Future Today” Recognition Program Plant City’s Integrated Water Management Plan—Lynn Spivey

Plant City’s Integrated Water Management Plan

Lynn Spivey, Amy Tracy, Chris Keller, Chris Owen, and David O’Connor

Florida is growing at a record pace, with an estimated 1,000 new residents arriving every day. In Plant City (city), population forecasts indicate an increase of approximately 74,000 people through the year 2045. Presently, the city utility serves 40,210 residents; with the projected population increase, the city estimates, in 2045, about 35 percent more potable water supply customers.

New legislation, rule revisions, and regulatory changes regarding water supply and quality are underway because the city’s aquifers, lakes, and springs cannot keep up with the need for fresh water. The supply of fresh water is limited, and the ways in which the city uses its recycled water will facilitate a more resilient water supply future.

Water Projects With “One Water” Philosophy

The city, in collaboration with its funding partners, is investing in a series of water projects that follow an integrated approach to water resource management. Part of the city’s plan to sustain and protect water and the environment is through the implementation of the McIntosh Preserve Integrated Water Management Plan to provide for future water supply needs and protect a section of wild and scenic beauty in the city.

The projects are predicated on the “One Water” approach to managing the water cycle. The projects incorporate the use of a natural green space just north of the city center.

McIntosh Preserve is a 365-acre natural habitat located in the city (Figure 1). The McIntosh tract was purchased in 1998 for $1.1 million by the Florida Communities Trust (FCT) and the Hillsborough County Environmental Land Acquisition and Protection Program (ELAPP).

In 2015, the city opened the habitat facility as a passive recreational park, with amenities that include walking and hiking trails, and picnic facilities. The city continues to invest in the preserve to protect local water resources and expand recreational access to realize multiple environmental benefits through the concept and implementation of integrated water management principles.

“One Water” is defined by The Water Research Foundation as “an integrated planning and implementation approach to managing finite water resources for long-term resilience and reliability meeting both community and ecosystem needs.” The U.S. Water Alliance recognizes that all water has value and should never be treated as a waste product.

The integrated water management plan projects include utilizing the city’s highly treated reclaimed water for wetland rehydration and surficial aquifer recharge and as an alternative water supply (AWS) through an indirect potable reuse (IPR) project. The plan also includes the mitigation of flooding through increased stormwater capacity at the McIntosh Preserve parcel, in part through the expansion of natural and engineered wetlands that also provide additional water quality treatment to stormwater and reclaimed water, and expanding the natural passive park amenities and preservation of critical habitat at McIntosh Preserve.

Figure 1. McIntosh Preserve Boundary

Projects to Implement the Plan

The water projects in this integrated water management plan are multi-year projects cofunded by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD). The water projects encompass two elements.

The first is the evaluation of IPR as a possible future 1.5-million-gallon-per-day (mgd) water supply opportunity through the utilization of highly treated recycled water for aquifer recharge. Additional benefits of aquifer augmentation are prevention of the degradation of wetlands and formation of sinkholes in the Dover Water Resource Cautionary Area.

The second water project element of the integrated water management plan includes the design and construction of 172 acres of multipurpose constructed treatment wetlands on the McIntosh parcel, where reclaimed water will be used as beneficial reuse to support wildlife habitat through proper maintenance of the hydroperiod, while reducing the surface direct discharge to the East Canal.

Both elements of these water projects use the highly treated reclaimed water from the Plant City Water Reclamation Facility (WRF), a 10-mgd adjusted average daily flow (AADF) advanced wastewater treatment plant (AWT).

Currently, the city’s WRF National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit allows for a surface water discharge (SWD) of up to 6 mgd on an annual average into the East Canal, which flows to the Itchepackasassa Creek, and eventually, the Hillsborough River. The SWD permit requires reclaimed water to be Continued on page 10

Continued from page 8 treated to a high water quality standard to meet the 5 mg/L carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD), 5 mg/L total suspended solids (TSS), 3 mg/L total nitrogen (TN), and 1 mg/L total phosphorus (TP) water quality limits to a surface water body. Although the reclaimed water is already treated to high standards for SWD, these new projects will provide additional beneficial use opportunities.

The IPR feasibility project utilizes the city’s recycled water, which would be treated to drinking water standards, and then subsequently injected into either the Upper Floridan aquifer (UFA) or the Lower Floridan aquifer (LFA) to contribute to the overall regional sustainability of the Floridan aquifer system (FAS) and help offset impacts resulting from increased groundwater pumping during future freeze events across the area and provide a self-sustaining water supply for the city. Additionally, the injection will result in increased groundwater heads in the UFA along the western portion of Polk County and improve water management flexibility.

To utilize the city’s current recycled water for IPR, it must undergo additional treatment. The IPR feasibility project includes pre-pilot sampling for characterization of the reclaimed source water, selection of the best treatment technology for the treatment pilot, demonstration of the selected pilot system for a minimum of six months, and groundwater modeling to determine the best injection well location.

To determine the advanced water treatment needs, the city performed a source water characterization of the city’s reclaimed water to guide the selection of an appropriate treatment approach for the pilot system. The selected treatment system for the pilot treatment process includes membrane filtration (MF), reverse osmosis (RO), and ultraviolet/advanced oxidation process (UV/AOP), also known as full advanced treatment (FAT), which is universally recognized as a validated treatment for potable reuse (California State Water Resources Control Board, 2019) and has been implemented throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, and Australia (California State Water Resources Control Board, 2019; Law et al., 2015; Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council et al., 2008; Alcalde Sanz & Gawlik, 2014).

The FAT technologies taken in total provide barriers against both chemical constituents (Walker et al., 2016) and pathogens to protect human health; they're recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for potable reuse treatment (USEPA, 2017), and have been extensively studied for more than two decades (Bernados, 2018; Gerrity et al., 2013). The FAT process consists of the most advanced and comprehensive water treatment technologies available for drinking water treatment, producing high-quality water for human consumption.

The water produced by the reuse facility will be treated using a microfiltration/ultrafiltration (MF/UF) system, which will reduce solids and particles and produce a consistent quality of water to enhance the performance of the downstream RO and UV/AOP processes. The MF/UF also provides pathogen removal for protozoa, such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia. The water will then be treated using RO filtration. The RO membranes remove dissolved substances from water, producing a permeate with low dissolved solids; however, some small compounds, such as N- Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and 1,4-dioxane, may pass though the membranes.

The next step, advanced oxidation, targets these and other organic compounds. The UV/AOP technology also will destroy pathogens, viruses, and trace organics that are not removed by the RO process. Table 1 summarizes the effectiveness of the FAT treatment proposed for the AWT for pathogens.

The IPR project also incorporates the principles of a hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) to identify critical control points (CCPs) and assess the reliability of those CCPs to manage acute and chronic health risks (Walker et al., 2020). The application of HACCP provides assurance that the treatment process is always working properly; it’s used to identify possible hazards in the source water, beginning with the industrial pretreatment control program (IPTCP).

A robust IPTCP will allow the city to identify possible risks to the current permitted reuse system and prevent the introduction of industrial contaminants that could upset the reuse treatment facility, disrupt specific processes, or make it through the reuse processes to the reuse plant effluent. The city is currently in the process of procuring the pilot equipment for the pilot demonstration portion of the project.

To determine the best location for the injection well, the city’s consulting team performed extensive groundwater modeling (Figure 2). The city is located within the Dover/Plant City Frost Freeze Management Plan (SWFWMD, 2010), developed to reduce impacts from increased

Table 1. Pathogen Log Reduction Credits for Full Advanced Treatment (source: Florida Potable Reuse Commission)

Process Virus Cryptosporidium

MF 0 4

RO 2 2

UV/AOP 6 6 Storage with Cl 4 0

Total 12 12

agricultural groundwater pumping during future freeze events. The freeze management plan established a water use caution area (WUCA) in the Dover/Plant City area and created a minimum aquifer level protection zone (MALPZ) to help guide future water management decisions.

To evaluate whether the long-term application of excess reclaimed water could effectively offset groundwater declines that result from increased agricultural pumping during significant freeze events or during crop establishment, the modeling analysis primarily focused on the changes in simulated heads in the MALPZ. Recovery rates were estimated to minimize impacts to the MALPZ.

Hydrological modeling for this study focused on simulating direct recharge of the UFA and LFA to increase the freshwater head in this area and, consequently, provide additional groundwater storage for future use. For each of the recharge/ recovery scenarios, the injection well(s) operated at a constant rate over a one-year period.

The volumes of injected water for the model simulation were 2 and 8 mgd. Recovery wells will then extract up to 90 percent of the recharged water. Groundwater modeling was performed to assess the performance of potential recharge wells and recovery wells, and the impacts to the aquifer systems.

Four candidate well locations for recharge and recovery were identified for the study, including: S McIntosh Park area S Current Plant City Water Reclamation Facility S Northeast Plant City S Proposed Water Treatment Plant # 6 located in Southeast Plant City

While locating a recharge well in the northeast area of the city would be challenging due to the availability of land, it was included as a potential alternative location for comparative purposes. To evaluate the feasibility of the IPR project at these four locations, numerical groundwater flow modeling was performed using the districtwide regional model (DWRM).

Results from the modeling analyses (Table 2) suggest that all four sites are suitable candidates for IPR recharge/recovery operations. Modeling simulations suggest that both the McIntosh Park and northeast sites of the city can support a higher recovery rate without any deleterious drawdown impacts within the MALPZ. Within the LFA, simulation results show that all four sites are equally suitable for the recharge/recovery operations.

Overall, results of this modeling analysis show that the various configurations of the recharge/ recovery wells as outlined could accommodate anywhere from 2 to 8 mgd of reclaimed water as direct recharge to the UFA/LFA, while increasing the following:

Scenario Aquifer Description McIntosh Park Plant City WRF NE Plant Area City Proposed WTP #6

Low-UFA UFA (Avon Park)

Low-LFA LFA

High-UFA UFA (Avon Park)

High-LFA LFA Recharge (mgd) 2 2 2 2 Recovery (mgd) 1.8 1.6 1.8 1.6 % Recovery 90% 80% 90% 80% Recharge (mgd) 2 2 2 2 Recovery (mgd) 1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8 % Recovery 90% 90% 90% 90% Recharge (mgd) 8 8 8 8 Recovery (mgd) 7.2 6.4 7.2 6.4 % Recovery 90% 80% 90% 80% Recharge (mgd) 8 8 8 8 Recovery (mgd) 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 % Recovery 90% 90% 90% 90%

Figure 3. McIntosh Preserve Treatment Wetland Layout – 30 Percent Design

S Freshwater heads along the coast in the LFA to mitigate saltwater intrusion. S Groundwater heads in the UFA across the

Dover/Plant City WUCA to offset excessive drawdown during freeze protection events. S Groundwater heads in the UFA along the western portion of Polk County to effectively enhance groundwater storage volume and improve water management flexibility.

On Dec, 18, 2019, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) approved the city’s level II water-quality-based effluent limitations (WQBEL) for the WRF, which allows the city to send 6-mgd AADF to surface waters of the state. Though the WQBEL assessment proved that no harm was caused by the SWD and, in fact, the stream water quality was improved, the state is moving toward prohibiting surface water discharge and looking toward more beneficial uses (2021 Senate Bill 64).

The city’s WRF is a 10-mgd facility (ultimately 12 mgd at buildout); therefore, excess reclaimed water is available for additional beneficial use, leaving ample water to provide supplemental hydration to the McIntosh Preserve wetlands.

MacIntosh Preserve includes an existing, enhanced stormwater treatment wetland (Figure 3) that provides treatment and attenuation for the East Canal sub-basin, which experiences frequent flooding. This SWFWMD-funded project, constructed Continued on page 12

Continued from page 11 approximately 15 years ago, diverts water from the East Canal offline through the wetland to provide storage and water quality improvements prior to discharge back into the East Canal. The original project included both wetland treatment and an alum facility for additional phosphorus polishing.

The alum treatment system experienced operational challenges since its inception and is currently inoperable. While the original wetland provided water quality improvements, the benefits of the project were limited by the flashy nature of stormwater runoff and the dehydration of the treatment wetlands between storm events. This first project was primarily to treat stormwater from the East Canal system; the current McIntosh project uses an integrated approach to water management that produces multifaceted environmental benefits.

Figure 4. McIntosh Preserve Phase One Upland Trails

The McIntosh Preserve wetlands project expands upon the original project through development of design plans for 172 acres of multipurpose constructed treatment wetlands. To address the dehydration experienced by the original wetland and increase treatment, this project reconfigures the original wetland cells and adds additional treatment wetlands in the center and western portion of the park, and also includes the addition of highly treated reclaimed water for hydration of the wetlands. The southeastern cell that is directly connected to the East Canal will not receive reclaimed water; rather, it will continue to derive its hydroperiod solely from surface water. The new wetlands cells receive supplemental water from the city’s reclaimed system during dry periods.

The McIntosh Preserve wetlands expansion and the proposed hydrological improvements increase the stormwater system capacity to reduce localized flooding conditions. The site continues to accept offsite stormwater and improvements in the southern portion of the project increase the efficiency of the conveyance of water, reducing the duration of localized flooding. The expansion of wetlands and a backflow preventer in the northeastern corner of the property will reduce offsite flooding and lessen the duration and extent of standing water.

The expanded wetland treatment is estimated to decrease nutrient loading to the East Canal, above and beyond the original project, with a net improvement of 7,620 pounds a year of TN and 2,280 pounds of TP.

The final component of this project is the enhancement of the park element throughout the McIntosh parcel. The city’s parks and recreation department is working with the utilities department to enhance the park elements in a series of phased projects to match the construction timeline of the wetland’s expansion. The phaseone recreational improvement (Figure 4) is a $600,000 investment funded with a $300,000 legislative appropriation and $300,000 in match dollars from the city that was scheduled to be complete in April 2021. These improvements include two miles of upland pedestrian hiking trails that are Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-accessible, a three-story wildlife observation tower with ADA accommodations to include live video feed using solar power, and a rock-climbing feature for children. Additional parking, educational signage, benches, and trash cans are also included under the current phaseone project.

Preserving the Past, Looking to the Future

the past through investment in the McIntosh Preserve Wetlands and environmental park, but also its dedication to the future, as the city investigates potable reuse as a potential AWS option. The application of the integrated water approach supports Florida’s initiative to protect and improve water quality and beneficially reuse recycled water.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is committed to Florida’s water resources. Executive Order (E.O.) 19-12 underscores his commitment to AWS through directing FDEP to take all necessary steps to help communities plan for and implement vital conservation, reuse, and AWS projects.

He is also focused on the importance of water quality, as evidenced in the establishment of the Florida’s Blue Green Algae Task Force. A recommendation from the task force includes stormwater projects that reduce nutrient loading to receiving waterbodies.

The city’s investigation of potable reuse and the beneficial reuse of 1.5 mgd of the city’s highly treated recycled water to supplement the wetland hydroperiods and support the delicate ecosystem meets the objective of E.O. 19-12.

Lynn Spivey, director of utilities at City of Plant City, and Amy Tracy, Florida water resources leader with Dewberry-Hydro in Jacksonville, are authors of this article. Chris Keller, president of Wetland Solutions Inc. in Alachua; Chris Owen, director—water and reuse innovation with Hazen and Sawyer in Clearwater; and David O’Connor, associate vice president with ARCADIS in Tampa, are coauthors.

Citations and References

• Bernados, B. (2018). Reverse Osmosis for

Direct Potable Reuse in California. Journal of

American Water Works Association, 110: 28-36. • California State Water Resources Control

Board (2019). A Proposed Framework for

Regulating Direct Potable Reuse in California.

California Environmental Protection Agency.

Sacramento, Calif. • Gerrity, D; Pecson, D.; Trussell, R. S; Trussell,

R. R. (2013). Potable reuse treatment trains throughout the world. Journal of Water

Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua 1; 62 (6): 321–338. • Law, I., Menge, J., Cunliffe, D. (2015).

Validation of the Goreangab Reclamation

Plant in Windhoek, Namibia Against the 2008

Australian Guidelines for Water Recycling.

Journal of Water Reuse and Desalination. 5. • Natural Resource Management Ministerial

Council, Environment Protection and Heritage

Council, National Health and Medical Research

Council (2008). Australian Guidelines for

Recycling: Managing Health and Environmental

Risks (Phase 2); Augmentation of Drinking

Water Supplies. Canberra, Australia. • Alcalde Sanz, L. and Gawlik, B. (2014). Water

Reuse in Europe: Relevant guidelines, Needs for and Barriers to Innovation: A Synoptic

Overview. JRC Science and Policy Reports.

European Commission. • Walker, T., Boyle, N., Stanford, B., Owen, C., and Biscardi P. (2020). Full-Scale Evaluation of Critical Control Points and Monitors at a

Reuse Facility. AWWA Water Science. Denver,

Colo. • Walker, T., Stanford, B., Khan, S., Robillot, S.,

Snyder, S., Valerdi, R., Dwivedi, S., Vickers,

J. (2016). Critical Control Point Assessment to Quantify Robustness and Reliability of

Multiple Treatment Barriers of a DPR Scheme.

Water Environment & Reuse Foundation.

Alexandria, Va. • USEPA. (2017). Potable Reuse Compendium.

EPA/810/R-17/002. Washington, D.C. S

C FACTOR Holding a Successful Spring State Short School: In-Person is Best!

Kenneth Enlow

President, FWPCOA

Greetings everyone. Here we are moving into May. By this time everyone should have renewed their state certifications, which were due April 30, 2021. Whether you’re earning continuing education units (CEUs) to maintain your license or preparing for a certification exam, having access to comprehensive training programs is essential to your success.

Many of our utilities require advancing levels of certification for employees to be promoted or to be compensated at a higher pay level. This is true for certifications required by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for operators, but also for the wide range of volunteer certifications that have been provided by FWPCOA for decades.

The FWPCOA online training program has been very successful, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although online training has been an effective way to provide training programs for operators to earn CEUs and advance their licenses, most operators will tell you they feel face-to-face classroom training has been more successful for them when preparing for exams.

As an association that administers exams both online and at schools face-to-face, we too have seen a better pass/fail rate with in-person training.

As the premier provider of training in Florida for operators, FWPCOA has been listening to its members and other operators. In an effort to meet their needs, FWPCOA successfully presented the 2021 State Short School, held March 15-19 at the Indian River State College in Ft. Pierce.

Backflow tester class. Another view of the backflow tester class.

How to Hold a Successful Short School During a Pandemic

The FWPCOA partnered with Indian River State College to hold our Spring State Short School. There was a considerable amount of work done, planning and preparing classrooms with the college staff to maintain Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for social distancing. Face masks were mandatory at all times on the college campus and hand sanitizer stations were provided in many convenient locations.

FWPCOA in the house.

Utilities maintenance class. Wastewater collection B class.

Utilities customer relations level I class. Wastewater collection C class.

Another view of the wastewater collection C class.

Class registration was completed in the classrooms on the very first day of class, instead of a mass gathering of students in an auditorium. Students completed a COVID-19 health check questionnaire, and temperatures were taken daily.

There were 225 students that attended this short school, taking certification classes on the following topics: S Stormwater S Utilities Maintenance S Utility Customer Relations S Wastewater Collection S Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator S Water Distribution S Backflow Tester S Facilities Management S Stormwater A S Wastewater Collections A

Students were very cooperative, adhering to campus and FWPCOA guidelines for COVID-19, which was a great contributor to the success of the short school.

It’s also good to note that, at the time this article was written, there have been no reported incidents of COVID-19 cases associated with holding this school.

The FWPCOA is looking forward to this August, when we will be holding our next short school. We will announce those dates as soon as arrangements have been finalized.

We look forward to seeing you there!

FWPCOA Training Update

The training office is in need of proctors for online courses in all regions. If you are available to be a proctor please contact the training office at 321-383-9690.

In the meantime, and as always, our online Training Institute is up and running. You can access our online training by going to the FWPCOA website at www.fwpcoa.org and selecting the “Online Institute” button at the upper right-hand area of the home page to open the login page. You then scroll down to the bottom of this screen and click on “View Catalog” to open the catalog of the many training programs offered. Select your preferred training program and register online to take the course.

For more information, contact the Online Institute program manager at OnlineTraining@ fwpcoa.org or the FWPCOA training office at training@fwpcoa.org.

That’s all I have for this C Factor. Everyone take care and, as usual, keep up the good work! S

An elevated tank stores reclaimed water for irrigating the sport fields next door to the treatment plant in Clermont.

Sweating the Small Stuff

Efficient operations and an emphasis on recycling add up to award-winning performance for this Florida water treatment team

STORY: David Steinkraus PHOTOGRAPHY: Preston Mack

The City of Clermont is lucky because its source water is so clean. But that doesn’t mean the water plants are free of challenges.

Those can be found in the thousands of details that need attention if a plant is to operate at top efficiency, says Duane Land, water and wastewater operations manager. By taking care of those details, Clermont has consistently won awards from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), while meeting the demand from a community that grew by 27 percent from 2010-19.

“We’ve been very proactive so that we won’t get caught behind the growth curve,” says Land. The city owns two water plants; the East plant has won most of the awards and is noteworthy for not only treating water, but recycling water from the wastewater treatment plant nearby.

Clermont is 25 miles west of Orlando (or, as Land puts it, 22 miles from Disney World), yet the city doesn’t call itself a bedroom community. “We are a rural lifestyle community for cities.”

Land says that people come to Clermont to escape. Immediately west of the city, the land turns quickly from urban to rural.

Great Water

Raw water processing is simple. Eight wells feed the city’s two water plants. The water is chlorinated and passed to a storage tank. “We are truly blessed being here in the center of the state,” Land says. “We don’t adjust pH; we don’t strip and recarbonate.”

Water from the Floridian aquifer is that good. Hardness is moderate, and the water doesn’t promote scale in pipes. Two more wells are in the planning stages. The present eight wells are served with pumps varying from 100 to 200 horsepower (hp) from Goulds Water Technology, Weir Floway, and Peerless Pump. The distribution system uses one 75-hp pump and four 200-hp pumps, all Peerless pumps with motors from U.S. Motors and Nidec Motor Corp.

Given customer demand, Land and his staff don’t have the luxury of running pumps only during off-peak hours to minimize electricity cost. Instead, they’ve figured out what combination of pumps keeps the system charged at the lowest cost. For example, some wells lose head during the day, making them inefficient to operate, “but I can run them at 2 or 4 o’clock in the morning,” Land says.

He and his team realized that with variable-frequency drives, a 200-hp pump running at about 85 percent of rating is just as efficient as a 75-hp pump running at capacity.

East Water Treatment Plant

Clermont, Florida

www.clermontfl.gov/departments/environmental-services/water-wastewater.stml

BUILT: 2008 POPULATION SERVED: 50,000 SERVICE AREA: 10 square miles EMPLOYEES: 5 FLOWS: 6.9-mgd design/2.6-mgd average SOURCE WATER: Lower Floridian aquifer SYSTEM STORAGE: 3.9 million gallons DISTRIBUTION: 250 miles of water mains ANNUAL BUDGET: $2.8 million (operations) KEY CHALLENGE: Detecting and measuring unregulated contaminants

Rick Laney, chief water operator, reads the water pressure at the high-service pump.

Joshua Brennan, dual- licensed operator, flushes a fire hydrant.

Recycling Foresight

On the reclamation side, 3.2 to 3.3 million gallons per day (mgd) of wastewater flow to the water treatment plant and are processed for irrigation. To remove organics and most pathogens, the plant is changing from upflow sand filters to the Aqua MegaDisk filters (Aqua-Aerobic Systems).

Recycled wastewater is chlorinated and sent to storage before being pumped out through purple pipes. About 93 percent of wastewater reaching the plant is returned to city residents for irrigation—about 1 billion gallons per year. Two large storage ponds at city golf courses hold excess recycled water.

Such large-scale reuse is possible because of farsighted management. About 35 years ago, the eastern two-thirds of Clermont was covered with citrus orchards. Several hard freezes ruined the business, and the land was developed. The city required installation of purple pipe throughout that area. The western side of the city, the original Clermont, won’t get that because of the expense of retrofitting with purple pipe.

Even though residents like green lawns, a water conservation program emphasizes native plants that are stingy water users. “We’ve got native grasses that grow a root depth of 10 feet just to survive,” Land says.

Evie Wallace, the city’s water conservation officer, visits homeowner associations to explain the city’s irrigation plan and encourage people to install irrigation systems with rain gauges that shut off irrigation after rainfall.

Irrigation through purple pipes is scheduled based on home addresses. Even-numbered homes receive water two days a week, and odd-numbered homes receive water on two other days. During winter, the dry season, irrigation is cut back to one day per week per house.

Rates are structured in two tiers, and users of less water pay the lower rate. Homeowners are encouraged to switch to low-flow fixtures, and that is having an impact at the wastewater treatment plant where the nitrogen concentration has increased because the volume of water is less. That has required slowing the treatment process to compensate, Land says.

As the city is growing, so is reclamation. There have been four plant expansions, and a fifth is in the design stage. Capacity will expand from 4 to 6.5 mgd by fall 2022, if the project remains on track.

Continued from page 17

Hard-Working Team

The people who make the Clermont plant work so well are: Rick Laney, chief water operator; and Jay Buttram, Al Pagan, and Jodi Pearson, class C operators. All are also certified for wastewater treatment, although not to the same level as for water.

Dual certification allows the city to cover both water and wastewater plants with fewer people. Someone is on duty for water and wastewater for eight hours every day, seven days per week; if needed, the water plant staff can help at the wastewater plant.

Another testament to the skill of the Clermont team is its award history. In 2019, the plant received its eighth consecutive Plant Operations Excellence Award for a medium system in the central district from FDEP.

“As much as I’d like to say five of us did all this, the award is a reflection on the city as a whole,” Land says. “Five of us can’t take credit for it as much as we’d like to.”

The award is a recognition of support from the city and for a job that most people don’t think of, even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. “If there isn’t water, we don’t have a hospital,” Land observes.

When he came to Clermont in 1999, Land was a dual-licensed operator; he taught the other workers. Everyone had to do everything, from running plants to maintaining the distribution system. Now, team members are more specialized. With retirement only a few years away for him and Laney, Land is also looking toward the next generation of operators.

His present team is diverse. Pagan has a business degree, Laney maintained electronics in the Air Force, and Pearson is in college, studying biology and business. “We all just taught each other what we knew, and it’s been working out pretty well,” Land says.

His people may not make the money they could in the private sector, but there is stability. “They feel accomplished,” Land says. “They look forward to coming to work.”

Direct Potable Reuse On The Horizon?

Clermont already uses recycled water for irrigation, and for many years its building code has required purple pipe in new subdivisions so that homeowners can use recycled water.

That raises an obvious question: How long before the city takes the next step to potable reuse?

“It’s not whether it’s going to happen but when,” says Duane Land, water and wastewater operations manager. “I doubt if I’ll see it in my lifetime. My grandkids may see it.”

It’s something he has thought about quite a bit. Clermont doesn’t have the source water quality challenges other communities face. The current treatment process requires very little overhead because water from the Floridian aquifer requires only chlorination, but new contaminants flowing into the aquifer may dictate changes.

Land sees the detection and measurement of the spectrum of contaminants turning up in raw water sources as a key challenge for the Clermont plant. “If I have to start removing things from the water, what’s that price going to be?” he asks. “What’s the equipment going to be?”

He believes recycling water ultimately may prove less costly than treating heavily contaminated groundwater subject to strict government regulations. And then there is the question of quality; recycling and reusing water may end up being safer than pumping it out of the ground.

Reprinted with permission from TPO™ / January 2021 / © 2021, COLE Publishing Inc., P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, Wis. 54562 / 800-257-7222 / tpomag.com. S

The team at the East Water Treatment Plant includes (from left) Jesse DelValle, dual-licensed operator/ asset management; Jodi Pearson, class C operator; Joshua Brennan, dual-licensed operator; Duane Land, water and wastewater operations manager; Jay Buttram and Al Pagan, class C operators; and Rick Laney, chief water operator.