R-1 Water Conservation Month
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
This archive found it in the recording: a call to order, a recess, or business the board never listed. The county recorded nothing about it, so everything below is our reading.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Apr 4, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Apr 4, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 17m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 83% of 71 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
So R is one. Ready? Ready?
A resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the month of April as Water Conservation Month in Pasco County. Whereas safe, clean, and sustainable water resources are essential to Pasco County citizens, visitors, the environment, and the economy, and whereas although Pasco County has a limited supply of freshwater, In our underground aquifer, lakes, and rivers, the county's population and need for water resources continues to increase. And whereas droughts and water shortages serve as a reminder that Florida's
water resources, no matter how diverse, are finite. And whereas Florida has established the encouragement and promotion of water conservation and reuse as state objectives in Chapters 373 and 403, Florida statutes, and whereas every business, industry, school, and citizen can make a difference when it comes to conserving water, thus promoting a healthy community and economy, And whereas the State of Florida Water Management Districts, Tampa Bay Water and its members, governments, and the Florida Government Utility Authority are working
with other community supporters to increase the awareness about the importance of water conservation. And whereas to preserve potable water resources, Pasco County Treat to Wastewater to public access standards stores more than 712 million gallons at two reservoirs. and eleven tanks and delivers approximately twenty-five million gallons per day of high quality reclaimed water to forty-one thousand two hundred residents and to a variety of other customers and locations. And whereas the state of Florida,
the Southwest Florida Water Management District, and Pasco County have previously dedicated April, typically a dry month when potable water demands are most acute, as Florida's Florida's Waters Conserv Conservation Month to encourage citizens to help preserve Florida's precious water resources and whereas the continued support of April as Florida's Water Conservation Month reinforces the conservation message, ordinances and efforts put forth by the Pasco County Border County Commissioners in its support and
encouragement of the conservation measures, now therefore it be resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby declares the month of april twenty twenty three as Water Conservation Month in Pasco County, and calls upon each citizen to help protected To help protect this precious and shared resource done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present and voting this fourth day of April 2023.
Okay. The motion. Move
approval.
Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Commissioner Weightman.
Thank you, Chairman. Aye. This is this is a a a no-brainer, I think, for everybody in Florida and in Pasco County to recognize Water Conservation Month and we just recognize fixed leak week, you know, during the dry month of April. It's incredible. Important and we thank you all for all the work that you do. Saving our water, you know, it's a such a precious commodity, and it's such a high honor to have you all here today after serving Swift Mud and now serving with Chairman Oakley on Tampa Bay
Water. And I appreciate you all being here and the work you do to help save and uh help promote the savings of our precious water resources.
Mr. Chairman Mariano Ms. Well I'm happy to see you guys here instead of usually I see you in Clearwater maybe when you're down there reporting. So But it's a great story here for Pasco County. We do use our own reclaim water for the uses here for our citizens and we're very fortunate in that way that we didn't dump reclaim water out into a water body somewhere else like in the Gulf Gulf or somewhere else. So uh we don't have that issue, but we've put in the water
resources where we're able to use that for irrigation for all our new growth in the county. So uh I thank Thank you for all your work to doing that. The team does a great job and I cannot be more proud of all of you for what you do. So thank you.
Very good.
Here well. Commissioner Bradford.
Thank you. Congratulations. I'd like to thank uh Commissioner Oakley and Commissioner Weightman 'cause everything I know about water. They've taught me. Other than the more money the more water I use, the bigger my bill is. But uh you guys are doing a great job and uh congratulations again.
Okay. Commissioner Starkey?
Well the same. You know, I served you know six years on the Swift Bug Board, graduate of the Water Leadership Institute. And um I'm just happy that you're getting this recognition today. So welcome. Welcome to the gathering.
Yeah. I thank all of you for all your work. Matt, I see you there. Good to see ya. Amber, why aren't you up here? Come on up here. Yeah. Let's
go. Yeah.
Thank
you
all, Commissioner Weightman. Thanks
for
bringing this forward. Water conservation is critical. Do you want to add something else?
Yes sir. I'd like to so for Pasco County, just raise your hand. I think it's important to recognize yourself. So we have Sandra Allen, Phoenix McKinney, and David Allen. Thank you. Uh from Pasco County Extension Office, Jim Mole and Kate Caste. Thank y'all. Tampa Bay Water, Amelie Brown. Good to see you. Uh from Swift Mud, Cassidy Hampton, and uh the Amber Smith who's hiding in the back. And um The floor is the floor is yours. Wait, we have that G O A representative
back there. From FUGWA. Matt Rees. Is Matt Rees here? There you go. Good to see you. And then retired FUGWA, Mike Corbala over there. Give him some kudos. But the floor is is yours. Please share your story from each one of your organizations and and be proud of what you do for us.
So so thank you. Um I'm David Allen, Utilities Director for Pasco County. Good morning, Chair Mariano and Board Members. Um thank you, Commissioner Weightman, for bringing forward this this uh proclamation. I think that Based on the the guest list here you could really see that water conservation is truly a partnership with with a lot of different folks. It touches every everyone in one form or another. And I think it's really important for us to be able to continue to save our resources and and manage those as best as we can, particularly as we look at conservation
as a as a strategy to reduce the development of new supplies, particularly if we could reuse And recycle and reclaim, like we do with our reclaimed water system. Those are all huge benefits for us from a management, resource management standpoint, but also just from a cost standpoint, it helps to keep the rates down for our customers and those types of things. So we have many, many programs that we have, going from rebates to poster contests, partnerships with Pasco County School Board. So what I'd like to
do, and thank you, Commissioner Weightman, for listing off all of the participants, because I I had, I was trying to keep a list and you have this, so thank you for doing that. But what I'd like to do is just leave uh give the microphone to everybody just for uh a minute or so just to um highlight um you know where they're from and then how they help contribute to water conservation in Pasco County.
Thank you. Phoenix can't even say my name. Phoenix McKinney. I'm the water conservation and efficiency coordinator for Pasco County Utilities. I first of all would like to thank all of you for your ongoing support and emphasis on water conservation. I've had the distinct pleasure of working with many of these people for as much as 25 years on this effort. And it is an ongoing effort and it is very important. I did want to just take a moment to talk briefly about irrigation because it is an issue
that we consent continue to see growing pressure on. and um a recent study that University of Florida provided is about a thousand gallons per event if irrigation is efficient. at a home. However, only about fifty percent of the irrigation systems that we see are efficient. So I would urge everyone to keep that in mind. and each of the persons standing up here represents some sort of assistance to help all
of our customers and all of our residents in Pasco County uh increase not only the irrigation efficiency but the efficiency of their overall use. So I'm hoping each of them will take a moment to highlight uh how they contribute to that and I am always available to help people if they have questions or need assistance. Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Kate Case and I represent the Florida Friendly Landscaping Program for the University of Florida IFIS Extension Office for Pasco County, and my counterpart is. I'm Jim Mull with Pasco County Extension. I'm not
a new face here. I've been here for almost a decade. So we've seen me in front of the folks on the floor. It's an honor to be here. What we do, we bring with the University of
Florida, we bring that research to the carry a lot of help the citizens.
Good morning, I'm Cassidy Hampton. I am an environmental project manager with the Southwest Florida
So first I want to say thank you to you all for recognizing
this really important topic. For many years the district has encouraged and promoted water conservation in part through education and outreach as well as some of our cost share programs and we look forward to continuing to work with you all on water conservation moving forward. So thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning, Matthew Reese, Community Services Manager for FGUA, 6915 Perine Ranch Road, Newport Ritchie, Florida, 34655. We have been partners with Pasco County for 14 years. We appreciate that partnership. We've had over 18,000 students that have gone through our water awareness poster contest teaching the kids, and that's really about the beginning part of their educational journey. Teaching children helps to then cheat teach adults. And we have really had a a a great partnership
w uh in regards to this program, also with local businesses and sponsors who all share that vision of smart environmental stewardship and partnership. So again, thank you so much for your continued support and we look forward to another fourteen years of the program. Thank you. Thank you, Matt.
Good morning. My name is Amelia Brown. I'm the Demand Management Program Manager at Tampa Bay Water. Tampa Bay Water, along with Pasco County and our member governments to whom we provide drinking water, have invested in water conservation for over two decades. The results of those efforts, along with the use of reclaimed water, have saved 24.5 million gallons per day over the course of about two decades. While the population has increased in the Tampa Bay area, water use per person has dropped from 160
gallons per person per day to 102 gallons per person per day, which is a major accomplishment. We plan to continue this trend moving forward. Tampa Bay Long Water, along with Pasco and our member governments, have been partnering to implement the Tampa Bay Water Wise Program, which is our regional water conservation rebate program, which helps residents and businesses save water indoors and outdoors. Saving water outdoors is essential to saving water in general, so we are grateful that you
have adopted. This resolution recognizing the importance of water conservation. Thank you.
Thank you.
be remiss if I didn't add add to this. I you know, I think we all know water holds the power of life or death. And uh civilizations thrived around water. Early cities were were built around rivers and and access to water. And I've just been fortunate over the course of of twenty-five years to have worked with a fantastic number of professionals, both at the regional level, who provide just fantastic regional solutions, right, that that you know make sure that we have we have clean water, flood protection, and
available and abundant supplies to Those Here at the utility level, FGUA and Pasco County utilities, to providing direct water quality to our customers. Fantastic. So just appreciate you bringing this forward, Commissioner Weightman, the recognition that we've, even though this planet is three quarters water. One or two percent of it is actually clean. And so to actually acknowledge the fact that we have to conserve and keep that for future generations, there's no more or no less water on this planet than there ever has been. And so the fact that we we continue to conserve it and use it wisely
is is just fantastic. So thank you for bringing that forward. Thank you. Oh no.
Uh Commissioner Oakley has a question.
I just got a question for David. Um David, we have uh a program that takes uh like on our coasts or around any lakes or anything of that nature where we can take people off septi tank on to uh sewer, tap in so rather than staying on sewer? No we don't, not
yet.
We don't have that program.
No, that's uh we we have we we're planning to uh my With with uh Mr. Mo to meet with commissioners um individually um in the upcoming weeks to be able to talk about where do we go with the septic sewer um issue because it's certainly a big issue not only here in Pasco but I think it's a statewide issue and there's you know environmental concerns with growing population and something w we we'd like to um kinda outline with you what what the challenges that we have and in and propose a path forward for
us here at Pasco. Right.
I know they've been working on those programs on in Citrus and also I think um Hernando County's along yep along the coast, run especially around our springs across the river and and Homeless ASA, they've been doing those kind of programs for quite a while. And uh it's it's to the benefit of everybody. Keep that water cleaner. So It's good.
Thanks for bringing that up, Commissioner Oakley. And and I would say we we did meet with uh Commissioner Oakley, Wilton Simpson, while we're up in Tallahassee, and he did talk about that Septic Dassore program. The opportunities out there are huge. We'd love to work with all of you to try to make that happen because the cleaner what we have out in the Gulf, the better it's gonna be. Um So us working together is gonna be a great benefit. Commissioner Weightman
Yeah just to close, you know it's fantastic team effort you all do. So many different organizations with the same goals, same mission, and we all serve the same folks, the same customer. So thanks for being one team and being unified on on on this on this very important issue and uh continuing you the technologies that come forward to to keep our water safe and potable and clean and people happy and affordable. So thank you all
for everything you do for our county and neighboring countries and cities.
Okay. Commissioner Weightman, do you want to go down there? We'll stand back over here or
do a picture.
Ambry, want you in the pitching one. Give Andy your phone. Let's go.
Okay.
I think I'm definitely.
No room left. Yeah, so I can do that.
Wait, she's being blocked. You're blocking her. I can see that from the
turn angle it get there. Thank you very much.
Great, thank you. All right.
Yeah, one more.
Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.