What was your last monthly water bill?

Less than Samsung’s. The electronic chip manufacturer pays roughly $700,000 a month for its water, according to David Schneider, director of facilities at Samsung.

He cited the figure during a tour of upper Colorado River sites hosted by the Colorado River Alliance, a nonprofit that undertakes river education and cleanup projects.

The bill is so high because, put simply, Samsung uses an enormous amount of water. The plant, which needs the water for its manufacturing processes, including the rinsing of chips with ultra-pure water, uses four million gallons of water a day.

For the sake of comparison: The average Austin household consumes about 78,000 gallons of water in a year.

So that means that one facility consumes enough water in a single day as nearly 20,000 homes.

Thus, the bill amount.

"Austin Water Utility is fantastic in terms of reliability," Schneider said. "Cost is a challenge."

(Over the last 3 years, combined rate increases have been 6.2 percent in 2013; five percent in 2014; and 8.2 percent in 2015, according to Austin Water Utility, or close to 20 percent in the last 3 years.)

The 2.3 million square-foot plant employs more than 5,000 people, including 2,500 full-time Samsung employees, Schneider said.

He said the unit’s monthly electric bills are far less than comparable units in South Korea, where Samsung is based, given the high costs of natural gas in that country. But the water bill is seven times what the Korean plants pay.

Right now, Samsung recycles about 40 percent of its water; designs for new portions of the plant have a 90 percent recycling rate.

Given the high water bill — Schneider says rates have increased ten to 20 percent the last couple of years — a high recycling rate would have implications for Austin Water Utility revenues, just as successful conservation has. I asked Schneider whether Samsung would consider with options other than Austin Water Utility and the Colorado River for its water. He said the company was open to groundwater or other options. (Presumably, though, Samsung has rejected groundwater option for the same reason as Austin. AWU head Greg Meszaros has told the Statesman groundwater supplies from the East appear too expensive and too politically complicated, given the long-term contract Austin Water Utility has with the LCRA.)

Schneider’s discussion made real how critical water is to business planning in Central Texas. When trying to determine whether to expand, "the parent company always wants to know if there’s enough water," he said.