City, Stakeholders Look at Water Restrictions
Continuing drought conditions strain water demand. Austin officials and business leaders want to sit down and talk about it. Photo by Reshma Kirpilani/KUT NewsAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The city of Austin is revisiting water restrictions that may go into effect next year. As the drought continues, water levels in Lakes Travis and Buchanan drop ever lower. That could mean cutting back on water usage in Austin and elsewhere. In this week’s Austin Business Journal, Cody Lyon reports that the city is working with businesses on a possible rewrite of those rules. He tells KUT’s Matt Largey that no one took into account what would happen, if stringent water restrictions are needed for a prolonged period of time.
“Level 3 was written for a situation whereby, for instance, a water treatment plant goes offline or there’s just some severe, sudden cutoff. It isn’t designed for long-term drought restrictions. What the city is now proposing is that stakeholders who have interest in water, for instance, commercial land owners and everything from hospitals to heavy water users that the city and they work together to revisit Level 3 restrictions and maybe come up with a Level 2.5.”
You can hear the complete interview by clicking on the audio player above.
To read Lyon’s article in the Austin Business Journal click here (subscription required).
Podcast: Download (3.9MB)
