WHY WE SHOULD BUILD A NEW WATER TREATMENT PLANT – NOW!

By Andy Martinez, President/CEO of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Once again, the City of Austin has been asked to verify their plans to build a new water treatment plant that draws water from Lake Travis.  Known as “Water Treatment Plant No. 4,” this plant has been the cause of recent controversy at Austin’s city hall.  On behalf of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, we ask our city leaders to look at the facts surrounding our future water needs, consider our local economic situation and view this as a needed project at an opportune time. 

Not building the plant at this time would be a missed opportunity and a waste of our tax payer dollars.  The City Council has taken up the matter of whether and how to move forward on this plant over 10 times.  $42.9 million has been spent on two different locations to site the plant and $69 million in other costs – including the engineering to design the plant. 

As an organization devoted to a city we all love and mindful of the need to plan appropriately, the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce strongly supports moving forward with the plans to build Water Treatment Plant No. 4.  We ask the individuals, who care just as much for our city, but believe we should postpone construction and focus instead only on conservation, to consider the opinion of the city’s expert  engineers.  These professionals have stated clearly that we cannot conserve our way out of building another treatment plant. 

We also strongly advocate for more stringent conservation efforts and would support public awareness campaigns to help to increase conservation and remind us of how precious water resources are.  This last summer was another jarring reminder – but we shouldn’t need a drought to focus the community on our responsibility to protect the limited water resources in the region.

Finally, this water treatment plant is a shovel ready, local stimulus project.  The City of Austin staff estimates that over 3,800 jobs will be created over the life of this project.  Additionally, the projects generated may be the difference between area small businesses failing or making it through a tough recessionary period.  Let’s finish our investment, plan for our future and get hundreds of businesses to work building this plant while planning for our long term water needs.

Source:Water Treatment Plant #4 op-ed piece appeared in the Austin American Statesman on October 22, 2009. By Andy Martinez