AUSTIN, TX – City officials gathered on Nov. 6 for a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Montopolis Reclaimed Water Reservoir and Pump Station.
 
The Montopolis Reclaimed Water Reservoir can store up to 4 million gallons of reclaimed water and, along the with the pump station, will improve the delivery and reliability of Austin’s reclaimed water system. This new infrastructure will have the potential to serve numerous customers in east Austin, including the Austin Energy Control Center, Tokyo Electron, Chow Plaza, Grove Retail Center, the Mont Apartments, the Stillwater Apartments, 5900 Ben White and UT’s Montopolis Research Center.
 
Reclaimed water is highly purified effluent from Austin Water’s wastewater treatment plants. Instead of being discharged to the Colorado River, some of the purified effluent is skimmed off, or reclaimed. From there it is placed in tanks and pumped to customers through a network of purple pipes for non-potable uses such as irrigation, cooling, and manufacturing.

Austin Water currently has 141 reclaimed water customers and this number is growing. Annual use of reclaimed water ranges from 1.3 to 2 billion gallons per year.

Austin Water is planning for increased use of reclaimed water in the future. The Water Forward Plan, Austin’s 100-year water plan, anticipates that reuse water from centralized facilities such as the Montopolis Reclaimed Reservoir, community-scale, and onsite sources will meet 11 percent of our water demands by 2040 and 27 percent by 2115.

Follow Austin Water’s Instagram page to find photos from the event.
 
About Austin Water
Austin Water provides safe, reliable, high quality, sustainable and affordable water services that have met the community’s needs for over 100 years. Austin Water services over 1 million people in the Austin metropolitan area across more than 548 square miles.