The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board Tuesday approved a project to reduce groundwater pumping up to 365,000 gallons per day (gpd) at two Manatee County farms.
The Facilitating Agricultural Resource Management Systems (FARMS) program is a cost-share reimbursement program that conserves water and protects water quality.
The FARMS project, proposed by the owner of 4-Star Tomato Long Creek Farm and Clay Gully Tree Farm, will voluntarily reduce actual water use on the 4-Star Tomato Long Creek property by 331,800 gpd as a result of implementing the FARMS project on the Clay Gully Tree Farm property. This also will reduce potential groundwater runoff into the Flatford Swamp
The Clay Gully Tree Farm will reduce groundwater withdrawals in the Floridan Aquifer by gathering surface water through tailwater recovery and rainwater harvesting. The project will reduce groundwater use on the Clay Gully Tree Farm Property by 33,200 gpd.
The project design consists of one pump station, water control structures and pipe to connect a surface water recovery reservoir to the irrigation reservoir, then a pump station, filtration, chlorination and pipe to connect the irrigation reservoir to an irrigation system that can supply water to the nursery containers.
The FARMS program is jointly funded by state appropriations, the District’s General Fund, the District’s Alafia River, Peace River and Manasota basin boards and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
A total of 3.4 million gallons per day (mgd) of ground water has been conserved through operational FARMS projects. It is anticipated that a total of 10.1 mgd of ground water will be offset once all 26 current Board-approved FARMS projects are operational. The FARMS Program is expected to reduce groundwater pumping by 40 mgd over the next 20 years.