Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
A ceremonial ground-breaking for a multi-million dollar water desalination facility east of Lake Wales has marked the next step in a multi-jurisdictional effort to assure adequate water supplies for the future of Polk County. The rapid development taking place across the region has created a looming water crisis, with at least one town, Dundee, forced to declare a building moratorium due to a lack of potable water supply.
The new network of regional water lines will carry water from southeast Polk to northern and western destinations.
Led by the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFMD), the Polk Regional Water Cooperative effort now involves nearly every major city and town in Polk County. The entire multi-phase project is expected to cost well over $1 billion.
Funding for the project is coming from a variety of sources, including a $305 million loan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program and a $293 million grant from SWFMD.
SWFMD reports say that "demonstrated demand" for water in Polk County in 2025 will be 88 million MGD. By 2045 that is expected to increase by 32 MGD. SWFWMD is advancing the PRWC as an alternative to issuing future permits for water use from the Floridan aquifer and is funding half the cost of the effort.
The new plant on Boy Scout Road will be capable of removing chloride and other contaminants through a reverse-osmosis desalination process. The water will be drawn from wells located south of Lake Walk in Water before being pumped to the desalination plant. The purified water will then be distributed to area cities through 61 miles of pipeline that will reach as far as Bartow and Davenport.
Polk Regional Water Cooperative Eric DeHaven opened the groundbreaking ceremonies at the site of the new desalination plant being constructed on Boy Scout Road in Lake Wales.
Saline wastewater will then be returned to the ground through an injection well some 8,000 feet deep.
The construction of the pipelines has proven controversial as property owners face Imminent Domain processes which can take their land for the benefit of the public. Some homeowners are facing the loss of beloved trees growing in their front yards, along with other impacts.
SWFMD officials say the project is essential after determining that excessive withdrawals from the surficial aquifer and deeper Floridan Aquifer were rapidly depleting those sources, leading to dropping water tables and low lake levels. The new supply is coming from the "sub-Floridan" aquifer, which contains a significant amount of salt and other corrosive contaminants that must be removed before the water can be used.
Underneath the "surficial" aquifer that contains the area's lakes lie layers of water-bearing formations labeled the intermediate, Floridan, and sub-Floridan aquifers. The Floridan provides the region's current supplies. The sub-Floridan is a saline strata with a large capacity.
Most area cities and towns, including Dundee, Eagle Lake, Lake Hamilton and Bartow, have already reserved water supplies from the initial phase of the project, which will produce 7.5 million gallons a day (MGD). That water should begin flowing in 2028.
Frostproof is not participating in the project.
Representatives of area governmental units and regional media turned out in force for the groundbreaking ceremony held under a tent on Boy Scout Road in Lake Wales last week.
Lake Wales is considered a "project associate" without rights to water from the initial phase but has reserved an allotment of 500,000 gallons per day (GPD) from the second phase, expected to begin production after 2030. That much-more-expensive water must be paid for whether it is needed or not.
Lake Wales has a current "water use permit" to pump up to 3.9 MGD from the Floridan through the city's seven wells but is using only about 2.8 MGD of that capacity on average. Consumption is projected to rise each year, leaving the city facing a shortfall by 2037. The city's current permit expires in 2032, but SWFWMD will maintain the permitted amount in the future without increases.
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