Why must West Volusia cut its water use, and East Volusia doesn't have to?

MAP COURTESY ST. JOHNS RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT
The Blue Spring basin — The 100 square miles or so that feeds water into Blue Spring is outlined in black on this map. Utilities inside the black line are being told they must find alternatives to underground water, and those alternatives will be very expensive.

BEACON PHOTO/AL EVERSON
Orders to find new water sources — Herky Huffman, left, listens as St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Kirby Green, right, tells officials of Volusia County and cities they must begin developing alternative water supplies. The Water Management District's mandate will hit the West Volusia localities especially hard, as they must reduce their reliance on groundwater to ensure strong flows of water into Blue Spring to provide habitat for manatees wintering there. Possible alternative water sources are the St. Johns River and the ocean, and massive capital investment will be needed to build the facilities to refine the surface water for human consumption.

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jun 7, 2009 - 11:02:02am

The political divide that once separated the eastern and western parts of Volusia County may widen again, thanks to the St. Johns River Water Management District.

To preserve the environmental health of Blue Spring, the Water Management District has told West Volusia utilities they must drastically reduce the amount of water they draw from underground, and spend millions of tax dollars to develop alternative water sources.

But East Volusia doesn't have to.

Utility managers expect the alternative water sources will cause the cost of water to rise as much as 350 percent to 700 percent.

In the worst-case scenario, an East Volusia customer would pay $50 for a month's worth of water, while his West Volusia counterpart would pay $400 a month for the same water use.

"West Volusia, we feel, is being asked to bear a disproportionate share of the cost," DeLand Public Services Director Keith Riger said.

While crippling household budgets, that vast difference in cost could kill economic development in West Volusia.

"It would put us at such a disadvantage," DeLand City Commissioner Leigh Matusick said. "If we want to try to bring any kind of business in, and our water rates are 300 percent higher, it's not going to happen."

One of West Volusia’s largest nongovernmental employers, Florida Hospital-DeLand, where 900 people work, pays an average water bill of $15,200 a month.

“That’s about $182,000 a year,” said Administrator Darryl Tol. “If what you say is true — increases of 350 to 700 percent — we’d be looking at a range of $642,000 up to $1.5 million, just for water — and that would be devastating.”

Tol said while the hospital could conserve some, much of its water use goes directly to patient care and safety.

Currently, the four major West Volusia utilities — DeLand, Deltona, Orange City and Volusia County — use about 22 million gallons of water a day from the underground aquifer.

That demand is expected to increase to 37.1 million gallons a day by 2025. By that year, however, the St. Johns River Water Management District wants the West Volusia utilities to draw only 7 million to 10 million gallons a day (mgd) from the aquifer.

The deficit of 27 million to 30 million gallons a day will have to come from somewhere else, possibly the St. Johns River or the Atlantic Ocean. Treating water from either of those sources, and piping it to West Volusia homes and businesses, will be hideously expensive.

The prospect rankles West Volusia government officials, especially since even East Volusia cities that have been allowed to drill wells in West Volusia aren't being asked to suffer the same reductions.

Ormond Beach, for example, has a municipal well field on State Road 11 north of DeLand. Ormond's consumptive-use permit, issued by the Water Management District in 2004, allows the city to increase its underground-water use from 7.39 mgd this year to 8.96 mgd in 2024.

The City of DeLand, on the other hand, which uses about 7 mgd now, is being asked to cut back by 2.6 mgd by as early as 2013, and to cut by as much as 8.2 mgd by 2038.

"The west side goes to the east side for desalinated water. The east side goes to the west side," said Volusia County Council Member Andy Kelly, who lives in DeLand. "There's something wrong with that."

The impetus for the Water Management District's demand, and the reason it affects only West Volusia cities, is Blue Spring.

At the spring, the centerpiece of Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, some 137 cubic feet of water flow up from the aquifer into the spring run every second.

The water from underground is a constant 72 degrees, and creates a warm-water haven in winter for manatees.

Feeding that underground spring is an area of about 100 square miles called the Blue Spring basin or spring shed. Those 100 square miles encompass the cities of West Volusia.

Many years ago, the St. Johns River Water Management District, recognizing the increasing effect of growth on the water supply and the environment, decided the flow at Blue Spring reflected the health of the underground aquifer.

The agency embarked on a study to determine the minimum flows that would keep manatees happy and indicate that the Blue Spring basin remained in good condition.

"If we protect the manatees, we protect all other resources," St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Kirby Green recently told a group of government officials.

The decades-long project, hailed by environmentalists and slow-growth advocates, determined minimum flows and levels for Blue Spring. It also is providing the impetus for the Water Management District's demand that West Volusia dramatically alter its water-use habits.

The Water Management District wants to increase the flow at Blue Spring to 157 cubic feet per second by 2024. To accomplish that, West Volusia will have to take a lot less water from underground.

But is it fair?

"Why West Volusia is being held accountable; that question hasn't been answered," DeLand Mayor Bob Apgar said.

"We're taking a disproportionate hit," Volusia County Deputy Manager Mary Anne Connors said.

City Manager Michael Pleus agreed Blue Spring is a treasure that belongs to all of Florida, not just Orange City and its neighbors.

"The protection of that natural resource should not be left solely to the west-side cities," Pleus said.

While water may threaten to widen the political divide between east and west, it is working to unify West Volusia.

Utility officials in DeLand, Deltona, Orange City and Volusia County governments are cooperating to study how best to supply the area's water needs, and to push back at the St. Johns River Water Management District.

The four governments have jointly commissioned a hydrological study that may challenge the Water Management District's projections of effects on Blue Spring.

The study will also help the four governments determine how far conservation measures could go in helping West Volusia reduce its demand on the aquifer.

Currently, officials think even very strict conservation would produce only about a 20-percent savings, or about 7.5 mgd.

It might be enough to allow West Volusia to postpone major expenditures on alternative water, but it's a long way from the 27 mgd savings the Water Management District wants.

Another option being explored is a plant built cooperatively by the four West Volusia utilities to treat water from the St. Johns River.

That would be an alternative to signing on with a similar plant, Yankee Lake, being built by Seminole County on Lake Monroe.

All four West Volusia governments have entertained the possibility of being partners in the Yankee Lake plant, but they now are showing signs of backing off, because of questions about cost and control.

Seminole County is asking prospective partners to make multimillion-dollar payments as early as October this year. But the St. Johns River Water Management District hasn't yet approved Yankee Lake for withdrawals large enough to supply the needs of everyone who might make those payments.

"We could pay $7 million and never get a drop of water," DeLand City Commissioner Charles Paiva observed.

Paiva and the rest of the DeLand City Commission voted unanimously June 1 not to go forward with a Yankee Lake partnership.

DeLand Mayor Apgar agreed with postponing action until the best and lowest-cost alternative can be found, and with possibly using conservation to stretch out the time frame. But Apgar warned that doing nothing is not an option.

"We can't put our heads in the sand and say that we don't have an obligation to develop alternative water supplies," the mayor said.

Herky Huffman, a Deltona Realtor who represents Volusia County on the governing board of the St. Johns River Water Management District, held out hope the obligation can involve both the east and west sides of the county.

Huffman spoke at a recent meeting of officials from Volusia County governments with officials of the Water Management District.

"It's time for this county to come together," Huffman said. "I've lived here 42 years, and it's a war between east and west. We've just got to come together and work on these alternative water supplies."

— al@beacononlinenews.com

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