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- Connected the expanded Falkenburg Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Woodberry Master Pump Station to the County’s nearby Resource Recovery Facility to provide electricity for running the plant, at a projected annual energy cost savings of $240,000 per year. In addition, a new customer service center and warehouse facility under construction on Falkenburg Road also will be connected directly to the Resource Recovery Facility.
- This means these facilities will receive their energy from the incineration of garbage instead of buying electricity from TECO.
- Employing new technology at the Falkenburg and Valrico Wastewater Treatment Plants by using banks of ultraviolet lamps to deactivate the bacteria in the wastewater. This method will help the plant meet new EPA guidelines.
- Recycling wastewater sludge using a new thermal dryer facility that processes the sludge into pellets for general fertilizer reuse, instead of disposing of the sludge in landfills or land-applied application. This decreases hauling and disposal costs, saves landfill space, and puts the byproduct to a good use.
- Supplies an average of 22 million gallons of reclaimed water per day to more than 15,800 residential and commercial customers. Another 10,000 locations are in the queue for connection to the distribution system. The program started for residential use in 1994, and is the largest residential retail reclaimed system in the state.
- Established pro-active and thorough water conservation education and enforcement program. Since 1989, when the County began a formal water conservation program, customers have cut their average daily water use by nearly one-third – today saving up to 32 million gallons of water a day over what they were using 20 years ago.
- Coordinates the toilet rebate program since 1994 to help residents replace older model toilets with ultra-low flow toilets. Approximately 80,000 have been replaced since the beginning of the program.
- Provides joint funding for Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Water Conservation in Hotels And Motels Program (CHAMP) to purchase promotional materials that are placed in the participating lodge rooms. These materials encourage voluntary choice of room occupants to not have their linens washed on a daily basis, saving water and energy.
- Provides no-cost irrigation system evaluations to property owners. Individualized reports are provided back to the property owners with recommendations on how to correct problems that are discovered, which frequently result in water use efficiencies.
- Contracting a scientific evaluation of Weather-Based, or ET-Based, irrigation controllers with the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida to evaluate if this technology is valid for our climate and geology.
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