Monday, May 18, 2026, 9:30 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee
The Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee met on May 18, 2026, with four council members present. The committee approved minutes from April 22 and moved its next meeting from July 8 to July 15. Austin Water briefed the committee on the aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) and brackish groundwater desalination strategies from the Water Forward plan, including a pivot from the Carrizo-Wilcox to the Trinity aquifer and a planned $15 million contract amendment for field testing going to Council on May 28. The committee then received a briefing on large industrial and commercial customer water usage and conservation trends, requested by Vice Chair Ellis, which covered service extension requests, conservation and reuse requirements, large volume customer rates, and staff recommendations on water budgeting and a data center land use category. Finally, Watershed Protection presented its performance measures, and the chair asked Austin Resource Recovery staff questions about multifamily composting data from a memo briefing.
0:03 Good morning. We are gonna get things started today.
0:09 I, uh, will call this meeting of the climate water environment parks committee to order.
0:13 It is nine 30 on May the 18th.
0:18 We are in City Council chambers located at City Hall, and we have a quorum present.
0:25 Um, I guess we'll start with some public testimony.
0:28 I understand we have four speakers present, so if the clerk can please call the speakers.
0:35 Yes, sir. Uh, first we have paul dere, katie gay, sarah faus, and lastly, chioma koro.
0:50 Good morning. You May begin.
0:52 Good morning. Uh, my name is paul de fre.
0:54 I'm a local attorney, uh, speaking today in my individual capacity, but based on my experience as a
0:58 current member of the city's water forward task force appointed by Council Member Fuentes in 2023.
1:04 As you know, the task force advises Austin water staff in the development of our city's long range
1:08 water plan. We have a very collaborative relationship and I commend the staff for all that they do.
1:13 We are lucky to have such dedicated public servants in our city that said we should always be
1:18 looking for ways to improve, and sometimes we are forced into a situation where we must improve.
1:23 Our current water forward plan was crafted before the onset of what appears to be an exponential rise
1:28 in ai data centers coming to our region.
1:30 The Mayor and those of you who signed onto his message board posts from last Friday, thankfully, are
1:34 beginning to understand that our policies must be adjusted and that we should be quote unquote evaluating under
1:39 what circumstances, if any at all new large load data centers should be in Austin.
1:44 That's a good start, but many not.
1:46 But I and many others in the community would argue we need to broaden the scope of that
1:50 evaluation to include chip manufacturers and any other large volume industrial users, because the reality is that if
1:57 we choose to attract those industries and the resolution passed earlier this month would indicate that the city
2:01 wants to attract them.
2:03 We're going to need to put more guardrails around their water use than we currently have.
2:07 We have a simple supply and demand problem.
2:09 We live in a drought prone region, but have no way of denying water service to water guzzling
2:13 facilities or limiting their use at all.
2:16 It doesn't add up and it doesn't make sense to tell regular austinites that they need to conserve
2:21 water, that they should take shorter showers.
2:23 While we have no guardrails on water use from a facility like tesla, which increased its usage by
2:28 more than 200 million gallons annually in just the past two years, during which time the city was in
2:34 stage two drought. Also, under our current service extension request policy, we never say no to projects if
2:41 they happen to arbitrarily be located in a certain geographical area, no matter how much water they expect
2:46 to use. I can appreciate the staff has a robust internal review process for these requests.
2:51 But ultimately, there is no external review, no public scrutiny or transparency whatsoever, and no approval required by
2:58 this council as there should be, because if there isn't, the people of the city never have a
3:02 chance to weigh in on whether we want to extend water service to the next gigafactory that comes
3:06 to town. Our hands are tied.
3:09 That's not good planning and it's not good policy.
3:11 We need a threshold amount of water use above which major, and I only mean really major service
3:16 extension requests must go through board and commission review and receive council approval.
3:21 I've looked at staff's presentation for today, and I wanna emphasize that their recommendations are a good start.
3:26 Water budgeting with enforceable limits and a new land use category for data centers.
3:30 Those are great, but they don't go far enough, and even staff would likely admit to you that
3:33 their current requirements on water reuse could be strengthened and that the low uptake on incentives to connect
3:38 to our centralized reclaim system is not really moving the needle.
3:42 Austin should be leading the nation in water efficiency and water conservation, and we can, but we must
3:47 have the right policy tools in place to ensure that we achieve that.
3:49 Thank you. Thank you.
3:56 Good morning council members.
3:57 Thank you so much for your time today.
3:59 My name is katie gay district five, and I'm here on behalf of evergreen Austin.
4:04 As we get closer to a decision on the 2026 bond, I'm here today to speak on the
4:08 importance of land acquisition for the city of Austin.
4:11 First, I just wanna give you a little context inside our neighbors, the city of fort worth and
4:15 dallas, the good natured initiative, headed by Mayor maddie parker in fort worth.
4:19 Plans for growth with green as fort worth just became the 10th largest city in america, preserving 10,000
4:25 acres of natural open space.
4:28 The dallas greening initiative converts public right of ways into pocket parks or biodiverse areas for public usage,
4:34 helping connect people to parks in our city.
4:37 Land acquisition has not been funded in a very long time yet.
4:40 Austin has exploded in growth house bill 1526.
4:44 In 2023, stripped the city of Austin and Austin parks and rec of their recurring revenue source of parkland
4:49 dedication fees totaling around $20 million annually.
4:54 Our own poll and aprs poll presented at the last parks board meeting reveal that the citizens of
4:59 Austin absolutely think this is an issue to be solved.
5:03 Land is the basis for green infrastructure to mitigate climate change and promote a resilience city.
5:08 In the event that council does not choose to have a bond this year and decides to eliminate
5:12 much of cap and stitch, evergreen is requesting that any savings around the amount of $50 million be set
5:17 aside for land acquisition.
5:19 Specifically, land banking is also a great tool as our city continues to grow while fending restrictions from
5:25 the legislature and developer pressure.
5:28 In the event you do choose to do a bond this year, evergreen asks that you prioritize the
5:32 $250 million scenario that the parks board just approved, which has that same $50 million dedicated for land acquisition.
5:40 So I can personally attest that the freedom to roam the natural spaces in Austin.
5:44 So it has made me stay and fall in love with the city, and evergreen is committed to
5:48 working through funding options with you.
5:50 So thank you so much for your time today.
5:53 Thank you.
6:00 Good morning. Hi, my name is sarah baker faust.
6:02 I'm an environmental and water law attorney.
6:04 I'm speaking on my own behalf, but based on my experience on the water forward task force, I
6:09 was previously on the water and wastewater commission and the parks board in 2012 through 2013.
6:15 A lot of work was done in collaboration with stakeholders, staff, and council to update Austin water's financial
6:20 plan. Those policies and Austin water's diligence in the intervening years have allowed the council to enjoy a
6:28 relatively stable small rate increases, and we haven't really faced difficult hard decisions about big rate increases that
6:35 affect a family budget.
6:36 So I came today to talk about opportunities that are coming up to make sure we maintain that
6:41 stability and affordability for our existing customers and bolster innovation from our potential new corporate customers.
6:49 So on May 7th, council initiated a new economic development framework that is not yet, but has the opportunity
6:57 to be a water forward framework.
6:59 If Austin is going after big business, we need to make sure the water pieces are in place.
7:04 There's the possibility to thread a needle that will catalyze water efficiency in Austin, but it will require
7:10 creating a regulatory and incentive framework that work together.
7:14 There are many opportunities to tweak our systems to meet this moment, uh, but we need to think
7:19 about how companies in today's environment can justify investing in non-potable water use and water recycling for semiconductors,
7:27 manufacturing cooling, and every possible recycled water use there is if we give appropriate value to the ability
7:34 to access large volumes of drinking water, they will find a way to use more recycled water.
7:40 They will develop new technologies, and we can have a water efficient economy if we value our drinking
7:45 water correctly. So one opportunity is to use the service extension request process in a way that ensures
7:52 large volume water use water service is only extended after a thorough public review.
7:58 This will make using our inexpensive centralized reclaimed or developing their own water recycling systems faster, cheaper, and
8:05 more palatable, and will ensure we continue to develop our water supplies as we have meticulously planned for
8:12 in our own timeframe and at a financial cost sustainable for rate payers.
8:16 I'd love to come in and talk to each of you more in detail about this idea and
8:20 others we are developing.
8:22 Um, we've got some examples of good corporate sustainability efforts in our corporate water use profile, but I
8:28 think it's really important to think about we're in a post-november 2024 trump administration corporate sustainability environment that's
8:37 very different. A lot of the things that we thought were gonna happen with corporations in water just
8:41 are not necessary for them to do anymore.
8:44 I've experienced working with large tech companies on their water footprint reporting, and I have, you know, I
8:49 think we have some good data to work from in what directions they're heading.
8:54 So please consider championing our water supply planning and emphasizing much more, uh, water recycling in the developing
9:03 economic development framework. Thanks.
9:05 Thank you very much and we'll certainly be in touch.
9:09 Um, oh, oh yeah, sorry.
9:10 Our last speaker. Chioma koro.
9:15 Chiama koro. Alright, well, with that, uh, we'll move on to item number one, which is approval of
9:26 the minutes. Uh, from the April 22nd, 2026 meeting, I have a motion by councilman uchin, second by vice chair
9:33 Ellis. Uh, without opposition, that item is approved.
9:39 We'll move on to item number two.
9:41 This is, uh, changing our next scheduled meeting from July 8th to July 15th.
9:48 Uh, we will be in the throes of budgeting, but this will allow for us to better meet.
9:56 So, uh, it's their motion to do so.
9:58 It again, uh, by Council Member uchin sent by vice chair Ellis with that objection, that change is
10:05 approved. All right, we are now gonna move on and just, uh, for everybody's planning here, we're gonna
10:11 go to item number three, which is the aquifer storage and recovery.
10:15 Then we're gonna go to item number five and then to item number four to finish this off.
10:20 So, uh, just so everyone can plan accordingly, let's lead off with that briefing on aquifer storage and
10:28 recovery in brackish groundwater desalination.
10:30 Uh, we have director rolson here from Austin water.
10:44 Good morning chair council members, um, thank you for inviting us here today.
10:50 Uh, to brief you on the aquifer storage and recovery project, as well as, uh, brackish groundwater desalination.
10:57 Um, as you all are aware, these are, excuse me, key strategies in the water forward 2024, um,
11:06 uh, long range water supply plan.
11:08 Um, and if I didn't say it already, my name is shay rawls rolson, and I'm the director
11:12 of Austin water. Um, so we are going to give you an update on this, uh, on this
11:19 important project, uh, and our request to counsel that is coming at the end of May to proceed
11:25 with field testing for these two important water supply strategies.
11:29 So, with that, I will turn it over to, uh, marisa flores gonzalez.
11:34 Thank you. Good morning.
11:36 My name is marisa flores gonzalez, and I'm the supervisor of the water resources team at Austin water.
11:43 I'm gonna provide an update on our a sr and brackish groundwater desalination projects.
11:51 Within this update, we'll share a little bit of context and background information relating to our water forward
11:57 plan. We'll talk about the field testing that's planned to inform the next steps of these projects and
12:05 our community engagement strategy for calendar year 2026.
12:09 We'll also share next steps on this project.
12:14 As you know, water forward is austin's 100 year integrated water resource plan that was adopted by council
12:21 in November of 2024.
12:23 The plan was developed with community input as well as with the support of the water forward task