Greening Austin Daily

Save Our Springs Alliance Sues to Stop Work on Water Treatment Plant that Would Draw from Lake Travis

30th July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

The Statesman had this article today, noting that the Save Our Springs Alliance has sued to stop work on a $500 million water treatment plant. The Save Our Springs Alliance claims that the city of Austin is violating federal law by building the treatment plant before conducting the required environmental studies.  Here’s an excerpt:

“They’re building the plant while they’re doing the studies,” said Bill Bunch , Save Our Springs’ executive director. “The regulations are quite clear on this: You can’t take actions that prejudice the outcome (of environmental studies), and deciding to the build the plant first prejudices the outcome.”

City officials say the water treatment plant must be built now and is necessary to ensure that Austin avoids shortages as its population grows. The fight over the plant dates back a quarter century, but in October, a split City Council gave the key approval to proceed….Since the October vote, the city has spent tens of millions of dollars on engineering and preparation of the site, which is off Bullick Hollow Road near the Oasis restaurant.

The article notes that 4 members of city council support building the plant, and 3 oppose it.

Lake Travis

photo credit