The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board Tuesday approved a project to reduce groundwater pumping up to 94,900 gallons per day (gpd) at a Manatee County farm.
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 FFD Land Company, Inc., is located upstream from Lake Manatee, which is a major source of drinking water for Manatee County. The existing water use permit is divided into three sections, and for this portion of the property, it authorizes an annual average groundwater withdrawal of 1,989,000 gpd for the irrigation of tomatoes.
The primary goal of the project is to reduce Upper Floridan groundwater withdrawals through the use of an integrated system that will include a weather station, evapotranspiration sensors, soil moisture sensors and an automated pump control.
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.