The one-in-one-hundred year drought event of 2000/2001 in Florida created enormous
challenges for utilities in southwest Florida that rely on surface water as their primary
source of supply. The protracted drought of 2007 was even more severe and has focused
attention on a need for creative water management practices. The Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) designated 5,100
square miles in eight counties within its jurisdiction as the Southern Water Use Caution
Area. This designation caused the water management rules to be modified with very
restrictive water use permitting criteria. One long term goal is to reduce the region's
dependency on groundwater and halt saltwater intrusion along the coast. Conjunctive use or the "right source at the right time" was born out of the need for
increased resource management and supply reliability. Specifically, utilities relying
solely on surface water as the primary source are developing groundwater sources to
supplement supply and utilities relying on the traditional groundwater are evaluating the
feasibility of developing alternative sources such as surface water sources or expansion of
reclaimed water to reduce dependence upon groundwater use. Groundwater sources under the concept of conjunctive use are not meant to meet 100%
of the daily demand and vice-versa with surface water, rather each source is developed as
a supplemental source to improve the reliability of a utility during drought periods. Use
of diverse sources improves the reliability of a utility's ability to meet demands under
varying hydrologic conditions.
This paper examines how one regional utility adopted a conjunctive water use approach
to meet the regional demands under challenging hydrologic and regulatory conditions
through the use of a groundwater and an additional surface water source from two local
utilities in the area. Includes tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 4.4 MB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 38 |
| Published : | 11/01/2008 |
