By Amanda Durish Cook

amanda.durishcook@jacksonville.com

Seven years after Beaches-area elected officials publicly opposed a plan to tap freshwater from the St. Johns River, a drafted plan seeks to tap the river again to supply water to Central Florida.

A draft of the Central Florida Water Initiative water supply plan focuses on meeting future water requirements for Central Floridas growing population, and Northeast Floridas stores of freshwater are targeted.

The average amount of water needed in the area charted in the CFWI is projected to increase from 800 million gallons per day in 2010 to 1,100 million gallons per day in 2035. At this rate, central Floridas main source of water, the Floridan aquifer cannot sustain the growth. The CFWI plan determined the sustainable level is 850 million gallons per day, about 50 million gallons per day greater than the current amount being used.

Presently, 10 bodies of water in Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Polk and southern Lake counties are below their established minimum flows and levels, with another 15 water bodies predicted to fall to unsafe levels in the future.

According to the CFWI initiative, the rate of groundwater withdrawal in certain areas of the CFWI Planning Area is either rapidly approaching, or has surpassed the maximum rate that can be sustained without causing harm or adverse impacts to the water resources and related natural systems.

More than 135 potential options to source water are named in the CFWI draft plan, including options listing the St. Johns River and one of its major tributaries, the Ocklawaha River, producing an estimated 391 million gallons of water per day in additional water supply over the next 20 years. From the St. Johns River alone, a maximum 155 million gallons a day could be taken from the river, the draft suggests.

Water suppliers could choose to pursue any of these potential projects in the future, or water suppliers may identify other projects to pursue. They would still need to go through the permit review process, said Teresa Monson, public communications coordinator at the Office of Communications and Intergovernmental Affairs, in a statement on behalf of the St. Johns River Water Management District.

SJRWMD completed a four-year study in 2012 that focused on the possible consequences of withdrawing a significant amount of water from the St. Johns River. The evaluation was peer-reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences. The Water Supply Impact Study concluded approximately 150 million gallons of water per day could be withdrawn from the St. Johns River with no more than negligible or minor effects.

See original here:

St. Johns River: two sides of an issue