Explanation of Indicator
Many communities in Florida have been forced to import their drinking water from other communities due to scarce water resources in their own areas, or they must use expensive desalinization treatment to provide it. Especially within coastal counties and areas where population is heavily concentrated, the inter-county transport of water is becoming a controversial political issue.1 As Florida’s population continues to increase by approximately 6,000 persons weekly, the demand for fresh, potable water al so increases. This will inevitably lead to more widespread and severe, and more prolonged, water shortages. Almost 80 percent of the twelve million residents in Florida live near the coast, and population growth continues to be more concentrated in coas tal areas. Near the coast, ground water supplies are limited, shallow, and vulnerable to overdraft, contamination, and saltwater intrusion.2
Florida does not have large, rapidly flowing streams to assimilate large discharges of generated wastewater. Florida’s many streams tend to be small, slow flowing, warm water bodies. They flow into lakes or coastal waters that are prone to excessive gro wth of algae and exotic aquatic plants. Florida is reliant on the high quality of its surface waters for an important tourist industry, for attracting growth and development, and for providing residents with a high quality of life. Therefore, it is impe rative that these surface waters are protected.3 To protect the quality of surface waters, wastewater treatment facilities have become more advanced and sophisticated. With limited opportunities to discharge treated wastewater into surface waters, many communities are turning to reuse of reclaimed water as an alternative method of managing wastewater. Reclaimed water is water that has undergone, at a minimum, secondary treatment and is reused after leaving the wastewater treatment facility.
Reuse will enable the state to meet the water supply and wastewater management needs of its growing population. Florida promotes reuse of reclaimed water and water conservation as major state objectives. Desalting brackish water with reverse osmosis als o can be used to supplement water supplies.
Data Characteristics
SOURCE
Information on amounts of reused treated wastewater by county can be
obtained from the Annual Reuse Report that is produced by each of the
five
water management districts. The contact for each of the water management districts is as follows:
Information on statewide water reuse broken down by facility is available in the 1990 and 1992 Reuse Inventory reports. Data are not available on the county level. These reports can be obtained from David York, Domestic Waste Section, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Twin Towers, 2600 Blair Stone Road, MS-3540, Tallahassee, Florida 32399- 2400, or at (904) 488-4524.
ACQUISITION
Data can be obtained in hard copy format at no cost.
COLLECTION
The water management districts collect data on the amount of reused treated wastewater from each facility by county within their respective districts. This information was collected for the first time for the period from October 1993 to September 1994.
The water management districts are now required to collect this information annually.
DEP collects data on the number and type of known reuse systems. This information is collected statewide and broken down by individual facilities. Appendix B of the Reuse Inventory reports shows the existing flow of reuse water by facility. To date, th is inventory was conducted in 1990 and 1992. Updates have been done on a periodic basis; however, by 1997 DEP intends to have the capability to conduct the inventory on an annual basis.
Data Limitations
Where available, DEP data were used to fill gaps in the survey responses. Limited reviews by DEP and water management district staff were used to eliminate inconsistencies and to verify questionable data. The primary limitation to these data is that the
re is not a central collection agency that has data aggregated by county. The water management districts’ data are the closest to this; however, each water management district has to provide its Annual Reuse Report and then the data would need to be aggr
egated to get coastal county totals. The water management districts only have one year of data; however, this information will now be collected annually.
Data Analysis
The coastal counties in the South Florida Water Management District (Broward, Collier, Dade, Lee, Martin, Monroe, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie) had the largest amount of water reuse; total plant flow was at 669.78 million gallons per day (mgd) for 1994. The
coastal counties in the Southwest Florida Water Management District (Charlotte, Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Levy, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Sarasota) had the second largest amount of water reuse; total plant flow was at 260.36 mgd. The coastal c
ounties in the St. Johns River Water Management District (Brevard, Duval, Flagler, Indian River, Nassau, St. Johns, and Volusia) had the third highest water reuse with a total plant flow of 159.17 mgd. The coastal counties in the Northwest Florida Water
Management District (Bay, Escambia, Franklin, Gulf, Jefferson, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Wakulla, and Walton) had the fourth highest water reuse; total plant flow was at 52.40 mgd. The coastal counties in the Suwannee River Water Management District (Dixie,
Levy, and Taylor) had the lowest amount of water reuse with a total plant flow of 1.68 mgd.
Water Management District Total Plant Flow for 1994 (mgd) South Florida 669.78 Southwest Florida 260.36 St. Johns River 159.17 Northwest Florida 52.40 Suwannee River 1.68
Recommendations
It is recommended that the Domestic Waste Section of DEP, which generated the Reuse Inventory reports, should aggregate information on existing amounts of reclaimed water by county. This would entail aggregating the existing flow (displayed in million
gallons per day) of each facility by county. These data should be compiled annually for all counties in Florida. Furthermore, DEP should coordinate its efforts with each of the water management districts that now collect reuse data annually.