More to the Water Treatment Plant No. 4 Story

Dear Editor,
    Thank you to Nora Ankrum for her excellent overview of the financial and environmental mess that Austin Water is putting us in [“Water Fall,” News, June 17].
    There is yet more to the story that deserves attention. At the top of the list is Austin Water spokesman Daryl Slusher’s absurd claims that “the utility would be in the same financial bind with or without WTP4” and that “the plant's monthly impact on the average residential bill is only 53 cents.” With an up front cost already north of $600 million, more than $1 billion counting interest, with construction cost overruns already piling up, and throwing in operation and maintenance costs of a third plant, WTP4 will cost residential ratepayers an order of magnitude more than Slusher admits.
    What is the same with or without Austin Water’s Keystone Kops conservation program – documented in Paul Robbins “Read It and Leak” report – is a rapid shift to water efficiency by both residents and businesses seeking to avoid Austin Water’s skyrocketing water rates and to live and do business with a smaller footprint on our region’s limited water resources. Blaming most of WTP4's real rate impact on "lost revenues" due to conservation is no different than blaming rape on the victim.
    WTP4 robs funding from work needed to address our real water problems: replacing old, failing pipes; providing reliable backup power to pump stations; and the only thing that will protect our economy from a “new normal” of persistent drought conditions – investing in conservation and reuse. Now is the time to stop throwing good money after bad.