A project funded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board and Clearwater will make the city’s reclaimed water system more efficient, allowing more customers to connect.
The Clearwater Reclaimed Water System Meter Retrofit Project consists of retrofitting approximately 3,300 existing Clearwater reclaimed water connections with individual meters and their related equipment. Retrofitting the meters will allow the city to track reclaimed water use and more equitably charge customers based upon how much they use instead of the current practice of a “flat-rate” for unlimited use.
According to data from 2003, the average flat-rate residential reclaimed water customer in Clearwater uses approximately 969 gallons per day (gpd). The average metered reclaimed water customer in the Tampa Bay Area uses 600 gpd.
When the project is completed, the city expects to save about 369 gpd per customer, which will allow approximately 2,000 new customers to connect to Clearwater’s reclaimed water system.
This cooperatively funded project is expected to cost $1.65 million. Clearwater will receive up to $828,758 in financial assistance from the District’s Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board. The grant eligible cost of the project is only for the meters and associated equipment because Clearwater will use city staff to install the meters. According to the terms of the agreement, construction is expected to be complete by December 31, 2007.