AUSTIN, Texas —
As several water-related bills make their way through the legislative process, Texas water managers are bracing for another scorching summer, adding stress to the state’s already strained water supplies.
Population growth and water loss from outdated water systems are also keep depleting what we have.
The KVUE Defenders continue to track how Central Texas communities address these challenges. Some have turned to water reuse strategies, using treated wastewater for irrigation and perhaps even drinking water.
The University of Texas at Austin is the latest to expand its reclaimed water use by building the UT WaterHub – a project accelerated by the winter storm of 2021, which caused the worst power outage in state history and left millions without electricity, in freezing temperatures, for days. More than 245 people died.
At the UT campus, the lights stayed on, thanks to the Carl J. Eckhardt Combined Heat and Power Plant, one of the largest microgrids in the country.
The plant produces 100% of the campus’ electricity, heating and cooling, and can generate 138 megawatts. The state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), estimates one megawatt can power about 250 homes.
A microgrid is a self-sufficient energy system that can operate independently from the main power grid. But Ryan Thompson, the director of Utilities Operations for UT’s Utilities and Energy Management, said the 2021 storm was a close call.
How close?
“About 15 minutes,” Thompson said.
Fifteen minutes from a campus-wide blackout.
The problem? Not power or gas.
“We were running out of water, just like the rest of the city. They used more water in that February than they did the entire year before,” Thompson said.
No water means no water pressure. Thompson said he couldn’t fill up the cooling towers needed for the gas turbines to work.
UT was 15 minutes away from the gas turbines overheating and shutting down, leading to an electrical failure. But luckily –
“We found a leak on campus in one of the water lines 2.5-inch pipe. As soon as they patched it, the pressure started coming back up,” Thompson said.
Once the UT WaterHub is completed, running out of water will no longer be an issue.
“The WaterHub provides us a level of resiliency because now I have a constant source of water for these power plants here, regardless of how the city’s infrastructure is,” Thompson said.
The UT WaterHub is a wastewater treatment facility. It would take sewer water from all over campus and treat it before pumping it to the cooling towers – using reclaimed water instead of drinking water.
“It will replace about 40% of the water volume that we purchase every year,” Thompson said.
Thompson said 40% equals about 260 million gallons of drinking water a year. That’s enough water to fill up about 530 Olympic-sized pools.
“We know that it’s going to be there, regardless of Winter Storm Yuri Part 2,” Thompson said.
Construction is expected to start at the end of 2025, replacing a dozen parking spots near the engineering district. The facility is expected to be completed in 2026.
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About 20 miles north of UT, the city of Pflugerville is also expanding its reclaimed water use, or wastewater treated for non-drinking purposes.
“The cheapest water is the water you already have,” Brandon Pritchett said.
Pritchett is Pflugerville’s Utility Director. He said it only makes sense to use more reclaimed water as the city keeps growing.
“It both saves the city a lot of money …[and] really conserves our potable water supplies,” Pritchett said.
Potable water is drinking water.
Pflugerville projects its population to reach between 82,000 and 92,000 in 2025. By 2030, the city projects that number could jump to as high as 129,000.
Design plans are underway to build a reclaimed waterline to the 1849 Park. If all goes according to plan, construction will start on that pipeline in 2026, with completion by the end of the year.
The 1849 Park is Pflugerville’s largest community park and sports complex and uses up to half a million gallons of drinking water a day for irrigation. The park is also undergoing expansion and is expected to double its footprint.
“Which means, obviously, more irrigated space,” Pritchett said.
Pritchett said the city’s reclaimed water master plan includes expanding that system in the future to the Weiss Lane area, about 1.7 miles from the 1849 Park.
“We are able to get more HOA customers, school district customers, a lot of high-use irrigation customers,” Pritchett said.
But Pflugerville city leaders are taking conservation one step further. Pritchett said they’ve already studied using treated wastewater for drinking water.
“So, direct potable reuse means we are taking the treated wastewater … and return[ing] it back to be retreated as a potable water source,” Pritchett said.
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Liberty Hill is also turning to direct potable reuse to tackle its rapid population growth.
The booming city in Williamson County went from 3,646 people in 2020 to a projected population of 13,527 in 2025.
“It’s not a question of if direct potable reuse or other forms of water reuse become the norm in Central Texas, it’s a matter of when,” Jeremy Mazur said.
Mazur is a water expert with Texas 2036, a nonpartisan public policy think tank. He said water reuse will have to play a bigger role as the state faces water shortages due to deteriorating drinking and wastewater systems, ongoing drought conditions and growth.
But public perception is an issue.
“It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around it, but once it goes down the sink, the treatment technology is there to clean it up again and reuse it,” Mazur said.
Other Central Texas communities with planned direct potable reuse projects include Buda, Llano, the West Travis County Public Utility Agency and San Marcos.
State data also shows an increase in water reuse strategies.
In 2020, indirect reuse, other direct use and direct potable reuse made up 116,425-acre feet of water. One acre-foot is enough water to cover a football field about one foot deep.
By 2070, use of all three reuse strategies increased to 1,105,465 acre-feet.
“They’re going to have to do something,” Thompson said.
Back on the UT campus, Thompson said they’re also looking into direct potable reuse because, like the rest of Texas, the Forty Acres keeps growing. The campus is expected to add another 6.5 million square feet in the next 20 to 30 years.
“Water is not… getting more prevalent here,” Thompson said. “It’s becoming more scarce.”