The Walden Lake Community Association voted to begin searching for a civil engineer who specializes as a reclaimed water consultant. The WLCA would like to use reclaimed water to irrigate Timberlane Drive and medians.
“We’ve been talking about this for years, but now we’re moving forward on it,” WLCA President Bob Hunter said. “The board authorized us to bring on a consulting engineer for connecting to our system.”
The board is currently looking at three potential engineers.
The City of Plant City has a reclaimed water system, which uses recycled, highly-treated wastewater. The reclaimed water used by the City of Plant City is treated at Plant City’s Water Reclamation Facility on Victoria Street. The facility tests the reclaimed water every day to ensure that it is safe for use in the city. According to Plant City’s Water Resource Management Division, the City of Plant City has been using reclaimed water for irrigation purposes and industrial cooling since 1997.
The city’s reclaimed water system runs along the back of Walden Lake and is currently used to irrigate Walden Lake’s golf course. By extending the system and connecting it to Walden Lake irrigation’s system, the WLCA hopes to use reclaimed water along Timberlane Drive and on the medians where there is currently no irrigation in place.
“The city is looking for clients to use their reclaimed water,” Hunter said. “We’re not going to linger on this. Hopefully, we’ll have things figured out within the next month or two.”
Reclaimed water is commonly used for irrigation purposes, as it would be used in the Walden Lake community. In Plant City, reclaimed water also is used for irrigating certain crops and plants. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the state of Florida uses about 727 million gallons of reclaimed water each day.
Reclaimed water can significantly decrease irrigation costs for cities and communities. Once installed, Hunter expects that the use of reclaimed water will save the Walden Lake Community Association between $10,000 to $15,000 every year, minus the cost of expanding the system. Using reclaimed water can ultimately reduce the use of fertilizers and is more sustainable as it is a recyclable source for irrigation. Additionally, reclaimed water disposes fewer nutrients directly to surface water than potable water.
“Domestic water is a much larger expense to irrigate,” Hunter said.
The WLCA board of directors will approve a reclaimed water consultant at its monthly meeting in March.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.