[TomW]

We were in TV last week looking at homes and generally trying to pick which village suited us best. When we drove through the historic areas, I noticed the lakes had all nearly dried up. Grass was growing in the lake beds and the docks were way above the few puddles of remaining water. Asking around, some said it was because of the recent drought but several long time residents said they had never seen the lakes so low. Reading a little about it, there seems to be an issue of whether the Villages consumes more water than is sustainably available. The alternative reason for low lakes is the water table is falling due to over use of water. I also learned the developer is disputing how water depletion is calculated claiming TV should be different than the standard now used in the rest of the state. As much as I am looking forward to retirement in TV, I hope to find some assurance about the long term availability of water in the developemnt.

[Ooper]

The Florida aquifer system lies under an area of about 100,000 square miles including most of Florida, southern Missippi, Alabama, Geori=gia, and S. Carolina and is one of the most productive aquifers in the world and supplies drinking water to cities like Savannah, Jacksonville, Talahassee, Orlando and more. I don't think you have to worry about it running out of water.

[jadebox]

We have finally had some rain and the ponds are filling up. Ooper explained the water situation. We should conserve but I am not worried.

[zcaveman]

Many of the "ponds" in TV are man made and need rain water to keep them filled. Some have rubber liners to keep the water from soaking into the ground. Unfortunatley with no rain evaporation takes the water out.

[Muncle]

These are Daily Sun stories from a while back that the author emailed to me when I requested them last year. They give a pretty good explanation of the unique system here. I think the second article is form some time in 2006. And Tony, I don't think these are copyrighted since Curt emailed them to me.


Water conservation side

Publication: Daily Sun Category: Local News
Pub. Date: 9/9/04 Written By: Hills, Curt
Pub. Page: 0 A Created: 7:45:49 PM on 2/14/06
Rate plan encourages water conservation

Arnett: Excessive irrigation biggest waste of valuable resource


By CURT HILLS

SENIOR WRITER


THE VILLAGES Saving water is a mainstay message in The Villages. So much that the community is lauded as an act to follow by water management officials.

Homes are constructed with low-flow water fixtures installed, automatic
irrigation systems with rain sensors are designed to shutoff when its
raining, and residents occasionally hear about the importance of conserving water through flyers, reports on local television and articles in the newspaper.

But even with all the tools and information accessible to residents,
sometimes conservation isn't always optimized. And when that resulted in more water being withdrawn for Villages residents than what was permitted for, it made Southwest Florida Water Management District officials sit up and take notice. Water management officials issued a stern reminder to the Village Center District Government that its residents needed to do more to conserve.

"When those (conservation methods) aren't effective, the next step is
putting in a more water conserving rate structure," said Trey Arnett,
district government water resource engineer.

Arnett said the district government's decision to implement a new four-tier rate structure for users in the Little Sumter Utility Service area in The Villages was done to adhere to a requirement of the water management board.

"This is the first step that the (water management) district takes, they ask you to do a more aggressive rate structure to encourage conservation," Arnett said.

The new rate structure, pushed by water management officials, will make heavy water users pay more, thus hopefully encouraging them to reduce their usage if they want to save money.

"The idea is to set the rate structure up to where if a person using water appropriately, it won't really have an effect on their rates," Arnett said. "What it does for the customer who irrigates inefficiently or irrigates too much, it affects their bill, which provides an economic incentive to change their habits."

But saving a few dollars shouldn't be a residents only motivation for
wanting to conserve water, Arnett said.

"Water conservation is the right thing to do environmentally, even it wasn't a economic incentive, it's the right thing to do to protect the resources of Florida," he said.

And if residents don't respond to the need to conserve water, it could cause the water management district board to take more action, as far reaching as declining to renew water permits or assessing $10,000 per day fines against the district government in a worse case scenario.

"Since it's a district government, any fines that occur just get passed
through the budget, which is funded by our residents, so it affects
everybody," Arnett said.

But he's hopeful that those measure would never be enacted.

"We would hope that (the new rate structure plan) would be adequate to change our habits, we're not way over, we're only over by a little bit," Arnett said.

Why pumping exceeded allowable amount

The main culprit to The Villages slightly excessive water use is irrigation, Arnett said.

"That's by far the highest percentage of water use," he said when speaking of irrigation.

Arnett said too many residents have been led into believing that they must frequently water their lawns if they want a lush turf and their landscape plantings to survive.

"The fallacy behind it is they think they need to irrigate it at all times
to keep it green. And what happens is, when you over irrigate it and it gets accustomed to that, it starts to stress out. But if they had gotten their grass to the right point and irrigate it once or twice a week, it's just fine," Arnett said.

He said excessive watering creates turf and landscape that is less hearty, which means that the vegetation is unable to survive or sustain itself when a dry period does occur. Arnett said if water was applied only when it was truly needed, then the roots would go deeper and the plants would become stronger.

Arnett said his own yard has been absent a water sprinkler all summer.

"I haven't watered it any this summer and its lush and green. But if
irrigated it everyday and it was dry for a week, it would be crispy," he
said.

He said a lawn will "tell you" when its thirsty.

"Watch it, it's going to protect itself. If it starts to curl up when it
gets dry," he said.

Even if irrigation systems are setup on timer doesn't ensure that yards will receive the proper, and not excessive, amounts of water. If landscape companies are left to set it, Arnett said, they might be inclined to set it at level that would encourage rapid growth for more mowings. And if homeowners set it, they may forget it needs constant attention, he said.

"A lot of people have a set it and forget it mentality," Arnett said of
irrigation timers. "It's not a set it and forget it act."

Some systems come with sensors that will shut off sprinklers if its raining, but Arnett said it may resume a few days later, even if the lawn really doesn't need another dose of water at that time. That's why he recommends constantly watching over the yard and its irrigation system.

But even if water conservation deserves a little more attention from
residents, The Villages water situation is not in trouble.

"As part of an environmental program we watch wetland levels, we watch groundwater levels, we haven't seen any adverse impact on our resources, that certainly doesn't mean that you're welcome to take out as much as you want, there's a certain expectation from the water management board that we responsibly use the resources that are available to us," Arnett said.

The Villages community is touted by water management officials has being a role model other communities and developments should follow. Part of those accolades are based on the community's unprecedented three-prong conservation approach that avoids using suitable drinking water for irrigation. Instead, the community collects stormwater runoff in a series of retention ponds, reclaimed wastewater and, if necessary, lesser potable quality water from the lower Florida Acquifer for irrigation, ensuring that quality water is used purely used for essential needs only. The practice is used throughout The Villages on golf courses and common areas. The innovative conservation approach was also intensified in The Villages development south of County Road 466, where each household has two incoming
water lines, one with a potable water supply and the other for irrigation
use only that taps into those three sources.

Arnett said residents should be wary of the uneducated who scream The Villages is sucking up all of the underground water supply. The
implementation of a new rate structure and a stronger push for conservation is to ensure a future problem never develops, he said.

"We don't have a problem. The acquifer is not going to go dry," Arnett said.

Curt Hills is a senior writer with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at
753-1119, ext. 319 or curt.hills@thevillagesmedia.com

Water conservation in The Villages

By CURT HILLS

DAILY SUN

THE VILLAGES It's not meant to be a secret, but not everyone knows The Villages is quietly operating an optimal system to protect water resources.

Combining a favorable geographic makeup and a commitment to water
conservation, The Villages created a balanced water system that sharply
reduces the amount of quality drinking water extracted from Florida's
aquifer below the ground surface. It means potable water doesn't get used for irrigation and water suited for any of several purposes doesn't end up in distant seas.

But evidence of this balanced system isn't obvious to the casual observer. In fact, some of the methods of protecting this precious commodity are either hidden, such as an underground pipeline network between retention ponds, or beyond obvious recognition.

In case Villages residents haven't noticed, there are no rivers or streams that flow out of The Villages meaning that there's no opportunity for water to escape downstream to some municipality that would stake a claim to it or no chance it would flow directly into the salty Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean. The water experts refer to The Villages' hydrological makeup as a "closed basin system."

"The water isn't carried off," explained Trey Arnett, water resource
engineer for The Villages. "There's no departure (of water)."

For other areas of Florida, that's not the case, Arnett said. Metropolitan
areas like Tampa and Orlando, where troubling water issues spark headlines, watch some of their runoff flow downstream or out into Tampa Bay and the Gulf waters.

Meanwhile, back in The Villages, only evaporation takes away a limited
amount of the water.

And since the water stays, that gives The Villages the opportunity to make the most of it, which the Southwest Florida Water Management District says The Villages does.

"We definitely want people to use alternative methods (of irrigation) and The Villages does that," according to Michael Molligan, water district spokesman.

Molligan praised The Villages for using stormwater runoff and reclaimed wastewater in its irrigation efforts. Along with using water from the lower aquifer, which offers water of a quality less suited for drinking, it's part of a three-way method to avoid using the upper aquifer water the good stuff for drinking and other household needs < for irrigation purposes.

The use of those conservation methods, blended with the closed basin system, allows The Villages to create a balanced water system < perhaps proving the community is mindful of its environmental responsibilities.

It's balanced because all of the pumped groundwater is recycled and
eventually returns to the aquifer. Collecting rainwater in retention ponds and using treated wastewater for irrigation not only avoids use of aquifer water for gardening, lawn care and agricultural, but it also adds to the aquifer during the irrigation process.

"Here we're using (the water) again, it's being recycled," Arnett said.

And as The Villages community continues to develop, it reduces water losses. Open areas such as farmland, lakes, golf courses and lawns increase water losses, but developed areas like parking lots, roads, houses, sidewalks and driveways reduce that loss. With a balanced system, limited evaporation losses remain the same after development occurs as it did prior to development, Arnett said.

While The Villages has its share of golf courses and lawns, the developed areas are enough to balance the water system meaning what is taken out of the ground is put back in, illustrating that The Villages is not wasting water or losing it to some distant location.


Curt Hills is a writer with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9319, or curt.hills@thevillagesmedia.com.

[Russ_Boston]

Muncle - In the first article the author had a really great point. You don't need to water your lawn every day. I have been in a habit of watering my lawn only 1 a week and I water it for many hours on that day. I try to get 1 inch of water on it every week either through natural rain or irrigation. Of course this is up here in MA but many of my neighbors who use their irrigation system all the time have a much worse lawn than I do with the recent normal drought. Mine is very lush even with a gang of day care kids using it every day.

I think you mean Muncle, Russ. ;D My guess is that these are copyrighted articles if they appeared in The Villages Daily Sun.

[graciegirl]

I know that this is a Florida-wide situation. Our friends in Ft. Meyers have the same water restrictions as we do in TV. Only allowed to water one time a week for an hour.

[billethkid]

Most of the lakes (by FL definition) and ponds are designed to collect run off, planned for each developed area whether housing/commercial/other.

They are listed on the drawings and well noted that they may or may not contain water.

They have nothing to do with the potable water supply, maybe other than reflect the amount of rain an area has/hasn't had.

You have a lot more to worry about for example with the potential for dwindling gasoline/oil supplies than you do water.

BTK

[Happy62]

Was at the Vet today and they mentioned that a lot of pets in The Villages are getting Kidney Stones. They think it may have something to do with the water.

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by Happy62

Was at the Vet today and they mentioned that a lot of pets in The Villages are getting Kidney Stones. They think it may have something to do with the water.

Did the Vet have a recommendation? Would a filter system on the drinking water tap eliminate the problem?

[KayakerNC]

Originally Posted by barefoot at last

Did the Vet have a recommendation? Would a filter system on the drinking water tap eliminate the problem?

Yuengling works for me. :beer2:

[Sidney Lanier]

Remember, for much of TV irrigation water is recovered or stored rain water; it's this water that appears to be most affected by drought. Our drinking water comes from aquifers that, as mentioned earlier in this thread, we don't have to worry about. Notwithstanding, I don't think we can afford to treat any commodity as limitless; all should be used appropriately and without wasting....

[handieman]

Originally Posted by Happy62

Was at the Vet today and they mentioned that a lot of pets in The Villages are getting Kidney Stones. They think it may have something to do with the water.

I can't disagree with this possiblity, but I sure like my water softener ;D

Handie :joke: