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Comprehensive Plan Potable Water Sub-Element Community Development Department Indian River County 2 BACKGROUND According to the United States Department of the Interior, Geological Survey publication entitled "Water for Florida Cities", only a few large cities obtain all or part of their water supply from surface water resources. The cities of Tampa, Melbourne, and West Palm Beach are the largest municipalities within the state which use surface water as their potable water supply. The Indian River County water system, like the majority of the water systems within the state, utilizes groundwater as its source of potable water. Within Indian River County, water supply systems fall into one of three categories. These categories are as follows: - public potable water systems - private potable water systems - private wells Initially, all potable water in Indian River County was obtained from private wells. Even today, many county residents get their water from individual, private wells. Over time, however, the need to serve larger residential and non-residential projects resulted in the establishment of centralized potable water systems. Initially, most of these centralized systems were privately owned and operated. In Indian River County, the City of Vero Beach was the first government to establish a public water system. Within the unincorporated county, no publicly owned, centralized water system was established until the late 1970’s. Prior to 1978, Indian River County did not operate any potable water treatment facilities. In 1978, however, the county acquired the Gifford Water Treatment Plant from the Farmer’s Home Administration (FmHA). Prior to being taken over by the FmHA, the Gifford facility had been owned and operated by a private company. When that private operator experienced financial difficulties, the water treatment facility experienced major problems. Although the county was reluctant to become a utilities provider, an agreement was reached between the county and the FmHA by which the county agreed to take over and operate the Gifford Water Treatment Plant. In return, the FmHA gave the County a $20,000,000.00 loan for the purpose of providing potable water to County residents. In 1987, the first Indian River County Public Water System Master Plan was developed. The purpose of the Master Plan was to establish a program for the economical and orderly expansion of the County's water system so that the system would be capable of supplying the potable water needs of the eastern portion of the county. That document has been updated several times since 1987. As