Water Supply Plan for Central Florida will be Updated in 2025
The St Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), South Florida WMD, and Southwest Florida WMD are collaborating on the next update to the Regional Water Supply Plan (RWSP) for central Florida. The effort, known as the Central Florida Water Initiative (CFWI), will be an update of previous water supply plans developed in 2015 and 2020. The CFWI study area is shown below. The draft report is scheduled to be issued in March, 2025.
FOWR representatives attended a meeting in April where the three WMDs presented the water demand projections and explained the methods that are being used in developing the 2025 RWSP. The projected total water demand within the CFWI study area is expected to grow from 639 million gallons per day (MGD) in 2020 to 903 MGD in 2045, and increase of 41 percent. This total water demand includes water used for public water supplies, agriculture, commercial and industrial purposes, power generation, landscape and recreation.
Most of that water will come from groundwater in the Floridan Aquifer. A groundwater modeling study, jointly performed by the three WMDs for the 2020 RWSP, determined that the Floridan Aquifer within the CFWI study area can safely sustain withdrawals of 760 MGD. Unfortunately, groundwater permits have already been issued for withdrawing 1,064 MGD of groundwater from the Floridan Aquifer in the CFWI study area! So the three WMDs are working with groundwater users to find ways to reduce groundwater pumping.
Public water supplies are the largest water users in the CFWI study area. The water demand for public water supplies is expected to increase from 407 MGD in 2020 to 642 MGD in 2045, an increase of 58 percent! The 2020 RWSP noted that about 50 percent of the drinking water supplied by utilities with the CFWI study area is used for landscape irrigation!
This is one are we can all help reduce groundwater pumping – reducing the water we use for irrigating our lawns and landscaping! Orange and Seminole Counties both have partnered with the University of Florida IFAS to offer support and resources for water conservation and Florida Friendly Landscaping. Learn more about Florida Friendly Landscaping Resources here!
