Winter Springs Water ADVISORY

Supporting Documentation:

Water Consumptive Use Permit (CUP) Violations

Prior to the emergency water shortages in Winter Springs last May, the Winter Springs Community Association (WSCA) made public records request and discovered the City of Winter Springs had not complied with the St. John’s Water Management requirement to develop alternative water sources to meet future demands (Central Florida Water Initiative). The City was found to be in violation of the St. John’s Consumptive Use Permit and is now drawing more water than we are legally allowed to draw. According to official testimony from the City’s former Director of Public Works, as recently as 2017 the City was drawing 300 million gallons LESS than its legal limit and funded projects to meet future needs:

• Between 2015 and 2017 the City of Winter Springs funded a project to add reclaimed irrigation lines throughout the City to reduce potable water consumption. The City also funded a reclaimed water plant to supply water to these lines, a plant which was working as recently as 2017.
• The City has not installed the previously funded reclaimed irrigation lines, which means new neighborhoods are water lawns using potable water, placing Winter Springs in violation of our CUP and creating last year’s emergency water shortage.
• In 2007 the City of Winter Springs Obtained a Consumptive Use Permit for more than one million gallons per day of clean, potable drinking water from the Parkstone subdivision. However, the City has not followed through on its permit and for the last 15 years the water has been discharged into polluted Lake Jessup.