The Southwest Florida Water Management District has extendedthe 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 increase temporarily withdrawals from the Peace River to store additional water in the reservoir and ASR wellfields.
The authority’s service area includes the City of North Port as well as portions of 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 Oct. 28, the Authority has been able to store an additional 732 million gallons of water since the emergency order was issued on Aug. 13. The Authority now has 1.1 billion gallons of water in storage.
However, 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 These modifications increase the maximum amount of water withdrawn from the Peace River from 10 percent of the average daily flow, as read at the Peace River gauge near Arcadia for the previous day, to 14 percent of the combined average daily flow as measured at the Arcadia, Horse Creek and Joshua Creek gauges for the previous day. The Authority is only allowed to withdraw this water when the previous day’s combined daily flow is at least 90 cubic feet per second (cfs.)
If the previous day’s combined flow should go above 330 cfs, the temporary permit modifications would allow the Authority to withdraw 46.2 cfs (14 percent of 330 cfs) plus 21 percent of flow above 330 cfs. For example, if the previous day’s combined daily flow was 500 cfs, the Authority could withdraw 81.9 cfs.
The emergency order is consistent with the proposed minimum flow for the Lower Peace River, which was recently released to a scientific review panel for comment.
This is the second time the District has extended and modified the water shortage emergency order. The first extension was issued on Aug. 29 and was scheduled to expire on Oct. 31. The order is now scheduled to expire on April 19, 2008 unless it is rescinded or extended by District’s Governing Board or executive director.