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Initially, aII pobable water in Indian River County was obtalned from prllace weils. Even today, many_county residents get-th;i; water from an individual, priviie weil. Over time, howevE.r"ifrl need to serve larger residential and non-residentlal Proisl[]resulted in the Ls t,abl ishment o f cent,rali'zed potable ;;a;;systems. While most of these centralized systems were privat,eiv oined and operated, the Cit,y of Vero Biach eras the ii;;'tgc'.'ernmenE, to establish a public system. Within th;unincorporat,ed countyr no publicly owned, cenEralized watei syst,em was established unt,il relaEively recently. Prior to 1978, Indian River Count,y did nob operate any potable water Ereatment facilities. ' In 1978, the counEy aquired theGifford Water Treatmenb Plant from the Farmer I s HomeAdministration. Prior to being taken over by the county, theGifford facility t as owned and operated by a private company. The privat,e operator was in financial trouble, and the watir treatment facility was experiencing major problems. Although the count,y was reluctant to become a uEilities provider, an agreementwas reached between the counEy and the Farmer I s Home Administrat,ion in which bhe county agreed to take over and operate the Gifford gtaCer Treatment, PlanE. In return, the Farmer's Home Administration gave the County a S20r000r000 loan for the purpose of providing poLable water to County resident,s. To date, the County has used $9.2 million of this loan. In 1987, t,he draft documenE of the Indian River County Water System t'taster PIan was developed. The purpose of the ltaster Plan wls to develop a document for the economical and orderly expansion of thL County's water system so that it wiII be capable of supplying the potable waber needs of the eastern half of the counti.- duriig t,he period of 1986 - 2005. The County Utilities DeparLment has Ch; resPonsibiliCy Eot the operation of the countyIs potable water sYsEem. The areas served by Councy Utilities are as follows: - ltorEh County P.etail Service Area - South'CountY Service Area - River's Edge glater Service Area - North Beach Service Area - 9tholesale Service Area Potable Water Facilities PoEable water facilities normally consist of a wacer supplyr--a treatmenL pIant, and a disEribut,ion system. The water supply can EXHIBIT 5