The City of Austin Water department held a community meeting on Tuesday, 4/20/2010 at Concordia University to inform the community of the project plans and to take questions and input. The charts from Austin Water’s presentation are on the City’s website. You can view the proposed layout of the shaft on Old Lampasas Trail here.
Here are summary notes from the meeting:
The City of Austin Water department held a community meeting on Tuesday, 4/20/2010 at Concordia University to inform the community of the project plans and to take questions and input. The charts from Austin Water’s presentation are on the City’s website. You can view the proposed layout of the shaft on Old Lampasas Trail here.
Here are summary notes from the meeting:
Topic: New Water Plant and construction of pipe tunnel along Spicewood Springs Rd.
Meeting date: 4/20/2010
These notes were prepared by Dan Coops (with input from Eric Deal and Judit Kolicsne) and sent to Mountain e-mail distribution list: 4/21/2010
Summary info on the plan (from the perspective of someone living nearer the pipe than the water plant itself):
– Water Plant 4 would be built on Lake Travis and will transport water about 7-8 miles to the existing water tower at 183 & McNeil Rd. (and also to the existing Ridge water tower, but that transmission line would not go by our neighborhood)
– “water transmission main” = big, underground pipe
– The pipe will be underground, about 7 ft wide, and about 50-150 ft deep depending on the local topography; It will go under the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve, along (under) near Old Lampasas Rd., along (under) Spicewood Springs Rd, under the field and parking lot at Canyon Vista Middle School, and under to the existing 183 & McNeil water tower.
– During construction, there will be four shafts that will be 30-50 ft wide; They need to be this large to take boring equipment down underground and to get long pipes down underground.
– One of the planned shaft locations is in the field at the corner of Old Spicewood Springs and Old Lampasas, across the street from the folks in the Bull Creek garden homes.
– When construction is complete after 2 1/2 years, nothing would be visible above ground at the shaft locations except a cement sealing slab with an access cover to the shaft.
– During construction, there would be rock removed from these shafts that get loaded into dump trucks; There would be 2-3 trucks per hour (each direction); The boring will take place sequentially, so some fraction of time between 1 year but less than 2 1/2 years there would be trucks laboring up the Spicewood Springs hill past Canyon Vista Middle School.
– The decision to build the plant at all is a policy decision owned by City Council; The cost of the project is $500M outlay and $1.2B with financing costs included; The need for the additional water capacity is apparently a debatable topic, needed somewhere between 5-15 years from now. There is an extensive analysis presented to City Council that is posted somewhere on the web site below. Thus far the council has voted 4-3 to continue work on the project.
– Because of the elevation of Lake Travis (compared to Lake Austin where the two existing water treatment plants are now), the proposed pipeline would be very efficient (~1000 ft elevation at the treatment plant and ~900 ft elevation at the destination at 183 & McNeil).
– Various semi-convincing points were made why this is a good location, a good time, and good for the City of Austin overall.
– The Save Our Springs organization was quite vocal at the meeting; If you are concerned about the ecological impact of boring a tunnel under the Preserve, there is information and opinion available through this group.
– While it makes more sense to me to build the shaft slightly within the Balcones Preserve instead of at Old Lampasas & Old Spicewood Springs, it appears to be somewhere between not politically viable and unlawful to do so; Some of the residents of Bull Creek garden homes are certainly starting to push the point.
– The director of the Water Department made it clear that he wants this project to be successful on broad terms including the community impact and ecological impact; In so many words, he openly expressed willingness to take measures that may be needed to ensure community buy-in, including things like restricting dump truck traffic during CVMS pick-up hours or other policies that may be needed to mitigate community impact.
Observations:
– The Water department is communicating very well and seems to be taking into account all the factors that are important and then some.
– The Water department appears experienced in related piping infrastructure projects and gives a good impression of knowing what they are doing. Several other projects were cited. Not all of us were completely convinced here.
– I personally did not see any indication that the Water department is out lost in the weeds. I still do not have much opinion on this project. I don’t have information that says we are going to be parched without it so do not have reason to urge it on, nor does the construction / traffic impact seem particularly problematic for my family.
Open questions and places where community input is needed (the water dept says they will accommodate community input):
Although the presentation was convincing, there were important issues that they were unable to
address at this time, such as:
– construction on weekends or not (the community needs to speak; presumably 5 days = more months, 7 days = fewer months)
– construction hours (the community needs to speak; Is the city’s 7am to 7pm noise ordinance sufficient)
– noise near the construction site (there is a shaft for another project in Austin starting up soon where we will be invited to take a site tour)
– where will the 4th shaft site be (tip of Old Lampasas? or far side of Balcones Canyonlands Park?)
– dump trucks — safety, size of dump trucks, traffic and debris (the community needs to pose specific questions, and/or make specific requests)
– the environmental impact on Lake Travis, springs, and ground water along the line (the group Save Our Springs is going to bury the Water dept with questions so I personally don’t think we need to do more there)
– will the field be landscaped after shaft construction is complete
– where the excavation debris will be deposited (if we care…)
Next:
– The planning process is not complete; There are meetings and hearings on 5/10 at 6pm, 5/25 at 6pm, and ultimately a City Council meeting covering the topic this summer or fall.
More information:
-The presentation charts are posted on their web site (which looks like it already has a lot of information on it):
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/water/wtpfour.htm