Water conservation is necessary for Lakeland to meet its future water needs. Water conservation may only come to mind during a drought, but using water efficiently year round, even during wet times, means there will be more water available during droughts.
Water Conservation Benefits:
What about the lake water?
We have abundant water in the lakes here in Lakeland, but our lake water supports important ecological resources and natural beauty that we don’t want to impact or lose. The amount of lake water available is unreliable since it depends on the climate.
Lake water is also much more expensive to treat than groundwater, and is vulnerable to pollution and evaporation.
Water Shortages
Lakeland gets its water from the Upper Floridan Aquifer, which is a body of very clean water deep underground. This groundwater is replaced by the rain at a very slow rate. Projections show that at the current rate of use, the aquifer will not meet our water needs through 2035, so it is very important that we do as much as possible to cut back on the water that we use. Because of this water shortage the Southwest Florida Water Management District created the year-round lawn watering restrictions of only two days per week (see Ways You Can Help Our Water Supply for details). These restrictions are designed to help make our water supply last.
Over-pumping the aquifer can lead to:
Ways You Can Help Conserve Our Water Supply