Water Sources
Conservation
Many of our opponents claim we do not need to develop an alternative water supply source on the St. Johns River if we just do a better job of conserving the water we have. This argument sounds good and seems to make sense, but unfortunately the situation is not that simple.
First, we cannot save enough water to avoid developing an alternative source to meet future water demands. Our customers, on average, already use less water than the median per capita water use rate in the St. Johns River Water Management District. Additionally, our customers will continue to need water for indoor purposes, such as drinking, cooking and bathing. While there is certainly room to reduce the amount of water used for outdoor irrigation — and while the St. Johns River Water Management District is developing new rules that will limit the frequency of outdoor irrigation — there is only so much that can be done with existing residential developments and lot sizes.
Second, the amount of water savings that will actually be achieved through conservation is uncertain. The amount of water savings will depend on how successful we are in creating substantially long-term behavior changes concerning water use. Unfortunately, no one can waive a magic wand and change long-held water use practices overnight. People just don’t work that way. We have to educate them about water use, reward them when they conserve, and penalize them when they use water wastefully.
Finally, building a new conservation ethic among our citizens is going to take time. Although the push for increased conservation is a must, the time it will take to get everyone on board extends beyond our need to provide new sources. We work on conservation every day, but it’s going to take some time to achieve our conservation goals. We have an obligation to make sure that we will have enough water for customers when 2013 rolls around. Since alternative water supplies cannot be developed overnight, the only real solution at this juncture is to move forward with our alternative water supply project.
That being said, Seminole County is committed to conserving our limited drinking water supply. We’ve aggressively undertaken enforceable conservation and landscape ordinances, community education programs and an inverted rate structure that provides significant savings of water. This resulted in Seminole County winning the 2008 Florida Water Environment Association’s Public Education Award.
And we still plan to do more.
