Introduction
East-Central Florida experienced considerable population growth that led to increased demand for additional water supplies. Local utilities and water suppliers have historically relied upon high quality groundwater to meet demands. This groundwater was locally available and inexpensive to treat and deliver. However, demand for these sources increased to close to the ability of the aquifer systems to provide the water.
Bringing sources online for customer use can take five to ten years or more from conception to delivery. Therefore, water supply utilities need to plan and act in advance to have supplies and facilities in place to satisfy the future needs of the communities that they serve. As a result, area water supply utilities voluntarily entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in June 2006 to develop a plan to utilize water from the St. Johns River and Taylor Creek Reservoir to meet a portion of the future water needs of the region. The project concept was to divert water from the St. Johns River during periods of moderate to high flow, when enough water is present to ensure the water quality is high and to maintain downstream minimum flows and levels and other environmental conditions.
Project Participants
Six water suppliers and two water management districts signed the MOA to work together to plan and prepare the preliminary design for this alternative water supply project. Project participants are the cities of Cocoa and Titusville, Orange County, Orlando Utilities Commission, Tohopekaliga Water Authority, East Central Florida Services Inc., the St. Johns River and South Florida water management districts. The City of Cocoa managed the first phase of the project.
Project Location
The Taylor Creek Reservoir is located in Orange and Osceola counties near the St. Johns River and State Road 520. The reservoir was designed to provide flood control and water supply in the upper St. Johns River drainage basin. The reservoir receives drainage inflow from about 60 square miles of watershed. Water from the reservoir then flows into Taylor Creek, which empties into the St. Johns River about 4.3 miles downstream.
Water Supply Opportunity
The City of Cocoa began using the reservoir for water supply in 1999, withdrawing up to 9 million gallons per day (mgd) from the reservoir to supplement its groundwater sources. Expanding the City of Cocoa’s existing water supply system was identified in the 2000 St. Johns River Water Management District Water Supply Plan as an option for helping to meet future water supply needs in east-central Florida.
Many times during the year, additional storage volume is available in the reservoir. The opportunity exists to use this available storage capacity by diverting water from the St. Johns River into the reservoir, thus increasing the amount of water available to be withdrawn for water supply by 40 mgd or more.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is also investigating ways to optimize the Upper St. Johns River Basin Project — a project to restore and enhance more than 150,000 acres of marshes in Indian River and Brevard counties — in such a way that will maintain flood control and environmental restoration goals and will maximize the amount of water available from the St. Johns River for the Taylor Creek project.
Taylor Creek Reservoir
Project Description
The originally envisioned project would include the design and construction of a complete water supply system, including diversion facilities, such as a pumping station and pipeline, so that water withdrawn from the St. Johns River could be transported to the reservoir. Treatment would meet state and federal drinking water standards.
In addition to river water diversion and surface water treatment facilities, treated water storage, such as storage in a reservoir or aquifer storage and recovery, could provide storage for system reliability and seasonal peaking capacity. New and upgraded transmission systems would also be needed.
Phase One
The first phase of the project was completed in Fall 2009. Phase one of the St. Johns River/Taylor Creek Reservoir Water Supply Project resulted in the development of a Preliminary Design Report (PDR) and draft Environmental Information Document (EID) that could support subsequent facility design, permitting and construction efforts.
Issues explored in the facilities planning process included water supply capacities, treatment processes, configuration of major project components, capital and operations costs and potential environmental impacts.
Results of the phase one work would be needed to prepare detailed construction plans and to obtain the necessary permits that would be required to build and operate the water supply facilities, if the partners choose to move forward with the project. The cost for phase one was approximately $4.5 million. Federal funds through the State and Tribal Assistance Grants program helped the project participants fund the project design and planning activities.
Next Phase
During the phase one work, discussions were initiated among the partners regarding moving forward with the project. Discussions are ongoing.
Project Funding
Because this project is a multi-jurisdictional project developing significant quantities of water supplies from alternative water sources, it is a prime candidate for construction cost-sharing with the water supply utilities through the Florida Water Protection and Sustainability Program.
