The Southwest Florida Water Management District and Pasco County recently signed an agreement to work together on a project that will maximize the use of reclaimed water resources in the county.
The Pasco County Wet Weather Reclaimed Water Reservoir project involves constructing a reservoir on 35 acres next to the Land O’ Lakes wastewater treatment facility. The reservoir will be built to store up to 100 million gallons of reclaimed water from the facility.
Reclaimed water is wastewater that has received at least secondary treatment and is used for a beneficial purpose, such as irrigation. By offsetting demand for ground water and surface water, this alternative, non-traditional water source reduces stress on environmental systems, provides economic benefits by delaying costly water system expansions, and eliminates the need to discharge wastewater effluent to surface waters.
When complete, this reservoir will enable the county to provide 185 customers with reclaimed water during the dry season. In the past, these customers have had to use potable water for irrigation when reclaimed water was not available. The county will also be able to supply reclaimed water to an additional 926 customers. As a result, this project is expected to offset approximately 330,000 gallons of potable water per day.
Because this project is part of a regional effort to increase the use of reclaimed water, the $3.8 million project will receive $1.9 million from the District’s Water Supply and Resource Development fund, which is funded by the District’s Basin Boards and the Governing Board. The remaining will be paid for by Pasco County.
The construction phase of this project is expected to begin in the spring of 2007 and is expected to be complete within a year.