Sand mines in Lake County recirculate water.
In her July 20 Lake Sentinel column, “Lake’s biggest water hogs: sand mines,” Lauren Ritchie writes that sand mines in Lake County use more water than any other user or industry in Lake County. This is misleading. While the aggregates industry (sand mines) in Lake County does receive permits from the water-management districts to pump large quantities of water, it does so utilizing closed-circuit water systems in which the water is continuously recirculated and reclaimed.
This is a well-established fact about the industry. Only a small fraction of the authorized water allocations are consumptively used by the sand mines in Lake County.
Typically, the actual consumptive use of water by these operations consists of a minuscule amount for potable use by the employees, shipments of damp product that is a maximum of 6 percent moisture by weight, and some evaporative losses that are very little when compared to evapotranspiration of the vegetative land cover before development.
To illustrate the actual impact by these operations, please consider the following comparison:
A typical swimming pool pumps about 45,000 gallons in the course of a day. All of that water is recirculated to the pool. Water is pumped out of the pool, through a treatment plant (filter), and is then returned to the pool. Occasionally, water must be added to offset losses. The water is thus continuously recirculated and reclaimed with only a small amount having to be added as “make-up water.”
The sand mines in Lake County do a very similar thing. Water is pumped from the mine lake to transport the raw sand products. At the processing plant, the sand is separated from the extraneous materials and stockpiled into various product sizes. The water and remaining materials are then pumped back to the mine lake for settling. The water is thus recirculated and reclaimed with a comparatively small amount of water added to offset losses.
The volume of water that is recirculated by the sand mines equates to about 1,100 swimmingpool pumps, each recirculating about 45,000 gallons per day. It is probably safe to assume that there are more than 1,100 swimming pools in Lake County.
The aggregates-industry operations in Lake County are responsible stewards of the water resources. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our organization, Florida Limerock & Aggregate Institute. We stand ready to supply the public with information related to our industry.
The volume of water that is recirculated by the sand mines equates to the work of about 1,100 swimmingpool pumps.