CCUA Stormwater Harvesting Project

Project Summary

The project involved the construction of a stormwater harvesting pilot project to supplement the public access reuse system with stormwater from an FDOT wet detention pond located along the first phase of the First Coast Outer Beltway/SR23. The project involved the installation of 1,000 to 1,200 feet of horizontal well adjacent to FDOT’s wet detention stormwater ponds; including a wet well and submersible pump for the augmentation into CCUA’s nearby public access reclaimed water distribution system. The project will provide approximately 0.7 MGD of alternative water.

Project Goals

Waterbodies Impacted: Brooklyn and Geneva Lakes

Benefits: Keystone Heights MFL

This project will save the high quality potable sources by using an alternative supply, such as stormwater, to augment the public access reuse distribution system during periods of high demand.

The pilot project will harvest stormwater from the FCOB to supplement CCUA’ s public access reuse water system as an alternative water supply instead of using high quality potable sources.

Project Maintenance

Operating and maintenance costs for each horizontal well will include power, chemical, equipment maintenance/repair, and labor costs. Power costs will include the power to run the pump, air compressor, and disinfection facilities. Chemical costs include sodium hypochlorite for disinfection prior to pumping to the public access reuse transmission/distribution system. Equipment costs include maintenance/repair of the submersible pump, air compressor, and chemical feed system. Labor costs are assumed to be one person for an average of one (1) hour per week.

Annual cost: $7,500 – $23,000

Project Cost & Funding

Total Project Cost: $920,180
Total Construction Cost: $620,030

Community Engagement

The Clay County Board of County Commissioners convened a Water Summit on May 27, 2015. At that meeting CCUA’s Executive Director, Tom Morris, presented CCUA’s plans for sustainable water supply development, including the FCOB Stormwater Harvesting Project. This was a public meeting. Comments from Commissioners and interested public attendees indicated that this project is supported by the public and viewed positively as a benefit to the Keystone Heights lakes.

Outcomes & Results

The submersible pump will be controlled using floats in the wet well. If the water level in the wet well is above the “PUMP ON”, pump will be called to run unless the water level in the stormwater pond is below the “permanent pool” level (as sensed by floats in the pond) and/or the pressure in the reuse transmission/distribution (as sensed by a pressure transducer on the discharge pipe of pump) is above a preset pressure indicating no demand for reuse. The ability to operate the pump using a VFD could also be provided to allow variance of flow and pressure. The ability to control the pump remotely could also be provided.

There were no significant issues that CCUA encountered during the design and construction of the project, other than coordinating with all relevant stakeholders. However, there was one important lesson learned after construction and CCUA began its data collection for the pilot study. The instrumentation and controls (I&C) for the pilot were not designed to fulfill quite everything that we had wanted for data collection.

For future projects, we will look at more robust collection capabilities so that we can automatically monitor a larger suite of parameters on a regular basis. CCUA has just recently initiated its data collection activities for its pilot study, including background sample collection. We will have more information as we begin getting results back, and we will identify data collection deficiencies to be fixed on future projects.

Additional Resources

CCUA Cost Share Application (includes Design Specifications)