THE FLORIDA COUNCIL OF 100, a nonpartisan nonprofit of policy-focused business leaders, aims to launch within the next two years the State University System-based Water Center — Florida’s fi rst consolidated source of water quality and quantity data and technical assistance. The goal is for state universities to contribute research to an AI-enabled digital repository, making water-related information more accessible for the masses. The council is soliciting feedback from local stakeholders and water experts this year about their needs for such services. “There’s so much information about water,” says Susan Story, vice chair of the council’s water subcommittee. “How do we get our arms around it so that every person in the state of Florida can use it, whether you’re an operator of a water treatment plant or you’re a developer?”
ALICIA KEETER, executive director of the Florida Rural Groundwater Association, says rural utilities are banding together with larger local utilities to regionalize their water supplies and share infrastructure costs. The Waccasassa Water and Wastewater Cooperative, for instance, connects several municipal utilities across Levy County to form a regional water supply and wastewater disposal cooperative.
FLORIDA’S FIVE water management districts, originally segmented according to their surface water systems, are banding together to solve their interconnected groundwater problems. The Central Florida Water Initiative links three water management districts to tackle the biggest projected shortage in the state. The North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership connects the St. Johns River and Suwannee River water management districts. “Groundwater has no respect whatsoever for those surface water basins or any other political boundaries,” says Michael Register of the St. Johns River Water Management District. “What we end up doing is having collaborative water supply plans with our neighboring districts so we can work together because we share the same sources.”