{"id":5519,"date":"2012-02-03T17:01:59","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T23:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=5519"},"modified":"2012-02-03T17:04:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T23:04:36","slug":"lance-armstrong-is-off-the-hook-for-doping-but-is-he-still-thirsty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/03\/lance-armstrong-is-off-the-hook-for-doping-but-is-he-still-thirsty\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Armstrong is Off the Hook for Doping. But is He Still Thirsty?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images<\/p>

Armstrong is one of the top users of water in Austin.<\/p><\/div>\n

As you’ve probably heard by now, federal prosecutors have dropped charges of doping<\/a> against champion cyclist and Austinite Lance Armstrong.<\/p>\n

While he’s probably breathing a big sigh of relief today, is he also taking a big gulp of water?<\/p>\n

In October, we reported that Lance Armstrong is one of the top ten residential users of water in town<\/a>. He used around\u00a01.3 million gallons in the last year, according to\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0from Austin Water.\u00a0(Coincidentally, that’s the same amount a water hauler trucked out<\/a> of now-dry Spicewood Beach.)<\/p>\n

It wasn’t the first time the cyclist had been caught using too much water. In 2008, The New York Times<\/em> reported that he had used\u00a0330,000 gallons of water in one month — a month he hadn’t even been home at his\u00a0three acre, 14,475 square foot estate. \u201cI\u2019m a little shocked,\u201d he\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the paper\u00a0at the time. \u201cThere\u2019s no justification for that much water. I need to fix\u00a0this.\u201d<\/p>\n

But years later, he’s still near the top of the list of water users in the city.<\/p>\n

The data was released after local environmentalist\u00a0Paul Robbins<\/a>\u00a0made an open records request. In some cases, customers (like Armstrong) redacted their address and exact water use, but their rank on the list is public. Addresses for those who had them redacted were located through voter registration records.<\/p>\n

Here’s a map of the top 25 water users in Austin, as of October 2011:<\/p>\n