Waste water treatment plant? (Austin, Howe: house, new construction, schools)

[TMB1]

Hi,
I have been reading the forum for the last few months and learned a lot. However, not much come up in a search for waste water treatment plant, esp the one in Steiner Ranch. I wonder what kind it is (waste, industrial, or other) and what effect it would have if any to the adjacent area?
Thank you and looking forward to reading your input.

[CptnRn]

No industry to speak of in that area so it has to be residential wastewater.

Lots of information here. It is NOT run by the City of Austin. The developer probably had to put it in to support all of the housing they wanted to build there.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Stei...ient=firefox-a

Apparantly it does have an odor problem. Water district working to fix Steiner odor problem - Hill Country News: Four Points

Odor complaints started picking up last June and became worse in August. Residents, joggers and motorists would get a whiff of the bad smell when winds were from a certain direction.
“It can be a problem when the wind is from the south or southeast,” Gernes said.

The Steiner wastewater plant treats an average of 760,000 gallons of wastewater a day solely from Steiner, she said. It has a capacity of 1.5 million gallons.
Also contributing to the pungent smell is the compost facility built a year ago near the wastewater plant.

[TMB1]

Thank you, CptnRn. I wonder if it improves now or still a problem. Hopefully someone familiar with the area could chime in soon.

[owlman]

I guess I don't know what an average house wastewater usage is, but 760,000 sounds like a lot. How many homes are in Steiner? 3500ish? so over 200 sewage gal/day/house?

[Trainwreck20]

National average is around 190 gpd, I think, and Austin is a tad bit lower, iirc, so that sounds spot-on.

[owlman]

OK, that seems reasonable then. Since they're all pretty new construction, I figured they all have low-flow toilets/fixtures and would use less than the national average, but they are pretty large homes. I guess the schools and little retail in Steiner also feed that wastewater plant.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by TMB1

Thank you, CptnRn. I wonder if it improves now or still a problem. Hopefully someone familiar with the area could chime in soon.

There have been intermittent odor issues from that plant. They used to create a form of dillow dirt and the process they used for that would create odors such that if the wind was blowing from the right direction would cover portions of Steiner with this funky sewage smell. Neighbors complained and they stopped that program and things improved greatly.

The plant is right along Quinlan Park near the entrance to the UT Golf Club. As such, the odor problem is more pervasive there. Also, the subdivisions off Steiner Ranch Blvd before Quinlan have that issue as well.

[TMB1]

thank you all for your input.