Austin Water reports Q1 Water Forward progress; highlights reuse incentives and large-user trends

Austin Water briefed the Water Wastewater Commission on May 20 about first-quarter progress on the Water Forward plan and about large industrial and commercial water-use trends, reuse requirements and incentive programs.

Kevin Kluge, Water Conservation Division Manager, said Q1 per-person water use was 113 gallons per person per day — roughly the same as Q1 2025 — with multifamily averaging 29 gpcd and single-family averaging 27 gpcd. He highlighted work on leak detection (17,000 feet of large-diameter pipe scanned in Q1) and five new community grants awarded to nonprofit partners to support conservation outreach. Kluge also reported the infrastructure leakage index improved to 5.16% from 5.44%.

Austin Water staff then presented service-area and development-process details. Colleen Kirk, Utility Development Services Division Manager, explained the city’s service-area/impact-fee boundary and certificates of convenience and necessity (CCNs) that define where Austin Water may provide service. She described the service extension request (SER) and subsequent site-development steps that trigger water-benchmarking and reuse reviews.

Catherine Dushinski described commercial conservation and reuse requirements under the Go Purple program, including thresholds for connecting to reclaimed mains and requirements for on-site reuse systems depending on project size and distance to reclaimed infrastructure. She outlined incentives, including performance-based “Bucks for Business” rebates, reclaimed-connection rebates and Go Purple incentives (which can pay up to $1.5 million per project) to offset on-site reuse and dual-plumbing costs.

Christina Rometo, interim assistant director of finance, summarized large-customer data and the 85-million-gallon-per-year threshold Austin Water uses to identify large-volume customers. She showed five-year usage data that lists major users, with Samsung, Travis County Water Improvement District No. 10 and the University of Texas among the largest users.

Staff recommended exploring additional measures such as water budgeting — charging higher rates above a baseline for nonresidential uses — and asking City Council to consider zoning or land-use categories for data centers to ensure reuse and planning occur early.

Commissioners asked about forecasting large-user growth and coordination with economic development, thresholds for reuse requirements for data centers, and how wastewater billing is calculated for large customers. Staff said the water-forward planning process and the service-extension request process inform long-range supply planning and that the benchmarking tool can help characterize site-specific demands. Staff also noted potential future refinements to reuse triggers (for example, volumetric thresholds rather than square footage).

The briefing closed with an invitation for commissioners to participate in upcoming public engagement and open houses related to ASR field testing and other Water Forward activities.