Search is on for new water well sites to quench thirsty East Pasco (2024)

Earlier this month, county commissioners heard a pitch for developing 40 single-family homes on a 30-acre parcel just east of Old Lakeland Highway near Dade City.

But that wasn’t what the developer really wanted.

The project, known as Crossways, was originally proposed with 176 homes, both attached and detached, a dense development in a rural area that could not be built without water and sewer lines. Those were things neither the county nor the city had available.

Commissioners were divided on what belonged there, voting to delay action.

Much of eastern Pasco, both inside and outside the city limits of Dade City and Zephyrhills, has seen keen interest by developers but is facing the same utility constraints. There aren’t enough pipes in the ground, and even if there were, the county needs new sources of drinking water.

Last month, Zephyrhills had to extend its yearlong moratorium on new projects and annexations for another 12 months. Dade City, which has been annexing and approving new construction, has had to slow down because it can’t yet provide water and sewer service to all of the property it has added within its city limits.

While the city of Zephyrhills is working with the Southwest Florida Water Management District to resolve its water needs, the regional water supply wholesaler is looking to new water sources.

On July 26, Tampa Bay Water sent out notices to some east Pasco residents seeking their input on a plan to develop a new east Pasco well site.

“The utility is mandated to meet the current and future drinking water needs of Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties and the cities of New Port Richey, St. Petersburg and Tampa,” the letter said. “Tampa Bay Water estimates that the region will need an additional 25 million gallons per day of drinking water by 2043, with 10-20 million gallons per day needed as early as 2033.”

For Pasco alone, water demand from Tampa Bay Water is approximately 38 million gallons a day and is expected to increase by 5.6 million gallons daily, or nearly 14%, in the next decade and 11 million gallons a day, or 29% from current usage, in the next two decades. The proposed well field would have an estimated annual yield of 9 million gallons per day from brackish groundwater, fresh groundwater or a blend of both.

Some east Pasco residents have been vocal opponents to what they consider too much development on the east side of the county, fearing encroachment on a designated rural protection zone. Plans to add industrial and commercial elements into the Lacoochee area and continuing applications for residential projects near the rural zone have brought fears that the area will not stay protected.

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Last year a corner of the designated protected area, land that had among its owners Florida State Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, was lifted out of the rural zone so that a residential community of 117 homes could be built on 39 acres.

Beyond the fears of rural land disappearing if more water and sewer capacity is added, east Pasco residents who got the notice from Tampa Bay Water also are worried about another aspect of the wholesaler’s plan: the part about using “brackish” water.

A social media post by Lisa Moretti, a county commission candidate running without party affiliation who has been an advocate for protecting the rural area, raised concerns about what she believes could be afoot. She worries that it might be a first step toward the practice used elsewhere in which treated wastewater is refined to a level allowing it to be used as drinking water, something critics have labeled “toilet to tap.”

Brandon Moore, public communications manager for Tampa Bay Water, said that is not the plan for the east Pasco well field. Brackish water, or salty water underground, is what is being considered for use. Tampa Bay Water has no connection with any use of or disposal of wastewater.

Once a potential well site is identified, the plan would be to install test wells and study how the underground water supply would respond to pumping.

Discussion of the balance between growth and protection is likely to ramp up in the coming months as Pasco officials work to write their new comprehensive plan, which will take the county growth blueprint through 2050.