GRU Hosts Heart of Florida Water Conservation Workshop
Collaboration to increase conservation in north Florida
A workshop attended by roughly 30 water-related entities met in GRU's multipurpose room to share and discuss water conservation initiatives on Earth Day. The event was hosted by GRU and coordinated by Heart of Florida Regional Coalition, an organization that promotes collaboration in north Florida to strengthen economic vitality and quality of life. The meeting encouraged an exchange of best practices currently in use for water conservation, and to present new ideas for increasing public implementation of water conservation measures.
Most agreed that outdoor water consumption was the primary concern, although replacing leak-prone toilets in older homes was stated as an important priority. Among practices used to lower consumption, the most generally applauded were tiered rates to charge more for high water consumption, curbing undue automatic water use, meter testing programs, leak detection, drought management and water restrictions.
Other ideas shared were encouraging homeowners to use low-water landscaping techniques, lobbying homeowner associations to promote "Florida Friendly" native landscaping rather than water-intensive lawns, encouraging nurseries to promote native landscaping, finding ways to discourage the overuse of private wells for irrigation, and the use of rebates to encourage in-ground irrigation system maintenance. GRU will soon be the first utility in the area offering those rebates.
Some problems facing water conservation were also discussed, such as the cost of retrofitting for appliance efficiency in older homes, homeowners installing cheap irrigation wells and then using even more water, and the difficulties involved in code enforcement.
Attendees included area utilities, water regulatory entities, municipalities and consultant services. The event was organized and facilitated by Ron Barnwell, Executive Director of Heart of Florida Regional Coalition and hosted by David Richardson, GRU's Assistant General Manager for Water and Wastewater. Opening presentations were made by Tom Swihart of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Dr. Jim Heaney, Chairman of UF's Environmental Engineering Sciences Department. After the presentations the floor was opened to a roundtable discussion by all participants. GRU offers a comprehensive list of water conservation practices.
