Texas gained nearly four million people during the past decade, making it one of the fastest growing states in the nation, and all of those folks depend on clean, potable water, spurring municipalities to build new plants and upgrade to add capacity at existing facilities.
A nearly 150,000-person population growth in Williamson County, in suburban Austin, led three cities—Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander—to pursue an innovative and cost-effective approach to meeting their residents’ water needs. They teamed up to create the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority (or BCRUA) and build a new $309-million water treatment plant, with operation of phase one online by 2012.