Posted: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:59 AM - 11,582 Readers

By: Marty Toohey

About 45 people, upset about city plans to tunnel a major water line under their West Austin neighborhood, urged the City Council on Thursday to reject a proposed water rate hike.

Residents spoke during a public hearing on the rates. The city is proposing to raise water and wastewater rates 5.9 percent this year for homes. Residents and environmental activists implored the council to reject the increase, in hopes that doing so would force the city to abandon the water line and the accompanying treatment plant near Lake Travis.

"Citizens are fed up with reckless government spending, and it must stop" said Eric Deal, who lives near the Spicewood Springs neighborhood, whose residents wore pink badges reading, "We're getting the shaft."

The council is not scheduled to vote on the rate increase until mid-September. But a council split on rates is emerging, as it did during debates last year over the treatment plant, which got a key 4-3 vote in October from the council.

Since then, the council has approved more than $100 million for the plant's equipment, engineering and land clearing. City engineers say it will be necessary to ensure Austin does not face water shortages as soon as 2014.

Council Members Laura Morrison and Bill Spelman have said they think rates will have to rise even higher than projected in coming years to pay for the treatment plant, and Council Member Chris Riley has raised concerns.