This city’s plan to build a $508 million water treatment plant to meet future supply demands was the subject of what local newspaper the Austin American-Statesman referred to as an “unusual public meeting” that was “part debate, part education forum, part political theater.”

The September 17 meeting, held in a debate format, attracted more than 450 people, all of whom served only as an audience during the three-hour event at the Palmer Events Center in which four water utility officials and a consultant argued in favor of the plant while five environmental activists spoke against it, the Austin American-Statesman reported September 17 in its “City Beat” blog and a September 18 article.

The utility’s plan calls for building the plant on Lake Travis, with construction beginning next spring.

Environmental activists have argued that the plant is not necessary, saying that despite the city’s population growth, water consumption has declined. They have said that increased conservation is key to meeting future water demands. They also put the plant’s price tag closer to $1 billion, and are arguing that that is too steep a financial burden to ask rate payers to carry.

“We have alternated between drought and flood conditions” over the past decade, said Steve Coonan, an engineer consulting with the city on planning the treatment plant, said that the data the activist groups were using to determine water usage was flawed and “to stake the city’s future on it is not good.”

The City Council scheduled in October to vote on preliminary site preparation for the project, and a final vote on the project is expected in the spring, the American-Statesman reported.