About Us

Utilities division is probably the fastest growing enterprise in the county having increased from fewer than 5,000 customers in the year 2000 to over 21,400 customers today. That's an average growth rate of 20 percent per year.

The division operates 23 water production facilities capable of pumping up to 32 million gallons per day and nine wastewater treatment facilities capable of treating 1.9 million gallons per day.

As an enterprise fund, the division's funding source is through user fees and it operates under strict state and federal mandates. Each facility undergoes rigorous testing to ensure specific permit conditions are met.

The division supplies potable water directly to over 5,000 customers and to the Ozello Water Association and Apache Shores through bulk water agreements. Agreements have also been made to supply potable water to the City of Crystal River and Beverly Hills/Rolling Oaks Utilities during emergency situations.

The division continues to expand. The county's Water Quality programs are jointly funded projects -- including considerable amount of state grants to expand service into our environmentally sensitive coastal areas.

Large areas in Homosassa and Chassahowitzka will be added this year, which will allow the county to serve an additional 1,700 households in those areas and allow for the removal of septic tanks that are contributing to degradation of the county's coastal waters. In addition, the county is expanding its wastewater system to take package wastewater treatment systems off line in the coastal regions. Another five of those will be removed this coming year.

The county is aggressively pursuing a capital improvement program through the implementation of three master plans, one each for water, wastewater and reuse water.

On the water initiative, the Utility Division is extending water mains where practical to interconnect systems for both greater reliability and to reduce costs. On the wastewater treatment initiative, the Utilities Division is expanding its Meadowcrest plant from a capacity of half a million gallons per day to two million gallons per day. This will provide sufficient capacity to handle another eight years of growth and expansion in the central part of the county.

Concurrent with the expansion of Meadowcrest, the county is upgrading the facility to be able to produce treated wastewater of such a quality that it can be reused. The county will similarly be upgrading the wastewater treatment facility in Sugarmill Woods. Both will provide treated water to nearby golf courses, thus reducing the golf courses' groundwater withdrawals for irrigation.

On an annual basis, the two plants will reduce groundwater withdrawals by up to half a billion gallons per year at current flow rates and depending on growth, that figure could eventually double.

Finally, the department is also managing the studies required under state and federal laws to prepare for controlling and treating storm water runoff. The division is about seven years into a 10 year program in surveying and mapping each of 20 defined drainage basins in the county. In the next three years, these will be completed, and design of storm water retention and treatment facilities will begin.

The county is also planning and installing improvements where stormwater flows directly from areas such as parking lots directly into nearby water bodies. The county has purchased land in areas where the division has determined that stormwater retention and treatment will need to occur.