Will mega-pipeline fix water problems or ruin Central Florida

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Feb 25, 2009 - 2:08:56pm

Imagine 15 or 30 years from now, turning on your kitchen faucet. A few drops dribble into the sink, then the water stops. It's gone.

That's what could happen without a large-scale plan to supply water to Central Floridians, DeLand Public Services Director Keith Riger said.

A couple of years ago, the St. Johns River Water Management District said Central Florida could not rely on the Floridan Aquifer as a source of drinking water beyond 2013.

Utilities would have to find alternatives to deep wells drilled to draw water from the aquifer far below.

Riger, along with Robert Thielhelm for the City of Mount Dora and Ray Sharp for the City of Leesburg, wrote a paper proposing a solution.

It calls for using Coquina Coast, a proposed ocean-water desalination plant off Flagler County, along with water plants proposed on the St. Johns River and the Lower Ocklawaha River. These new water sources would be connected by a vast 500-mile pipeline crisscrossing Central Florida, to take water where it's needed.

The three-city consortium will make a presentation on the project to the Water Authority of Volusia technical advisory committee at 8:30 a.m. Friday, March 27, at the WAV Conference Room at 2570 W. International Speedway Blvd. in Daytona Beach.

The authors explained the plan to the Lake County Water Alliance at a Leesburg meeting Feb. 12. Alliance members said they want more input from other elected boards before making any decision.

The water-transmission pipeline in still in the conceptual stages.

The pipeline would carry water produced at the Yankee Lake and Taylor Creek plants on the St. Johns River in Seminole County, and water drawn from the Lower Ocklawaha River, in addition to any plant built on the river at DeLand.

The overall cost? More than $1 billion, perhaps several billion. Hence the necessity to pool resources.

The system would be able to transport water from any connected source to any connected demand center. That way, if a hurricane knocked out one water plant, water could be routed in a different direction, from another plant.

Or, as the paper states, a surface-water source could be eliminated due to future political action. The pipeline would allow local governments "to avoid dependence on any given source," the paper explains.

Whose pipeline?

The pipeline, which would feature a monitoring system to detect leaks and other problems, would cross a number of political jurisdictions. There would be the question of who pays for what, such as maintenance, Riger said.

It would take a quasi-governmental entity, "something like the Expressway Authority" to run it, he said.

The pipeline authority would be empowered by the Legislature to borrow money, build and contract with local governments.

"This isn't something that would be supported by taxes. It would be supported by user fees," Riger said.

What about the environment?

"We can't kid ourselves and say there's no environmental impact," Riger said. Research and design would minimize the potential damage, he added.

To critics who say more should be done to conserve water before jumping to a plan that might have unforeseen consequences to the environment, Riger has a firm reply.

"Conservation is not enough to meet the projected needs," he said.

Riger said much more can done to conserve water, but conservation won't keep up with expected population growth.

He pointed to a University of Florida study showing DeLand's population will grow from 62,532 in 2010 to 82,000 in 2030, with water use growing from an average of 6.9 million gallons a day (mgd) in 2010 to 9.2 mgd in 2030. The pipeline system envisioned by Riger, Thielhelm and Sharp would provide 85 percent of that need.

Environmental concerns

The environmentalists are not likely to quietly accept the plan.

St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon attended the Lake County meeting.

He said he's glad the Lake County Alliance is talking about these issues in a public forum.

"I was appreciative just to have an opportunity to give our side," he said.

His side is, "The river's health is the most important thing in any of this."

Armingeon said tapping Florida's waterways and lakes will destroy natural resources by lowering the rivers' water levels and polluting it and the ocean with salt and contaminants filtered out of the water.

The water plants themselves, especially ocean-water desalination plants, are enormous energy hogs and dangerous to aquatic life. To have such plants lining Florida riverbanks or its coast would ruin the state, Armingeon said.

"The way we've been using water is over. We've got to look at water conservation," he said.

Jimmy Orth, executive director of the St. Johns Riverkeeper organization, visited Blue Springs a couple of weeks ago, Armingeon said. He noted water levels were as low as he's ever seen them.

Armingeon said utilities are running water pipes to unpopulated areas, planning for future growth – encouraging it. He believes the growth boom of a few years ago is over.

Orth agrees. He said in an e-mail to The Beacon, "There are two important things to consider: 1 – the growth projections that are being used are no longer applicable or accurate, and 2 – we have only scratched the surface with conservation."

Better planning and use of water should be addressed first, Orth said.

The debate will continue.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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