Project Renew: A Regional Approach to the Distribution of Reclaimed Water

The Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) has been granted a 20-year permit to use the Floridan aquifer as a source of potable water. In addition to providing for the continued use of groundwater, the permit also requires that OUC make use of alternative water supplies. One of the most innovative of the alternative water supply projects is referred to as project RENEW. The OUC Consumptive Use Permit (CUP) provides a general definition of project RENEW as bringing reclaimed water from the Iron Bridge Regional Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) to the Northwest Orange County Area (NWOCA). The CUP requires that 3 million gallons per day (mgd) of reclaimed water be delivered to the NWOCA by 2011 and 9.2 mgd by 2015. The fundamental assumption driving this requirement is that the availability of reclaimed water in these volumes will offset expected future withdrawals of groundwater that would be used for irrigation. This, in turn, will mitigate drawdowns in the Floridan aquifer that would potentially occur without these offsets.The RENEW alternatives analysis report considers various means of implementing RENEW within the guidelines established in the CUP and selects the most cost-effective solutions. Given the requirements of RENEW, the primary alternatives for delivering reclaimed water to NWOCA are: 1) from the city of Orlando's Iron Bridge Regional WRF, 2) transferring wastewater to the city of Orlando's Water Conserv II WRF, 3) transferring wastewater to the Altamonte Springs WRF and 4) a combination of the Water Conserv II and Altamonte Springs alternatives. Subalternatives to the primary alternatives address whether the RENEW flow is a constant delivery or one that fluctuates as a function of the bulk customer's demands. Consideration is also given to the use of seasonal storage and supplemental water to manage differences in supplies of reclaimed water and demands for irrigation. Figure 1 provides an overview of the project area and facilities of interest.