Florida Congressman Daniel Webster recently visited Water Conserv II – one of the world’s largest reclaimed water projects – where Woodard & Curran has provided contract operations and maintenance services for almost 30 years.
In the 1980s, the City of Orlando and Orange County were mandated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to eliminate discharge from two large, regional water reclamation facilities into Shingle Creek, a tributary of the South Florida watershed that includes Lake Okeechobee and the Florida Everglades.
(Above, left to right: Mark Ikeler (Water Reclamation Division Manager, Orange County), Kerry Kates (Orange County Utilities Deputy Director, Orange County), Rep. Daniel Webster, Paul Adams, Joe Kilsheimer, Daron Johnson (Water Reclamation Assistant Division Manager, City of Orlando), Scott Ruland)
The solution devised by local leaders was Water Conserv II, which redistributes the highly treated effluent of the two facilities to a network of rapid infiltration basins (RIBs) and to nearby citrus groves and other users for irrigation. Discharging to RIBs helps to safely and sustainably recharge the Floridan Aquifer that Central Florida relies upon for most of its potable drinking water.
The facility, which opened in 1986, currently manages about 33 million gallons of reclaimed water a day. It has an overall design capacity of 90 million gallons a day.
(Above, left to right: Scott Ruland, Woodard & Curran Project Manager, and Rep. Webster)
“The Sunshine State is home to a unique ecosystem and full of Floridians who care deeply about our environment and natural resources,” Rep. Webster said. “The Water Conserv II project helps protect and preserve Florida’s precious water resources by providing millions of gallons of clean, recycled water for a diverse mix of uses. I enjoyed spending time with the Conserv II team and learning about their innovative project, which exemplifies the best of water conservation practices in the state of Florida and American ingenuity.”
Scott Ruland, Project Manager for Woodard & Curran at Water Conserv II, noted that the facility was the first reuse project in Florida permitted by the FDEP to irrigate crops produced for human consumption with reclaimed water, in this case citrus. “There was a lot of concern originally about the potential health effects of using reclaimed water to irrigate crops,” Ruland said. “But thanks to the vision of the leaders at the City of Orlando and Orange County – and research conducted by the University of Florida’s Ag Department – we were able to demonstrate that irrigating a crop with a rind, which people don’t eat, posed no threat to human health. And that has allowed us to move forward with this important project.”
