Southeast and West Polk Wellfields and Water Production Facilities

Fresh groundwater from the Upper Floridan Aquifer is currently the source of potable water supply for essentially all of Central Florida. To protect the region’s natural resources from over-pumpage, regulators have determined that future potable water supplies must come from alternative sources. To reduce costs and maximize opportunities for co-funding, it became necessary to share alternative water supply sources amongst communities and to address these challenges. Polk County and each of the cities within Polk County formed the Polk Regional Water Cooperative (PRWC). The intent of the PRWC is to encourage and maximize use of alternative water supplies to the most efficient extent practicable.

To help meet future demands, the PRWC selected Carollo as the prime consultant to study the feasibility of four water supply projects and corresponding pipelines, for which water quality and treatment evaluations, as well as conceptual and preliminary designs are included in the combined project. Two of these projects include conceptual and preliminary designs for the Southeast Wellfield and Water Production Facility (WPF) and the West Polk Wellfield and WPF.

For the Southeast WPF and West Polk WPF, the Carollo team provided water quality analysis of the Lower Floridan Aquifer, identified quantity and quality of water available from the wellfields, evaluated treatment options, provided bench-scale testing, recommended the most technically and economically viable process to treat the water, met post-treatment requirements, and performed hydraulic modeling and water quality modeling for compatibility of treated regional water with member governments’ water distribution systems in terms of all stability and corrosion control indices. Carollo also helped to determine the most viable option for disposing of waste residuals, developed conceptual and preliminary facility designs for the recommended treatment process, and provided cost estimates for the treatment facilities. The team recently delivered 60 percent design drawings.

The Southeast Lower Floridan Aquifer brackish supply wellfield will provide up to 37.5 mgd of raw groundwater for a 30-mgd Southeast WPF at buildout. The Southeast WPF will be implemented in phases, with the initial phase planned at 7.5 mgd. The West Polk Wellfield will provide up to 13.3 mgd of groundwater for the 10-mgd West Polk WPF. The West Polk WPF is being implemented in five phases with the initial phase planned at 2.5 mgd.

The Carollo team has helped PRWC secure over $600 million in funding to date, including $305 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program and nearly $250 million in grants from the Southwest Florida Water Management District.