OCA Audit Reports

Issued: December 2006

SUMMARY

This report presents the results of our audit of the reliability of water savings projections for proposed indoor conservation strategies presented to the Council’s Water Conservation Task Force (WCTF). Also included in this report is information on the dissemination of water usage information to Utility customers.

The Audit had the following objectives:

• To provide assurance on the reliability of water savings projections for proposed indoor conservation strategies;
• To identify other Texas cities that own water utilities; and,
• To compare water usage information available to customers of the Austin Water Utility to that provided by the San Antonio Water System.

We found that the original water savings projections calculated by AWU staff were overstated in two respects. First, several of the items presented in the first estimate were not selected for follow-up by the WCTF. This removal lowered the earlier projection total significantly. Second, we found errors and miscalculations on some of the projections. The latest estimated figures, as refined through November 9, 2006, are reasonable.

The process used to arrive at the calculated water savings projections would benefit from a more rigorous approach to developing information. This approach should include steps for quality assurance and better documentation.

We also found that all six major Texas cities and most of those with populations over 50,000 own their own water utilities. A list of those cities, and whether they own their own water utilities, can be found in Appendix B of the report.

Finally, while historical customer water usage information is available on a City website, it not easy to identify and access. If a customer does access it, the information is presented in a confusing manner and falls short of containing any contextual information against which customers could compare their own usage. Clear and understandable information along with comparisons to citywide and neighborhood averages could be provided on monthly billing statements but there may be a cost barrier.

We have offered five recommendations that we believe will improve quality, transparency, and availability of information provided by the Utility to decision-makers and to customers. As of the date of this report, we believe that AWU staff has made good progress toward implementing most of the recommendations as they go forward with phases II and III of their work for the WCTF.

Download the entire text of our Water Conservation I: Reliability of Water Savings Projections For Indoor Strategies (Size: 895 KB) in Adobe Acrobat. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view these files. Or request a hard copy of this audit report, No. AU07102A, by submitting this audit report request form.

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