About the Polk Regional Water Cooperative
The State of Florida has made the planning and management of sustainable water resources one of its top environmental and legislative priorities. In Polk County, we also know something needs to be done if we are going to ensure the future of our precious water supply and responsibly meet the individual and regional water supply needs of our communities. In 2017, working together to address our future water supply needs, Polk County and its fifteen municipal governments agreed to form a new agency to lead planning for our collective future water supply needs. That agency is the Polk Regional Water Cooperative (PRWC).
PRWC’s role is to proactively identify alternative water sources and projects that will protect and sustain our future regional water supply. PRWC will specifically identify sustainable groundwater sources, develop strategies to meet our future water demands, determine needed infrastructure for treatment and distribution, and establish consistent rules for fairly meeting all water supply needs across the County. Oversight of PRWC is solely in the hands of the elected officials from the sixteen Polk County member governments.
Why We Need PRWC
Polk County is included in what is known as the Central Florida Water Initiative (CFWI) Planning Area, an area where three local water management districts have come together to develop a regional water supply plan for “traditional” sources such as the Upper Floridan aquifer. This plan identifies sustainable water supply for all water uses while also protecting water resources and related natural systems. However, declines in groundwater levels, spring flows, river flows, lake levels, and wetlands, as well as increases in groundwater chloride concentrations, have occurred in the CFWI Planning Area and are predicted to increase if the region continues to rely on the Upper Floridan aquifer as its sole water source.
Using 2020 data on the estimated water supply available from the Upper Floridan aquifer, the CFWI water management districts have determined that the amount of additional water that can be withdrawn from the Upper Floridan aquifer for each county in the CFWI Planning Area will be exhausted around 2025. While permitted withdrawals from the UFA will be reduced, continued population growth will further increase the demand for water to meet commercial and residential needs. It is projected that utilities in Polk County will need to supply nearly 106 MGD of water by 2045. However, only a portion of this water supply demand can be met under current permitted withdrawal from the UFA. To meet the additional water supply demand beyond 2025, PRWC anticipates the need to develop and implement solutions to conserve water or produce over 28 MGD in non-traditional or alternative water supply.
