Selection of Overflow Control Strategies for the Austin Clean Water Program

The Austin Clean Water Program (ACWP or Program) was created in 2001 to assist the City of Austin in meeting the terms of a USEPA Administrative Order that required the City to address its overflow problems by 2009. With a database of more than two thousand defects and overflows, it was not immediately obvious how the City should proceed. The City and the Program were under significant time constraints with less than eight years available to establish a course of action and then design and build the needed improvements. This paper describes the decision making process used to identify the improvements included in the program. A flow down approach was employed to systematically identify the system deficiencies and associated remedies that were likely to accomplish the objectives of the Program. The final Program now consists of one hundred collection system rehabilitation, repair or replacement projects with a total cost of 350 million dollars.