Austin Water weighs water budgets and penalties for high-impact users
Austin Water Utility, Texas · Meeting date: October 14, 2026 · Published: October 15, 2026
Austin Water is proposing to subject commercial customers using more than 85 million gallons a year to a separate application process, enforceable conservation plans and potentially higher charges for use above a tailored water budget. Staff will present recommendations to a City Council committee on 9 December.
Key points
- The proposed high-impact-user threshold is 85 million gallons per year, including potable and non-potable supplies; it aligns with Austin Water's existing large-volume customer-class threshold.
- Affected new developments could be identified during the service-extension process and would submit detailed water benchmarking data and a conservation plan at site-plan stage.
- Conservation plans could include five- and 10-year measurable goals, reclaimed-water and wastewater-management measures, five-year updates, corrective-action requirements and excess-use charges or penalties.
- Austin Water said Phoenix and Tucson use comparable thresholds of roughly 90 million gallons per year for conservation-plan or sustainable-water-service requirements.
- The commission unanimously approved its consent agenda, but the large-user framework was presented as a briefing and remains under development rather than being approved at this meeting.
Full report
Austin Water is preparing a potentially far-reaching new framework for major commercial water users, proposing individual conservation plans, water budgets, annual disclosures and possible financial consequences for customers that exceed efficient-use targets.
The utility briefed the Water and Wastewater Commission on 14 October on work prompted by a 23 July City Council resolution concerning large-volume water users. Under the draft approach, a “high-impact water user” would be a commercial building, including industrial and manufacturing facilities, with historical or projected consumption above 85 million gallons per year from potable and non-potable sources.
Staff said the threshold corresponds to the existing volumetric threshold for Austin Water’s large-volume customer class. Current users at that level include manufacturing customers, including semiconductor manufacturing, and the University of Texas, according to the discussion.
For new developments, Austin Water would add expected annual water use to the service-extension request process, enabling the utility to flag potential high-impact users at an early stage. Those projects would then submit a water-benchmarking application during site-plan review, providing more detailed demand estimates and confirming whether they meet the threshold.
A qualifying development would also be required to submit a water conservation plan. Staff said plans would address additional conservation measures and technologies, reclaimed-water use for non-potable demand, and wastewater management. They would establish measurable five- and 10-year goals, expressed either as total gallons used or, for existing sites, as a percentage reduction from a historical base year.
For new developments, a plan that did not meet Austin Water standards could require City Council approval for the project to proceed through development review. The utility is also considering enforcement tools, including corrective-action plans, excess-use charges and penalties for non-compliance. Plans could be refreshed every five years to remain aligned with Austin Water’s citywide conservation plan.
The water-budget proposal would use benchmarking information and meter readings to set a reasonable volume of efficient use for each high-impact user. Customers exceeding their budget could pay higher rates. Annual reports would cover monthly water use from all sources, water leaving a site as wastewater or other discharge, cooling use, and progress against conservation-plan commitments.
Commissioners pressed staff on whether companies could avoid the regime by dividing demand among separate buildings. Staff said the utility intends to aggregate water use across buildings and phases that form a single campus, but acknowledged it is still working through how to capture demand holistically and avoid loopholes.
Austin Water said it had found few direct models for the policy. Phoenix has a threshold around 90 million gallons a year for conservation plans and sustainable-water-service applications, while Tucson uses a threshold of about 89-90 million gallons per year. Staff described Austin as being at the leading edge of this type of policy development.
The utility said it had held an open house on the proposals, attended by nearly 30 individuals and nine media outlets, with 11 paper surveys returned. Online feedback remains open through the following Sunday. Staff will take recommendations to Council’s Climate, Water, Environment and Parks Committee on 9 December, preceded by a memo. The December discussion is intended to seek policy feedback; staff said it will return later with specific code actions for Council consideration.
This summary was generated by AI based on the source document and may contain errors.
Source: Water and Wastewater Commission, Austin Water Utility