Developing
Sustainable Water Supplies at Commercial and Industrial Sites
Bill Hoffman,
City of Austin, Texas
Abstract:
Beyond water conservation is the development of sustainable water
supplies from on-site sources. In Austin, Texas, a number of industrial
and commercial sites are doing just this. These sources of water
can include air conditioner condensate, French drain water, and
a number of variants of rainwater and stormwater collection. These
sources also include collection of clean process water that is
now being discharged as waste. Examples range from the "high-tech" electronics
industries, to universities and laboratories, to veterinary clinics
and ready-mix concrete plants. One facility reported savings in
the millions of dollars and others are able to use on-site sustainable
water sources for a third to half of process water needs and as
much as 100% of landscape irrigation needs. To encourage such development,
the City of Austin has rebates and the State of Texas now has sales
and property tax exemptions to encourage such projects. The purpose
of this presentation and paper is to:
- Describe the types of sustainable, on-site water supply projects
are possible;
- Provide specific examples in Austin, Texas;
- Provide pertinent examples from other Texas locations;
- Discuss how financial incentives are applied in Austin and
throughout Texas;
- Provide "rule-of-thumb" methods to evaluate the volumes
of water potentially available; and
- Summarize potential concurrent benefits of such water sources
as they relate to energy use and air and water pollution.
Biography:
Bill Hoffman is currently Program Coordinator
for Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) Water Conservation
Programs for the City of Austin. He has been instrumental in developing
and implementing technical assistance programs for water conservation
in Texas and has helped conduct a number of workshops to train
municipal water conservation personnel how to set up and administer
their own conservation, reuse and drought management programs.
He has lectured on the subject of ICI water conservation throughout
the United States and in Mexico and Canada.
Through his career, he has chaired the Desalinization and Water
Reuse Committee of the Electric Power Research Institute, and the
Technical Assistance and Response Committee of the Governor's Drought
Preparedness Council and was Vice-Chair of the American Water Works
Association's former Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional
Water Conservation Committee. Bill retired from the Texas Water
Development Board in January 2000 and began work for the City of
Austin's Conservation Division the same month. His last position
at the Texas Water Development Board's Office of Planning was Assistant
Director of Water Resources Planning and supervisor of water conservation,
water reuse, desalting and alternate water resources programs for
the State.
Mr. Hoffman is a past vice-president of the American Rainwater
Catchment Systems Association, one of the authors of the Texas
Guide to Rainwater Harvesting and first president of the Texas
WaterWise Council. Bill is also author and/or co-author of several
publications, guidebooks and other works on water conservation
and drought management.
Bill has over 35 years of water and related experience both in
the United States and over seas. He has a BS degree in Chemical
Engineering and an MS degree in Environmental Health Engineering,
both from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a registered
professional engineer in Texas.
Bill is a fifth generation Texan and is the second generation
in the water business.
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