Florida residents use nearly 6.4 billion gallons of water per day, a figure swelling a pace with steady gains in population. According to One Water Florida, a coalition of government agencies, management districts and industry groups, the state will need an additional billion gallons of water a day by 2040.
Like its neighboring communities, Plant City, Florida, pumps groundwater from the Floridan Aquifer, a system spanning 100,000 square miles beneath Florida as well as parts of Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina.
Diminishing supplies makes finding other strategies essential, said Plant City utilities director Lynn Spivey. Facing a projected influx of 71,000 new residents over the next 15 years, the west-central Florida city is evaluating potable reuse as a long-term solution.
Beginning in 2023, Plant City conducted a 15-month direct potable reuse pilot that produced up to 35 gallons of potable water per minute via membrane filtration, reverse osmosis, and an ultraviolet/advanced oxidation process. The city showed this process to residents and school groups, while a local restaurateur turned 500 gallons of purified water into a pale lager called Deja Brew.
Plant City is now entering the final design phase of an advanced treatment water facility, with initial construction estimated at $100 million-$140 million. Should it move ahead, the complex will house operations, advanced treatment and a public education space.
Plant City is joined by Polk County and JEA in Jacksonville in testing potable reuse. While population growth is driving the shift, Spivey emphasized that improved resource management is an equally critical motivation.
“Let’s make sure we’re not taxing our aquifer,” said Spivey. “With advanced treatment, we can purify water back to its original state. We don’t need to see this water as an effluent disposal item, as it is a valuable resource to secure generational water security.”
Potable reuse could provide Plant City with 5 million gallons per day with future expansions. Nor is the city a stranger to water recycling, thanks to a purple pipe system that distributes recycled water for a variety of uses.
“The purple pipe industry came in to use treated effluent for irrigation,” said Spivey. “Our wastewater treatment plant is an advanced facility that includes tertiary treatment. Taking this highly treated recycled water to a potable product is the next step to help secure water security. By having a diversified water portfolio, we are not entirely dependent on the groundwater aquifer. This is part of our strategy to be independent while we are geographically located between two water-challenged areas within our state.”
‘Generational security’
In Florida, beneficial reuse of recycled water continues to climb alongside an influx of residents - in 2023, the state used 891 million gallons of reclaimed water per day, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Potable reuse is a logical next step in Florida's water strategy, building on efforts like a statewide seawater desalination network capable of producing 296 million gallons of drinking water daily, noted Jeff Cunningham, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of South Florida Water Institute.
To ensure the sustainability of Florida’s water resources, state legislature passed Senate Bill 64, which “eliminates the discharge of effluent, reclaimed, or reuse water by surface water discharge, except for beneficial uses, by 2032.”
To ensure water safety moving forward, Florida must adopt a multi-stage treatment strategy that leverages technologies such as reverse osmosis and biologically active carbon, said Cunningham.
“The more processes you put in, the better – filters, membranes and advanced oxidation,” Cunningham said. “The more barriers you chain together, the more certain your final product is going to be free from chemical or biological risk. But those extra barriers can be pricey, and even with indirect potable reuse, people are going to be skeptical about it.”
Armed with clear regulations and a successful pilot, Spivey said that overcoming public skepticism is no longer an insurmountable barrier.
“We met those challenges, and now public perception is our last hurdle,” said Spivey. “We know we can remove everything out of this water and offer a completely safe product. Let’s talk to the public and let them know their health is our No. 1 guideline. We also have to explain that there’s an expiration date in pulling water out of Florida’s groundwater aquifer, chlorinating it and distributing it. Those days are numbered, because if we continue to overtax our aquifer, we will need advanced treatment to treat this source water.”
Spivey takes encouragement in how the public has responded, especially the brewery crowd that polished off beer crafted from purified recycled water.
“I’m vigilant about this work, because we can have a water resource plan for 100 years,” Spivey said. “We don’t have to overtax our resources while stewarding every last drop. Other communities can do this and give Florida generational water security.”
