Progress being made on Cypress Lake Lower Floridan Aquifer AWS project
Cypress Lake is a multijurisdictional Lower Floridan aquifer alternative water supply project being developed by the Water Cooperative of Central Florida, which includes the City of St. Cloud, Toho Water Authority (Toho), Orange County Utilities, Polk County Utilities and Reedy Creek Improvement District, with Toho serving as the project administrator.
The Cypress Lake Lower Floridan aquifer water supply project is planned to ultimately treat up to 37.5 mgd of raw brackish groundwater with a projected yield of 30 mgd of finished water when fully built out to meet future projected water supply needs and ensure a sustainable water supply for the region. The Cypress Lake project will include Lower Floridan aquifer water supply wells, a reverse osmosis water treatment plant, a concentrate disposal well, and associated monitoring wells.
The first phase of the project, anticipated to be constructed by 2028, will have an approximate capacity of 7.5 mgd. The concentrate disposal well, monitoring well, and three Lower Floridan aquifer production wells are anticipated to be constructed by late 2024.
Toho recently completed construction of the concentrate disposal well (CDW) along Lake Cypress Road in Osceola County in May 2022. The final casing was set at 2,180 feet below land surface (bls) and the injection zone is 2,180 to 2,447 feet bls. Toho completed testing and water quality sampling to confirm confinement and that the well was suitable for operation as a CDW.
The monitoring well for the CDW is under construction and is currently at 1,650 ft. bls. The monitoring well will be constructed to a final depth of approximately 1,950 feet bls and is anticipated to be completed by April 2023. Toho is in the process of obtaining the necessary property for the construction of the three Lower Floridan aquifer wells and the future water treatment plant.
This project has been supported with multiple grants from the South Florida Water Management District and State of Florida. Toho has been awarded grants totaling approximately $5.56 million to date for the construction of the CDW, monitoring well and three Lower Floridan aquifer production wells. These components have an estimated total project cost of $14.1 million.
In addition, improvements are being made to interconnections (and water distribution systems) by Water Cooperative of Central Florida partners to convey the finished water from this alternative water supply source to their customers.
