- Coming up on "Austin InSight," questions about how much water the Tesla Gigafactory is using.

Hint, it's a lot.

And Austin Eater shows us some of the coolest new restaurants in town.

"Austin InSight" starts now.

- [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from: Sally and James Gavin, and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - Hi there, and thanks for joining us.

I'm Laura Laughead.

The increasingly precious and scarce resource, water, is at the center of a number of local battles between industry and people.

For example, water usage at Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin surged by almost 60% from 2023 to 2025, a 200 million gallon increase, and a new chip-making factory announced last month could push that demand even higher.

Our local government reporter, Sam Stark, is here with more on this.

Sam, the city encourages residents to conserve while large industrial users are consuming more than ever.

It's kind of hard to wrap your mind around this.

- Yeah, it's a growing challenge.

I looked at Austin Water's numbers to see what companies are the largest consumers of treated water.

Since the Gigafactory opened here in 2022, the amount of water it has used has surged.

It's now the third-highest volume water user for the city's utility.

This alone was cause for concern from some environmentalists I spoke with, but the revelation of a new semiconductor plant, some of which is likely to be built near Austin, is adding to those worries.

In drought-prone Central Texas, long-term water supply is the top concern, and that concern persists as Austin continues to grow as a hub for technological advancement, like semiconductors and data centers, industries with significant water demands.

- I think water is the limiting factor of our city.

If you look over the next 10, 20, 30 years, I don't think it's energy.

We'll figure that out.

We can make more energy.

We really can't make more water.

- [Sam] Construction on Tesla's Gigafactory in eastern Travis County started in 2020.

It later opened in 2022.

While the factory is in Travis County and outside of the Austin city limits, Tesla was granted a service extension request from Austin Water, a process that, in this case, did not require city council approval.

Since Austin Water's treated water supply started flowing into the factory, data from the utility shows the Gigafactory went from using about 330 million gallons in 2023 to more than 550 million gallons in 2025.

That's almost a 60% increase in two years.

- When we get new big users on that grow dramatically in a short amount of time, that does cause a little bit more concern.

- [Sam] Since opening, the company has scaled up production, manufacturing 500,000 vehicles by last fall.

This requires a large amount of water, used to clean parts, cool equipment, and support operations across the site.

We reached out to Tesla to ask what is driving the increase in water use, whether it expects demand to rise, and what conservation measures are in place or plans to put in place.

The company did not respond.

For many monitoring Austin's future water supply, another concern is what is likely to come next: a semiconductor fabrication plant called Terafab, involving Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI.

- If the water use is as intense as it could be, I don't see that incorporated into our future planning.

So, it is a concern.

- [Sam] Musk has called it, quote, "the most epic chip-building exercise in history, by far."

Reports indicate at least part of the facility could be built near the existing Gigafactory, though Musk said on X it would require, quote, "thousands of acres and will be far bigger than everything else combined there.

Keisuke Ikehata, a water treatment expert and associate professor of civil engineering at Texas State University, said these sorts of plants require a great deal of water.

- Usually, the kind of scale North American semiconductor factories require is about as much as 1 million gallons of water per day or even more.

- [Sam] Ikehata said chip manufacturing requires extremely pure water used to clean highly sensitive components, where even the smallest impurities can cause defects.

- That is required to clean all kinds of things that they are manufacturing because the precision is super important in those semiconductors.

The tiny bit of speck of dust can cause malfunctioning of the big computer or something.

- [Sam] Ikehata acknowledged an ongoing tension in Central Texas, balancing rapid growth with the reality of a strained water supply.

- I'm very much supportive of economic growth in the region.

I'm an engineer.

I love development, but I love responsible development.

- [Sam] This is something city leaders are also grappling with.

- We want those jobs.

We want the economic activity that comes along with that, but we also have to balance whether it's environmental impacts or just other impacts they're having.

And so, how can we be good partners together?

- And Laura, city and county officials told me that they have not yet received any official applications for the new Terafab facility.

- Well, Sam, it's like that saying goes: "Whiskey's for drinking, and water is for fighting over."

We'll have to see this play out.

Thank you so much for your report.

- Thanks, Laura.

(lively music) - It's often described as the soul of the city of Austin, but historians say it's actually been a local gathering spot for thousands of years.

Constantly chilly, Barton Springs is a beloved natural treasure, but the complex history of the springs and the adjacent Barton Creek Greenbelt area, once threatened by development, is not well known.

A local filmmaker is out to change that with a new documentary called "Foreverland: The Story of the Barton Creek Greenbelt."

Take a look.

- When they went out there and they bulldozed the site for the Barton Creek Mall, everybody just shuddered and said, "Oh my God, if that keeps going, everything out here is gonna be ruined."

- The item on the agenda before you, council members... - [Narrator] As Louise worked to sway a divided city council, Beverly and her allies conferred quietly near the dais.

- The way for us to preserve this land and to make it a part of our heritage and our children's heritage is to buy it.

It is up to us what we see there.

Are we gonna see paved roads, office buildings, residences, apartment complexes, or are we gonna see a wilderness park?

- [Narrator] Four of the seven council members had to vote yes for the Barton Creek Wilderness Park to earn a place on the ballot.

(gentle music) Louise's council allies pushed the wilderness park forward, but the next challenge was already at hand.

The wilderness park would now have to compete with other city priorities in order to be included in the final bond package.

- Joining us now is Karen Kocher, the producer, director, writer, and co-editor of the documentary.

Karen, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you.

It's a pleasure.

- So for a little context, that clip we just showed is from early on in the film, and it's all about the push to get a bond issue approved by voters to purchase what was privately owned land to create the Greenbelt.

But there is so much more to the story.

Why was it important to you to make this film?

- Well, because I feel like there's so many people that go on the Greenbelt, they love it, but they don't know the history of that.

And I feel like people would appreciate it a lot more if they knew the history.

It's also interesting the parallels between what's happening in Austin now as we're gearing up for a bond election, the expansion of MoPac South.

There's so many things from this documentary that echo what's happening in Austin today.

- And I wanna talk about that theme of growth, and how the city is kind of getting in some ways too big for its britches in a second.

But first, how did this very grassroots effort of a few people become so successful?

- Well, I think a lot of it had to do with actually having someone that was like an enemy, right?

Seriously.

I mean, Jim Bob Moffett, God rest his soul.

You know, he came to Austin with his idea to create, you know, the Barton Creek Planned Unit Development.

And he was so swaggery and, you know, he said, "I know more about Barton Creek than anybody in this room."

And that really, his swagger and his audacity really created a magnet for people's energy.

- And we owe a lot to those activists for protecting the Greenbelt and going against someone like that.

These days, people tend to think of the music and the tech industry as defining our character here in Austin.

But where does protecting our natural beauty like Barton Creek fit into our overall story?

- Yes, so I'm glad you asked that question because one of the major thesis statements in our documentary is that Austin is this fun place that has music and high tech, but what truly defines Austin is its singular nature experience.

And that is... we try to show that in our documentary: what is this nature experience?

It's Barton Creek with the endangered species and the beautiful water when we get rain, and people enjoying it.

And you know, I was understanding that... the high-tech industry came here, they would take to recruit people, you know, back in the seventies, they would take people up in a helicopter and show them the Hill Country.

- Wow.

- Yes.

This is in some other interviews that I was transcribing for another project.

They were taking them on these helicopters and saying, "Come to Austin, there's these beautiful hills, water," et cetera, et cetera.

- And you know, I heard that during South By when I asked some of the leaders of South By, like, where do the celebrities, when they have some downtime during the fest, where do they like to go?

They like to go there as well.

So it really has this like national reputation as this beautiful area.

And you know, to talk about growth, going back to before, this big theme, the last few years we've grown a lot and Austinites are famously not thrilled about it in many ways, understandable.

And of course, complaining about the aforementioned growth is almost as popular as breakfast tacos, also understandable.

But what lessons then can this story teach us in regard to how to handle our city's future?

- Well, the one thing that really stands out to me about the people that worked on this Barton Creek Wilderness Park is they called it the wilderness park, even though they knew well that there's no wilderness, but you have a wilderness experience when you go there.

And so, you know, I think that they decided we don't wanna fight with the development community.

How can we collaborate?

And so the idea of purchasing the land, how can we purchase the land?

Because that way it's set aside forever.

And the title of the documentary, "Foreverland," is a bit aspirational as we see MoPac... they might expand it, and how that happens might cut into "Foreverland," into the land that people worked so hard to protect.

So I think that we have to keep on, you know, advocating.

- Indeed, and with this continued growth, what do you think is most at risk now?

- Well, I think water, right?

Everyone's become aware since we've been in a drought that water is a big, huge issue.

And especially, you know, with the data centers that are coming in, people are very worried about water.

- Indeed, and you know, this time last year we were in a record drought here in Central Texas, and the scientists that we speak to all agree, it's not a matter of if Texas runs out of water, it's a matter of when.

And it's something we're also addressing in the show talking about the Gigafactory.

So something for us all to be cognizant of going into the future.

Well, the documentary is "Foreverland: The Story of the Barton Creek Greenbelt."

For more on this, you can go to the website, livingspringsaustin.org.

Karen Kocher, thank you so much for helping us understand this important local history.

- Thank you so much.

(lively music) - When he left the US Navy in 1968, his discharge papers included a note saying he should live, quote, "on the outer fringes of society."

But musician and larger-than-life character Steven Fromholz defied that recommendation and became a huge influence on artists like Lyle Lovett, Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell, and more.

- It's written by one of my favorite human beings in the world, Steven Fromholz.

(audience cheering) - [Laura] Singer-songwriter Steven Fromholz was an unsung pioneer of Texas progressive country in the seventies, but never was a commercial success.

- Some folks worry about peaking too early, and some folks worry about peaking too late.

I just make sure I'm there on time.

- He wore many hats in his life, reinventing himself as a Rio Grande river guide in the eighties until he suffered a nearly fatal stroke in 2003.

His story is recently and uniquely told in a new documentary called "The Man with the Big Hat."

We previously spoke with the film's director, Austin Sayre.

Austin, thank you so much for being here.

- Thanks so much for having me.

- So Austin, how did you first hear about Steven's fascinating but also tragic story and get involved in the film?

We heard Lyle Lovett, who was close with Steven, contacted you directly.

- Yes, shortly after I moved to Austin, I started collecting records, and Steven's first album, which was called "Frummox," came out in 1969.

And you know, they tell you don't judge a book by its cover, but that's exactly what I did, and I was drawn into the record.

So I began to dive into, you know, who were the two men behind these songs, and I actually gravitated towards Steven.

And as I learned more about Steven, I began to find out a whole lot more.

There was a whole lot more to him than just his music.

So I would share with my wife what I learned.

And we both kind of decided there at the kitchen table one day, like, we should make a movie.

There's more here.

There's so much more to this guy than his music.

- And so did you know Lyle Lovett already?

How did he make that connection that you would be the one to tell the story?

- So, you know, when I decided that I wanted to start the project, you know, we went on a first initial shoot up in Colorado.

And so I had been posting; that was the first thing that I did, was make sure that people are aware of the project.

And so after so many posts, Lyle contacted me, and he was just like, "Hey, you know, if it's not too late, you know, Steven meant a great deal to me, and I would love to repay that back if there's any way.

You know, is there room for me in the movie?

Can I be in the movie?"

- Yeah!

- And so I was just like, "No, no, of course not.

Yes, Lyle, yes, you can absolutely be in the movie.

It would be an honor for you to be in the movie."

So we went and did his interview in the dead of summer, surrounded by cicadas.

So, you know, it was great.

But we had our own little personal concert there with Lyle.

So he performed the songs that he recorded of Steven's, which were the "Texas Trilogy" and then "Bears."

So yeah, it was a pretty special thing.

And Lyle has been a huge champion ever since, you know?

- And to note, you're a first-time filmmaker, and this is a tall order for anyone, but especially a first-timer.

The film features interviews with legends like Lyle Lovett, Ray Benson, Terry Lickona from our very own Austin PBS ACL team.

And it also showcases some never-before-seen footage of Willie Nelson and other Texas musicians.

I'm excited to see that.

Can you talk about the making of the film, which I think took years, right?

- Yeah, so it started in 2019.

And you know, I had to first reach out to the family, get their blessing, tell 'em who I was, tell 'em why I was doing it.

And what came with that was his former wife had this treasure trove of documents.

And I got, you know, on top of that, I got a mysterious phone call in the middle of the night one night saying all of Steven's personal archive was taken to North Texas, where he went to school before he got drafted.

And so I went to go visit that, but I first got Steven's own personal archive from his former wife, and that was just everything.

Every photo that they had taken of each other, all of his tapes, childhood photos, handwritten letters that they would write to each other back and forth while he was on the road.

So that was the big part of it, which is accumulating this massive archive of photos and letters and music that people had never heard of.

So then I went to North Texas, and then that's where I discovered like probably 40 reel-to-reels of music that nobody's ever heard, footage that nobody's ever seen of Steven rafting on the river with, you know, like Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Ann Richards.

And so yeah, it was a gold mine of an archive that, you know, was brought to my attention, that I went there multiple times to make sure that it made it into the film.

- That's incredible.

And thank God you did find it.

It kind of makes me, you know, scared to think all of this treasure trove of stuff could have just been lost to history.

And now we get to relive it.

Why do you think that Steven never achieved the level of fame in his life that maybe Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson did?

- He, you know, he kind of self-sabotaged a little bit, but then he got close many times, and I think he just kind of realized what mattered more to him.

He realized, like, his first daughter and her mother left for Alaska when she was four years old.

So he missed out on her life until she came down to live with him when she was 18.

And then his second daughter, he made a promise to him here when she was born in 1980 that he wasn't gonna miss out on that again.

So he made, you know, that decision; he promised himself that he wasn't gonna miss out on their lives anymore.

And that, you know, if that meant, you know, this commercial success was kind of gonna take a backseat, then he was okay with that, 'cause he found other ways to be successful in people's eyes, you know, and that's kind of when he met the river, and that kind of reinvigorated him again, 'cause he got to be not only a river guide, but he also got to be an entertainer, 'cause he was an entertainer first, and then he loved the river so much, he became a certified guide and EMT, and he did that... - An EMT?

- Yeah, he did that... - Wow.

- He did that until he had his stroke in '03.

But yeah, just his family meant more, and he found out what mattered to him more, and people respected him for it.

You know, like Ray Benson mentions, you know, it's just his freedom meant more to him than, you know, commercial success.

- Austin Sayre, the director of "The Man with the Big Hat," thank you so much for being with us.

Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- [Laura] We cannot wait to see the film.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- You can watch our full interview on the Austin PBS YouTube channel.

(lively music) Keeping you updated on Austin's dynamic food and restaurant scene is an important part of our coverage at "Austin InSight."

Here's some big news: "Food & Wine" magazine has just named Austin the number seven top food city in the US and the top US city for coffee.

Take that, New York and Seattle.

Here with more on what's new and noteworthy is Taylor Hannan, known to thousands online as Austin Eater.

Not to be confused with Eater Austin, Taylor has been tracking food trends in Austin for nearly 10 years.

But you may be familiar with the viral story of Taylor's car theft/dognapping incident last July.

His beloved terrier mix, Noodles, went missing, only to be found six days later after a huge outpouring of online support.

First, we are so glad Noodles is safe.

And Taylor, before we dive into our food convo, how is Noodles doing?

- Noodles is doing great.

He gets a lot of love out on the streets, and we're very grateful for how everything turned out.

So he's doing awesome.

- Okay, that is music to our ears.

And you said he actually gets recognized in the public more than you do, right?

- Yes, totally fine by me.

But yes, he gets a lot of love and some butt scratches every now and then.

- I love that.

And as a connoisseur of Austin food, we wanna ask, what stands out to you as some of the most exciting new places in town?

- Yeah, I have a handful of spots.

I just wrote a little article, austineater.com/pbs.

You can check it out.

But there's three or four spots I wanted to talk about today.

There's a spot called Broken Rice.

There's a spot called 504 ATX and Two Goose Barbecue.

- Okay, I love all of these already, but let's go into a bit more depth on some of the new places you highlighted.

You got a little bit of everything on your list, but first tell us about this place you mentioned, Broken Rice, it's Vietnamese.

What's unique about it?

- I think the dish itself, which it's named after, broken rice, is unique, at least to me.

I'm 40 years old and had never heard of it before today, or this year, I should say.

- And you know a lot of food too.

- Yes.

So broken rice is one of those classic dishes that started out kind of approachable and blue-collar working-class dish, and it's fantastic.

So people were flocking to it.

Broken rice is what it sounds like.

It's broken grains of rice, so it's a little more absorbing of the broth and flavors.

It's got a different texture, and it's really unique.

It's kind of a Vietnamese staple street food.

You gotta try it out.

- Ooh, sounds really good.

And next up, it's a food truck, 504.

And that number is very unique.

It happens to be both the area code for New Orleans and the country code for Honduras, which is fitting for the Honduran Creole cuisine they serve.

I've never heard of this.

How does this combination work?

- So Chef Grace is awesome.

She's been in town for a long time.

She's got that Honduran Creole background, which is its own thing.

New Orleans Cajun Creole is its own thing.

And this is sort of a beautiful fusion of both.

So she's got Cajun Creole staples like gumbo; she's got Honduran staples like this baleada.

It's a giant, essentially a taco on steroids.

And she's got a little bit of a mixture.

She does a boudin pastelito, which is like an empanada stuffed with some boudin.

So she's got a little bit of everything.

She's a fantastic personality, and the place is really unique to Austin's food scene.

Another place I think you gotta check out.

- Okay, my mouth is watering.

Please say less, like, I'm there.

And if you think the local barbecue scene, though, has gotten a bit highfalutin, you might wanna check out Two Goose Barbecue.

I love that name.

So tell us about Two Gooses', Two Geese, intentional scaled-down approach that I don't know, the grammar police are gonna get me for that one.

- Yes, they do get a lot of interesting comments about the grammar side of things.

- I bet.

- Two Goose is an awesome spot on Lamar downtown.

The pitmaster, Justin, was at Rollin Smoke for a long time, which is a fantastic place of its own.

That's at Chalmers.

Anyway, Justin is a weird and wild guy, and they're doing some approachable, blue-collar barbecue.

They're talking about, it's a little less hoity-toity, like you said, hoity-toity.

And they're doing some breakfast stuff, they're doing lunch, so they lean more breakfast/lunch than lunch/dinner.

And big breakfast sandwiches, big breakfast burritos, really some wild dishes that have like toast and ricotta and strawberry and Fresno peppers on the weekends.

So all sorts of fun stuff.

Really fun fusion stuff.

He plays around a lot with the barbecue.

It's not traditional barbecue, but very approachable.

And another, obviously, a recommendation I would make.

- That's what I love about Austin, is you have these staples and there's always someone that's so innovative that can take a tried-and-true classic and then add their own spin.

And it just keeps going and going.

I have to add all of these to my list.

I'm gonna hope my friends are not gonna be lame and they will come with me.

Or you know what, if you see me out there eating at these by myself, just, you know, mind your business.

Well, Taylor, you have such a tough job for sure.

Oh my gosh.

How fun is it to get to rate restaurants for a living?

- It's tough on my stomach, but it's fantastic.

It's a fun hobby, and I get to meet a lot of really cool people, which is really the best part of things.

Like, I've noticed that the great food comes from great people, and there's a lot of great people in town, so that follows with the food.

- Indeed, there are.

The food community is a family, and you know what, you need like Tums to sponsor you or like Pepto Bismol to like, send you with all of this.

But you know, it's worth it.

It's worth it at the end of the day.

For more recommendations, you can check out Austin Eater on Instagram and TikTok, and you can find the full list of new restaurants at the article you mentioned, austineater.com/pbs.

Taylor, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

(lively music) - Before we go, a big honor and a big surprise for a Central Texas kindergarten teacher.

It's been called the Oscar Award for Teachers.

The annual Milken Educator Awards go out to a few dozen teachers each year.

And this year, only one teacher in Texas won.

And at a carefully planned ceremony last week at Howard Norman Elementary School in Hutto, Olivia Joseph got the surprise of her career.

- The Milken Educator Award goes to Olivia Joseph!

(crowd cheering) - Well, initially I was like, "Oh yeah, it's definitely not gonna be me.

Like, I'm gonna stand up and I'm gonna applaud whoever gets it because they definitely deserve it."

And then I heard my name, and it took me a second, and I looked over at my teacher bestie, and she was like, "That's you!"

I'm like, "Oh, yay!"

I just always knew that I wanted students to feel loved.

And when you feel loved and you have the relationships with students, they trust you.

They learn from you.

They wanna do all the things for you.

And that's something that I've really experienced working with kindergarten.

- The Milken Educator Award includes a $25,000 prize and a trip to Washington, DC to meet with other teachers who won the award.

The award selection is a highly confidential process, and teachers cannot apply for the award.

Our congratulations to Olivia Joseph.

And lastly, we wanted to tell you about next week's "Austin InSight," a very special episode featuring an in-depth interview with rising country music star Charley Crockett.

We spoke to him about his new documentary, "A Cowboy in London," and his journey to being a 20-year overnight success.

- The first time I ever got any kind of deal in the music business, we were performing on subway cars as young, desperate men.

Weren't a band or anything, we were just people living hand to mouth on the street in our twenties.

You know, panhandling on public transit.

- Hear more from Crockett in next week's show.

And that's it for now.

Be sure to check out our stories on the Austin PBS YouTube channel or full episodes in the PBS app.

Thanks so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - [Announcer] Support for "Austin InSight" comes from: Sally and James Gavin, and also from Daniel L. Skret.

(playful music)