Officials: 1.6 million more gallons of water a day needed in Oviedo

The hundreds of thousands of gallons of water the City of Oviedo flushes from its fire hydrants each day to keep its pipes sediment free could soon be done less frequently as the city works to increase its water supply to serve its growing population. 

Oviedo Public Works Director Bobby Wyatt told Oviedo’s Sustainability Task Force at its Oct. 25 meeting that the city will need an additional 1.6 million gallons of water per day by 2024 to serve an anticipated population of 54,000.  

The total water cap for the city is 4.6 million gallons of water per day – a cap that was set by the St. Johns River Water Management District when it issued the city’s permit in 2008 and was based on a projected 38,000 population by 2028. Wyatt said the city currently bumps right up against that cap and on dry days exceeds it. 

Wyatt said the city has stayed under the 115 gallons per capita per day (GCPD) cap on potable water, currently using 111 GCPD.

“We know based on future planned development that we have to get more water,” he said. 

The plan to reduce flushing

One of the main goals of the water conservation initiative is to reduce the amount of water being used for flushing, a practice done to ensure that sediments are removed from the city’s water distribution pipes. 

Wyatt said flushing makes up 16% of the city’s water usage and is the city’s second highest use for water. He said reducing the amount of water used for flushing could save the city tens of thousands of gallons per day. 

Wyatt said the city would need to examine the current flushing system, determine the water quality and age in order to prevent the water from breaking down residual chloramine, a type of disinfectant, and change flushing operations to save the city tens of thousands of gallons of water per day. He said those improvements will start by the end of this year. 

“That [reducing water from flushing] helps substantially on our side,” Wyatt said. “And that’s just one part of what we’re doing.”

Wyatt said the additional water saved from flushing will be used to conserve potable water, which is water that meets the state’s consumption standards, so the city has more water that meets disinfection standards. 

Pulling from the lower aquifer

In addition to reducing flushing, Wyatt said the city plans to meet future demand by using reclaimed water where possible, such as public parks and recreational sport fields, and adding to its conditional use permit by pulling water from the Lower Floridian Aquifer (LFA).

LFA water is brackish, which means it has less salt than seawater and more salt than freshwater. Wyatt said the salt would be removed from the water and mixed with the less salty Upper Floridian Aquifer (UFA) water.  

Wyatt said two LFA wells, costing $3 million each, would need to be built to hold the extra water. One of those wells is covered by American Rescue Plan Act funding.

“Right now, we are only looking at doing one well,” Wyatt said.” It would be a test well, that ultimately, we turn into a production well.”

To handle the surplus wastewater, Wyatt said that a force main would be built along Lake Hayes Road to use as needed to send water to Iron Bridge, a water pollution control facility, at an additional cost. 

“When we send water out, it’s rare, or it’s raining,” Wyatt said.  

He said this permanent solution would be used for the city’s effluent water, which is used water that comes from homes, businesses,  facilities and runoff rainwater that has been treated and discharged back to the environment. 

Wyatt said the project would begin construction in 2024, and cost $5.5 million from the city’s ARPA fund. 

What residents can do

Sustainability Task Force Committee member Connor DiMatteo asked about the city’s initiatives to encourage residents to reduce their water usage. 

“Outreach is awesome, but how are we going to make sure it’s actually reaching the people?” DiMatteo said. 

Wyatt said the city occasionally sends out fliers to residents with their water bill as part of an outreach initiative. But Committee member Desta Horner, a 30-year Oviedo resident, said she has never received the flier. 

“I don’t ever remember anyone telling me how much water to save or how to go about saving it,” she said. 

Committee member Lisa San Filippo said Oviedo residents can book a visit from the city’s Water Conservation Coordinator, Jay Stainer, who attends local events and schools and even does house calls, educating people about tools that residents can use to reduce their water usage. 

Committee member Stephen Schenck said whether residents receive information from outreach; they are already doing an excellent job with their water conservation, compared to other cities in the CFWI, such as Lake Mary and Maitland, whose daily potable water use is significantly over the cap of 115 GCPD. 

“It’s getting out there because something is working,” Schenck said. “Because I don’t think as a group of 42,000 people we all kind of go ‘You know what? I’m going to conserve today.’ I think there’s knowledge and some basic information out there.”