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Within the county, many of the older residential areas were developed with well and septic tanlE systems on lots which, by today's standards, are small in size. The small lot size in those areas often results in inadequate separation distances between wells and sept septic systems. For that reason, some of those areas have experienced contamination of wells. To address that health problem, county policy has been to connect those areas to the regional potable water system. Because connection to the regional potable water system is usually sufficient to eliminate health risks, connection of those areas to the regional sanitary sewer system has been on a much more limited basis. Wastewater and sanitary sewer systems are addressed more fully in the Sanitary Sewer Sub - Element of the Infrastructure Element and in the Capital Improvements Element. The impact of those systems is also addressed in the Conservation Element. Potable Water Water is essential to human life and is a key ingredient in agriculture, commerce and industry. Traditionally, water in urban areas has been provided by local governments, while in rural areas individual wells or water systems have sufficed. This pattern is also present in Indian River County; however, it is not uniform in all areas of the county. In Indian River County, the water delivery system is composed of private wells and public water systems. The potable water system is discussed in greater detail in the Potable Water Sub - Element and the Capital Improvements Element. Groundwater sources are discussed in the Natural Groundwater Aquifer Recharge Sub -Element and the Conservation Element. As with the county's population distribution, water systems other than private wells are primarily limited to the developed eastern third of the county land area. Currently, there are four publicly owned regional water treatment plants operating in the county. Two of those plants are operated by the Indian River County Utilities Department, while the other plants are operated by the City of Vero Beach and the City of Fellsmere. While the county -operated plants provide a level of service of 250 gallons/residential unit/day, the Vero Beach and Fellsmere plants provide a level of service of 351 and 200 gallons/residential unit/day, respectively. The combined design capacity of those plants is 24,720,000 gallons/day, an amount sufficient to accommodate their combined average daily demand of 15,990,000 gallons/day. The plants operated by the county Utilities Department use the Floridan Aquifer as their primary water source. While the City of Vero Beach uses both the Surficial and Floridan Aquifers, the City of Fellsmere uses only the Surficial Aquifer. Because water drawn from the Floridan Aquifer contains impurities, that water must be treated to become potable. For water drawn from the Floridan Aquifer, the type of treatment used by both the city and county plants is reverse osmosis. For water drawn from the Surficial Aquifer, a lime softening treatment process is used. A by-product of the reverse osmosis process is brine; brine is water with a high concentration of impurities. That brine is then treated prior to being discharged. Future Land Use Element 64 Appendix A