In thirsty Zephyrhills, moratorium on new development likely to continue
The City Council for Zephyrhills, famous for its bottled water, gave its initial approval this week to extend a moratorium on new development while it wrestles with how to boost its own public water supply.
The move would extend the existing moratorium by one year and would include a halt to annexations.
Zephyrhills, which became Pasco’s largest city in the last census, established the pause in growth last year after it neared the limit imposed by the regional water management authority. Known for years as “The City of Pure Water” and home of the water-bottling facility bearing its name, Zephyrhills began negotiating with the Southwest Florida Water Management District over an increase in its permit to pump water last year.
This week, City Manager Billy Poe told City Council members that the latest questions from the district were heading in a new direction. Zephyrhills had hoped that it could resolve its immediate water challenge by striking an agreement with a landowner adjacent to the city who is planning a major development on 900 acres.
Because that landowner had 790,000 gallons a day of water draw capacity from wells on the property, city leaders have been hoping to strike a deal to provide city water to the development while taking over that extra water pumping capacity.
In a letter sent to the city April 11, the water management district expressed concern about the arrangement and sought more information.
“The District requires reasonable assurance that predicted drawdown will not affect environmental features,” wrote Brian Szenay, a professional geologist in the water use permitting bureau.
The city was permitted to draw 3.3 million gallons of water per day. Currently, it is seeking an increase to 4.48 million gallons, Poe told the council. To do that, the water management district requires the city to add several surface water locations to conduct monitoring for signs of overpumping as well as a detailed plan for monitoring.
Poe said the city is working on a response to argue that an expanded monitoring system isn’t needed while also trying to identify additional monitoring locations and negotiate with nearby landowners.
The water management district also said that the deal the city hoped to strike with the developer could run 30 years or more, well past the expiration of the city’s water drawing permit. Since the district can’t negotiate beyond that date, it asked the city to provide more timeline information and details about the proposed development.
“The problem is there is no more detail to give at the moment,” Poe told the City Council.
Because ongoing negotiations would likely last several more months, Poe said he thought the extension of the moratorium was necessary.
City Council members had several questions. One noted that one water pumping agreement doesn’t address the longer-term issue of finding additional water sources as the city continues to grow.
That larger discussion has to wait until this negotiation is done, Poe said. While there have been talks about other options, including working with Dade City on water supply, any additional water supply expansion would likely complicate the current negotiations, he said.
To answer other concerns, Poe assured council members that their consultants on the water permit expansion were doing a good job but “the rules kind of changed a couple of times” with the water district.
