In an effort to contribute to the growth of County Line Road and its development projects, the county has evaluated the sale of water from Hernando County to Pasco County- for a particular development just south of County Line Road. On March 27, 2018, the Hernando County Board of County Commissioners continued the discussion from previous meetings held in February and March on the matter.
The previous meetings held resulted in the denial of the sale of potable water, but the Commissioners brought up the prospect of potentially supplying water for fire suppression needs. The current water use permit in effect is set to last for twenty years- after being established in 2015. The current water use summary, provided by Hernando County Utilities, states that by 2035 the total permissible quantity of water for Hernando would be 23.3 million gallons per day.
In 2017, Hernando’s water usage totaled to about 18.8 million gallons per day, 80% of the permitted quantity. HCUD estimates, “The daily usage for 2017 was approximately 4% higher than the previous year. If this trend continues, HCUD would reach its permitted allowable capacity by the year 2023, well short of the expected permitted term of 2035.” It is because of these projections, the Board elected not to supply water- but was willing to consider supplying it, in conjunction with Pasco County, for fire suppression only.
The HCUD analysis report also mentioned that upcoming infill developments will also be problematic in terms of water supply. The Spring Hill Town Center project will add 450,000 gallons per day in residential water usage and 100,000 gallons per day in commercial water usage. The report states, “When the subject of water supply was mentioned during this meeting (July 26, 2017 pre-application meeting), a SWFWMD representative present stated decisively that no additional water withdrawal would be permitted in the Spring Hill area. Any additional water withdrawal would have to be from the north or eastern regions of the County. The utility has initiated capital projects to add one or more water plants and associated wells in the eastern service area, but these are only in the planning stages now and will not be available to provide water for the western service area for many years. Once available groundwater sources have been depleted, the county will have to move to more expensive and less desirable water sources, such as reverse osmosis and direct potable reuse.” The Cortez Oaks project is estimated to use 147,000 gallons per day of water for residential and 22,000 gallons per day for commercial.
Commissioner Dukes was the first to voice concern for the proposed measure and went on to disagree with the measure for the fire suppression provision.
Citizen comments were overwhelmingly against Hernando County selling water to Pasco County. Mentioning that it doesn’t make sense with the “stringent measures that have been taken by [Hernando] County” like only being able to water once a week, in an attempt to save as much water as possible, only to have it be ‘given away.’ Anthony Palmieri, contributing the last remarks of citizen comments, brought up the point that allowing for this sale to go through would set a precedent that could start a slippery slope. Mentioning that if it happens once, it may happen again- but what happens if the water in the county runs out?
County Commissioner Dukes made the motion to deny water for Pasco County including no fire suppression which passed unanimously.