The Southwest Florida Water Management District has extended the water shortage emergency order issued Aug. 13 for the Peace River/Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority’s reservoir and two Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) wellfields to help protect the drinking water supply for more than 250,000 residents.
An executive order signed Wednesday will allow the authority to continue to temporarily increase withdrawals from the Peace River to store additional water in the reservoir and ASR wellfields.
The authority’s service area includes North Port as well as Charlotte, DeSoto, Sarasota and Manatee counties (Manatee County currently does not receive water from the authority.) The Peace River is the authority’s primary source to meet the drinking water needs of its customers. During periods of high river flows, the authority typically stores untreated water in its reservoir and stores treated water in its two ASR wellfields for later treatment and use during the dry season or whenever river withdrawals are not sufficient to meet drinking water demands.
As of Aug 26, the authority has been able to store an additional 181 million gallons of water as a result of the emergency order. The authority now has 485 million gallons of water in storage.
However, the authority has estimated that its normal withdrawal schedule will result in it having only 1.1 billion gallons of water in storage by the end of the rainy season. Compared to a total storage capacity of more than 7.9 billion gallons, this is an extremely low water supply to begin the dry season. In order to help meet the public health, welfare and safety needs of its service area during the upcoming dry season, the authority needs to continue capturing as much surface water as possible.
The authority has requested the District continue taking emergency water shortage action, which will temporarily modify its existing water use permit. These modifications increase the maximum amount of water withdrawn from the Peace River from 10 percent of the average daily flow, as read at the Arcadia Station for the previous day, to 12 percent of the combined average daily flow as measured at the Arcadia Station, Horse Creek gauge and Joshua Creek gauge for the previous day. The authority has also requested to withdraw the water when the previous day’s combined daily flow at the Arcadia Station, Horse Creek gauge and Joshua Creek gauge is at 90 cubic feet per second. The emergency order is consistent with the proposed minimum flow for the Lower Peace River that will be released to a scientific review panel for comment.
Another condition of the emergency order continues to require the authority’s member governments to aggressively enforce the District’s one-day-a-week watering restrictions as well as any stricter local provisions.
The order is scheduled to expire on Oct. 31, 2007 unless it is rescinded or extended by District’s Governing Board or executive director.