Reclaimed Water

waste-water-systemCitrus County Utilities is aggressively implementing its capital improvement program through three master initiatives: water, wastewater, and reuse water.

Among its water initiatives, CCU extends and interconnects its water systems where practical to take small, inefficient plants off line. These projects ultimately increase water quality and reliability to customers and reduce the utility’s costs, which helps stabilize customers’ rates.

The wastewater treatment initiative expanded the Meadowcrest plant from a capacity of a one-half million gallons per day to two million gallons per day. This provides sufficient capacity to handle future growth and expansion in the central part of the County. Concurrent with the expansion of the Meadowcrest plant, the utility upgraded its facility to produce high-quality treated wastewater that can be used for irrigation. Golf Courses using reclaimed water irrigation will offset water withdraws.

pondIn July 2011, Citrus County’s Meadowcrest facility began sending reclaimed water to a receiving pond at Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto for golf course irrigation. CCU extended this reclaimed water line to a second receiving pond in early 2012. These two ponds are able to accommodate up to 1.2 million gallons per day.

Additionally, Point-O-Woods Waste Water Treatment Facility currently sends one hundred percent of its reclaimed water to the nearby golf course for irrigation.

Within the next ten years, Citrus County Utilities intends to similarly upgrade its wastewater treatment facility in the Sugarmill Woods community to produce public access reclaimed water for nearby golf courses. Ultimately, with the use of reclaimed water for golf course irrigation, the two plants could reduce groundwater withdrawals by up to one-half billion gallons per year at current flow rates.