04/19/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Thank you to SJRWMD for compiling the Water Supply Plan for our area. We appreciate the data you have provided and feel that your exploration of the regional water supply was successful. The district is, however, primarily concerned with the St. John's River and ensuring water supply for our friends and neighbors to the north. The concerns of the IRNA are much more local. Did you know the 18 -county district had a population of 5.65 million people as of 2020? Indian River County makes up just 160k of that. We're small and most of us live outside of the headwaters of the St. John's and so we're in a unique position. Going over some of the basic data, our population is booming. We've doubled in population since 1983 and are projected to add almost 100k more people by 2040. That's a lot of new people. The average person uses just over 100 gallons of water per day. So, if all we did was add 100k new people, that would be 1 million additional gallons per day we'd be using here in just 20 years. And that's just residential person use only! One complaint we have with the regional water supply plan is that it is regional. Regional studies are great at showing what's going on over a large area, but zooming in on a particular area can be more difficult. In the main report document, a search for the words 'Indian River,' yields only 20 hits. Of those, six are referring to the lagoon and not our county. There is a great deal of backup in the appendices with all sorts of good data but much of it causes alarm. It appears to be much like the BMAP process: it sounds good, it would be nice if it solved our problems, but doesn't address the question "At our current growth rate, will we have an adequate supply of water? If not—what should we do about it?" Water conservation is one alternative that ceserves increased attention. We see this as an area that can work well going forward. We request that you, the commissioners, consider possible alternative courses of action. Is there a local plan to practice increased conservation? Most of the conservation projects listed in Appendix K were not done by the county but by private entities, how can we collectively do more? The Surficial Aquifer System is a source for public water supply in Indian River County. We are not the only consumer. Utilities, according to the report, who have historically relied on the Surficial Aquifer to meet all or a portion of their demand, have been transitioning to alternate sources to mitigate for wetland and water quality impacts. So, we ask, what are we doing to transition or prepare for a potential need tc do so? Frankly, after reading the report we are not sure how soon we will need to transition to another potable water source. When will we run out of water? When will our wells become too salty to be of use? How much has the aquifer gone down and how much more can it go down before it is lost to us?