly 4 months (REF: http://hydromet.lcra.org/lakevolume/systemprofile.aspx); and

WHEREAS, after the record breaking rains of early 2015, significant landscaping vegetation was replanted or restored, and the dry summer months are now threatening to destroy that restored vegetation, which would cause significant loss to Austin constituents; and

WHEREAS, other local authorities in Round Rock, Georgetown, Pflugerville, Burnet, have already removed or eased water use restrictions; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF AUSTIN:

The City Council directs the City Manager to immediately lift Stage 2 watering restrictions and move to Stage 1, consistent with the written Drought Contingency Plan.

[Don Zimmerman]

Fellow Council Members,

I ask that you take a look at the current Drought Response regulations (Aug, 2012) and question why we are in the Stage 2 restrictions when, based on the City’s Drought Contingency Plan, we should not even be in Stage 1 restrictions.

As of Tuesday December 15, 2015, according to LCRA (http://hydromet.lcra.org/riverreport/report.aspx), there are 1,719,039 acre feet (AF) of water in Lake Buchanan and Lake Travis. The lakes are approximately 86% full, yet the Austin Water Utility is still on Stage 2 Drought Restrictions.

When the lakes are over 1.7M AF, they are in the highest status as “good” and there are “impacts” listed are “None”. http://www.lcra.org/water/water-supply/ ... hboard.pdf

The prediction through March 1, 2016 has the lakes between 75%-83% full (approximately 1.5-1.66 million AF).

According to the City of Austin’s most recent Drought Contingency Plan (https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/defau ... 6-2012.pdf), when the “combined lake storage falls below 1.4 million AF, then the City Manager may order Drought Response Stage One Regulations”.

According to Austin Water Utility’s Monday December 15, 2015 “Supply & Demand Triggers Report”, we are at less than half of the 270 million gallons a day for one day trigger point at just 124.1 million gallons.
https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/defau ... 5-2015.pdf

While I support the conservation effort, we must be consistent and stick to our guidelines. We should not force our residents to keep the Stage 2 restrictions when our guidelines say that we should not even be in Stage 1.

This type of behavior will harm us if/when we ever do get back into a severe drought. We will ask our residents to conserve water, but because we already required them to have a very low usage, it will be extremely difficult to get them to do more.

Let’s follow our guidelines and remove Drought Response Stage 1 and Stage 2 Regulations. If we need to reinstate them, we always have that option.

I'm also requesting that my August 13, 2015 Resolution be added to the next (January '16) Public Utility Committee agenda.

[Don Zimmerman]

An Austin constituent brought to our attention that AWU staff emphasized, at a recent public hearing advocating permanent Stage 2 restrictions, that under the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP, August, 2012), on Pg 5, Table 2, the "End Condition" for lifting Stage 2 and Stage 1 restrictions states the lifting is "Considered". To clarify AWU policy about when Drought Response Stages start and end, I propose the following Amendment:

BE IT RESOLVED,
In the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) of August, 2012, Table 2 on Page 5:
a). Under the column "Action", change "may order" to "shall order"
b). Under the column "End Condition", strike the word "Considered"

[Don Zimmerman]

For immediate release
February 4, 2016
Contact: Joe Petronis, Chief of Staff, City Council Member Don Zimmerman, (512) 978-2106

Subject: Austin water customers say NO to permanent Stage 2 restrictions, but AWU still hears YES.

AUSTIN — On Wednesday February 3, 2016, Austin Water Utility (AWU) had its “Public Wrap-Up Workshop on Once-per-Week Watering”. Austin City Council Member Don Zimmerman’s (District 6, Northwest Austin) office asked for a copy of the survey results, which AWU provided.

A majority of respondents (56%) disagree or strongly disagree with the statement that “I Support A Permanent One Day Per Week Schedule to Conserve the Region’s Water Supply” while only 40% said they agree or strongly agree with that statement. Even fewer supported the statement: “I Would Support Permanent, Year-Round One Day Per Week Watering Restrictions”. Over 1,700 surveys were submitted.

According to Council Member Zimmerman, “The Austin water customers have spoken. The Council should respect their requests per the city’s own survey. The City’s 2012 Drought Contingency Plan should be followed not only when putting the City into water restrictions, but also when lifting the water restrictions. The Council should make the trigger points for moving into and out of water restrictions objective by removing the word ‘Considered’.”

Zimmerman notes that on Page 5 of the AWU report, “What Have We Heard”, the bullet point “Belief that once per week is adequate and overdue”, which validates the stated “Goal” (page 4) to “Establish permanent once-per-week [Stage 2] watering restrictions”.

Zimmerman is seeking support from other Council Members and the Mayor to immediately lift the Stage 2 Restrictions.

AWU Survey Wrap-up:
http://assets.austintexas.gov/austincou ... 172417.pdf

[Don Zimmerman]

PUC Colleagues -
I want to introduce this Resolution at 17-Feb-2016 meeting:

RESOLUTION NO._________________ (DRAFT)

WHEREAS, according to “City of Austin Drought Contingency Plan” of August, 2012, adopted by City Council Resolution 20120816-005, Table 2, Stage 1 water restrictions may be imposed when “Combined lake storage falls below 1.4 million acre-feet (MAF)”, and Stage 2 “when storage falls below 900,000 MAF”
(REF: http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/defaul ... P_2012.pdf); and

WHEREAS, according to the Drought Contingency Plan, Table 2, Stage 2 water restrictions “may be lifted when levels reach 1.1 MAF and are projected to stay above 900,000 MAF for four months”; and

WHEREAS, according to LCRA documentation, current lake levels are above 1.79 MAF, and have already been above 900,000 MAF since May 2015 (REF: http://hydromet.lcra.org/lakevolume/systemprofile.aspx); and

WHEREAS, after the record breaking rains of early 2015, significant landscaping vegetation was replanted or restored, and the dry summer months are now threatening to destroy that restored vegetation, which would cause significant loss to Austin constituents; and

WHEREAS, other local authorities in Round Rock, Georgetown, Pflugerville, Burnet, have already removed or eased water use restrictions; and

WHEREAS, the during the February 3, 2016 Austin Water Utility Public Wrap-Up Workshop showed only 40% of the over 1,700 survey takers supporting making the once-per-week watering restrictions permanent; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF AUSTIN:

The City Council directs the City Manager to amend the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) of August, 2012, Table 2 on Page 5 by:
a) Changing "may order" to "shall order" under the column "Action"
b) Striking the word "Considered" under the column "End Condition".

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

The City Council directs the City Manager to immediately follow the amended Drought Contingency Plan and immediately leave Stage 2 restrictions.

[Don Zimmerman]

Dear CM Colleagues,

Over the past 3 days (from March 20-22), LCRA has released over 1.5 Billion gallons of water downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Travis was at 100% capacity on March 17, 2016 and more rain is in the forecast.

However, the City of Austin is still in Stage 2 Drought Restrictions. This is no longer about conserving water. The water is being sent downstream.

Back in August 2015, I called for the City Council to take action and direct the City Manager to immediately lift Stage 2 watering restrictions to be consistent with the 2012 Drought Contingency Plan.

Over the winter, Austin Water Utility (AWU) did an online survey in which 1,700 residents participated. Only 40% agreed with the statement that “I support a permanent one day per week schedule to conserve the region’s water support” and even fewer agreed with the statement “I would support permanent, year-round one day per week watering restrictions”.

All of this has fallen on deaf ears.

Now we are just flushing water down to the Gulf of Mexico. We have a Drought Contingency Plan for a reason and we should be following it in both the bad times as well as the good times.

Once again, I call upon my colleagues to direct the City Manager to follow the 2012 Drought Contingency Plan.

Later this year, the AWU is expected to report back on Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) that may enable the City to store large amounts of water in underground aquifers. I am interested in seeing what the feasibility and cost estimate of such a program would be. This may help us store water underground which would help diversify our water resources.

The City of Austin has “Run of the River” rights for 150,000 acre-feet a year from the Colorado River. We do not pay for this water, it is our right. Back in 1999, the City pre-paid the LCRA $100 Million for an additional 50,000 acre-feet of water per year (as long as we don’t exceed a 200,000 acre-feet averaged over 2 years) as well as reserved water rights for up to 325,000 acre-feet through 2100.

Looking back at the water diversions since 2006, the City of Austin has not even come close to using its 200,000 acre-feet. In fact, the City has left 450,000 acre-feet of water on the table. This equates to approximately 3 years’ worth of the City of Austin’s water supply.

CalYr AWU-Consumption ("Diversions") (ac-ft) - data provided by AWU
2006 - 168,040
2007 - 141,701
2008 - 170,116
2009 - 156,260
2010 - 144,971
2011 - 168,334
2012 - 151,495
2013 - 142,027
2014 - 137,444
2015 - 139,531


Let’s do the right thing and remove the watering restrictions immediately!

If the lake levels start to go down to trigger points, then we can reinstate the restrictions. Right now, it does not make sense to have LCRA continue to open the dams and send the water downstream while punishing our residents.