Message from Ray Sharp with the City Of Leesburg – Director of Environmental Services

 

We are completing the pipeline work (finally) through the Progress Energy easement - we were hung up by gopher tortoises and one easement from a property owner.  All easements and permits are now in hand.

 

We will award the bid for the Plantation Master Lift Station on 11/23.  I would expect that on-site construction will start after the holidays.  The contractor will spend December ordering materials, mobilizing, etc.  They expect a 115 day project schedule - a little optimistic in my opinion, but they say they can do it.

 

If anyone needs help setting irrigation timers for the new restrictions, remind them that we will do that at no charge.

 

There is an annual increase. Also, a notice of a rate hearing was printed on bills in either August or September, depending on one's billing cycle. //Ray ------Original Message------

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Clarification of article in the Orlando Sentinel from Troy Wilson:

 

Many of you may have read this morning's editorial in the Orlando Sentinel about water restrictions in the South Florida Water Management District (SFWND) which are out of sync with ours.  The Sentinel leaves the impression that the majority of residents in south Florida are free to irrigate three  days a week, as opposed to our one-day rule.

What the Sentinel fails to note is that within the SFWMD, the primary water source is the Biscayne aquifer, not the Floridan aquifer.  The Biscayne is an enormous surfacial aquifer directly replenished by local rainfall.  In that part of Florida, rainfall is plentiful.  The SFWMD does extend upward into a small part of southern Orange County where the source is the Floridan.  However, where the Floridan is the primary water source, the restrictions are the same as ours; once-a-week.