Hernando's Water Use Continues Decline

Hernando residents have cut the amount of water they use significantly in the last two and a half years, according to data from the county utilities department.

But more work will have to be done - especially on the county's more populated west side - if the county is to meet a longer-term goal set recently by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, known as Swiftmud.

Staffers will present water-use statistics to the county commission at its regular meeting today that show a clear downward trend in the amount of water used by the county's roughly 60,000 utilities customers.

Month-to-month comparisons in 2006, 2007 and the first eight months of 2008 show countywide water use has declined every month except one.

Customers used nearly 9.5 billion gallons in 2006. That dropped to just less than 8 billion gallons last year, a reduction of nearly 16 percent.

The current projection for 2008 is a little more than 7.5 billion gallons.

It's good news, county staffers said, especially since Hernando had gotten a warning from Swiftmud in early 2007 for pumping too much water from wells that provide for customers generally west of U.S. 41, including Spring Hill.

"We think it's a success story," said Alys Brockway, the county's conservation coordinator, who will present the data today along with Interim Code Enforcement Director Mark Caskie. "We're optimistic we can keep this trend moving along."

That will have to happen in the next decade.

Swiftmud's governing board last month approved a measure that places a per capita daily water usage rate of 150 gallons for all utilities in the county. Previously, the district had only imposed that restriction on utilities in so-called Water Use Caution Areas. A caution area is designated for regions where water withdrawals are causing or threatening to create adverse impacts to the water and related land resources or the public interest.

The 10 central and southern counties in the district, from Pasco to Charlotte counties, are in caution areas. The six northern counties - Levy, Lake, Marion, Sumter, Citrus and Hernando - are not.

Swiftmud has given the utilities 10 years to reach the goal.

The wells on the county's east side have been within that limit for years, Utilities Director Joe Stapf said. The county's west-side wells, however, are still pumping enough to meet a daily per capita demand of roughly 167 gallons.

Stapf said the data presented today shows that the 150-gallon goal, which would require the west side to cut water use by about 10 percent, is "achievable."

"How soon we can get there is probably a function of a lot of different things, but certainly we need to continue to develop a conservation ethic," Stapf said.

Education campaigns, stepped up enforcement and a citizenry getting acclimated to one-day-a-week watering restrictions in place since January of 2007 all contributed to the reduction since 2006 even during a drought, Stapf said.

More progress can be made on those fronts, he said. The county is investing in infrastructure improvements to provide more reclaimed water to customers; an ever-expanding prevalence of more efficient water fixtures also will help, Stapf said.

Swiftmud's governing board will consider at its next regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept 30, whether to extend the once-a-day restrictions. A Swiftmud spokeswoman said Monday that district staffers are still analyzing rainfall and hydrological data and have not come up with a recommendation for the board.

The last year and a half has shown that lawns can survive just fine on one watering per week, Caskie and Stapf said, and both hope the board will extend the restrictions. Doing so would benefit the environment and help the county continue its progress on the conservation front.

Brockway said she hopes residents will continue to take action to conserve water now no matter what the board decides.

"We need to make efforts every day," she said.