OUC raises specter of water rivalry

Orlando’s utility will seek renewal of its permit to pump an enormous amount of water from the vulnerable Floridan Aquifer, nearly two decades after a similar move triggered an arduous water war with Orange County and several other Central Florida governments.

This time around, Orlando Utilities Commission has not forewarned neighbors of its intentions to secure rights to one of the state’s most contested resources. The utility’s current allocation dwarfs nearly all others of its kind in Florida, including the relatively small bottledwater permits drawing intense public outrage.

“We know there is competition,” said Christopher Browder, chief legal officer at OUC, whose board decided Tuesday without comment to move forward on a permit renewal. “We expect to have some intervenors.”

In the early 2000s, OUC was aggressive in staking a claim for one of the largest withdrawals of Floridan Aquifer water permitted in the state. Florida then was experiencing blistering population growth amid a dawning realization of the environmental perils of heavy pumping from the aquifer’s rain-filled limestone deep underground.

The massive aquifer underlying much of Florida flows up at springs, hydrates wetlands and is the foundation of rivers and lakes.

To mollify state authorities and neighbors, OUC pledged to deliver millions of gallons of the city’s highly treated sewage through newly installed pipes and pumps to west Orange County for lawn and landscape irrigation that would otherwise be done with Floridan Aquifer water.

That system, called Project RENEW, was considered progressive, costly and essential to OUC’s winning a state permit valid for 20 years – which was extraordinarily longer than what most utilities could obtain – and for 109 million gallons of Floridan Aquifer water daily.

But OUC, citing a variety of excuses and blaming others for not cooperating, has reneged on its commitment to build Project RENEW.

The city utility was denied access to pipeline right-of-way owned by Florida Gas Transmission Co. and was beaten to the punch by other utilities in routing treated wastewater to west Orange County, said former OUC vice president Chip Merriam in a 2018 letter to state officials.

OUC spent more than $4 million on planning, design and development of the project, according to Merriam’s correspondence. Other OUC documents show the project would have cost more than $40 million to complete.

OUC’s 20-year permit originally was scheduled to expire in October 2023. But with the utility’s abandonment of Project RENEW, the permit will expire in October 2021 and OUC’s coveted allocation of 109 million gallons daily will drop this October to 100 million gallons daily.