POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A shortage in the drinking water supply is a growing concern in Polk County as the county sees a huge population boom.
As water becomes increasingly scarce, drilling projects are underway to ensure a sustainable water supply for the region for the next two decades.
“Polk County, like the rest of the state, is growing at a rapid pace, and we’re already impacted within the region, so the need to develop alternative water supplies is really now,” said Jay Hoecker, Water Resources Bureau Chief for Southwest Florida Water Management District.
Spearheading the projects is Polk Regional Water Cooperative, which is a collection of 15 municipalities that are developing alternative water supplies for the county.
The agency is now drilling new super wells east of Lake Wales and in Lakeland that will penetrate two times deeper and tap into the Lower Floridan Aquifer.
“Part of these projects there's going to be a 61-mile transmission pipeline in Polk County that will route this water from our treatment plants to all the member governments, that will then pick up that water and put it into their system,” said Eric DeHaven, Executive Director of Polk Regional Water Cooperative.
Currently, the main source of water for most of Florida is the Upper Floridan Aquifer. That water is pretty much drinkable as is. That is not the case with the Lower Floridan Aquifer.
“Dealing with higher sodium and chloride. Salty water. Calcium sulfate is increased quite a bit, so we have to do a process we call reverse osmosis in order to produce that water for portable supply,” DeHaven said.
These alternative water supply projects are expected to cost more than $650 million.
“Expect residents to start seeing that water in their supply for the Southeast project participants in 2027 and for West Polk in 2028,” DeHaven said.
