Standard Format Tentative Budget Submission - Southwest Florida ...

B. Major Budget Objectives and Priorities
III. Budget Highlights
Florida Statutes, especially Chapter 373, authorize the District to direct a wide range of initiatives,
programs, and actions. These responsibilities can be grouped under four general areas: water supply,
water quality, natural systems and flood protection.
In developing the Strategic Plan, the District has established a goal statement for each of these areas,
along with strategic initiatives designed to meet those goals. The strategic initiatives provide focus for
bureaus to identify budgetary requirements necessary to carry out District programs, and serve as the
foundation for developing the budget. The following strategic initiatives, by Area of Responsibility
(AOR), are included in the District’s Strategic Plan that was approved by the Governing Board on
November 16, 2010, and serves as the Major Objectives/Priorities for the development of the tentative
fiscal year 2013-14 budget.
The associated AOR allocations are defined by the Program Budget (see IV.C. Program Allocations by
Area of Responsibility).
Water Supply $54,279,112
Goal: Ensure an adequate supply of the water resource to provide for all existing and future
reasonable and beneficial uses while protecting and maintaining water resources and related natural
systems.
Regional Water Supply Planning – Identify, communicate and promote consensus on the strategies
and resources necessary to meet future reasonable and beneficial water supply needs.
The District is providing cost share funding for several water supply planning efforts in the tentative
fiscal year 2013-14 budget, including the Withlacoochee Regional Water Supply Authority’s regional
planning effort to increase conservation and the beneficial reuse of reclaimed water in the District’s
northern counties and the Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority’s (PRMRWSA)
Integrated Regional Water Supply Master Plan update ($85, 847). These plans, along with last year’s
funding of a water supply plan update in Polk County, will help lay the groundwork for the next update
of the District’s Regional Water Supply Plan in 2015. The District is also collaborating with the St. Johns
River and South Florida water management districts, the Department of Environmental Protection, the
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and public supply utilities on the Central Florida
Water Initiative (CFWI). The District has budgeted $252,725 to continue this effort which will result in a
Regional Water Supply Plan for the five-county CFWI area, where the effects of water withdrawals span
three water management district boundaries.
Alternative Water Supplies – Increase development of alternative sources of water to ensure
groundwater and surface water sustainability.
The District offers funding incentives for the development of alternative water supplies (AWS) to reduce
competition for limited supplies of fresh ground water. The District leverages other local and regional
funding by offering matching funds up to 50 percent of the cost of AWS projects. Reclaimed water and
conservation, both of which could be considered alternative water sources, are covered separately.
In recent years, the District has completed budgeting for several major AWS projects, including a
six-billion-gallon reservoir and treatment plant expansion at the PRMRWSA and Tampa Bay Water’s
System Configuration II project. The tentative fiscal year 2013-14 budget includes $301,515 for
regional interconnect projects in the PRMRWSA area, which will eventually connect the region’s major
water systems and ensure the reliability of water supply throughout the four counties. Other major
AWS projects proposed for funding include the City of Clearwater’s Brackish Floridan Aquifer Reverse
Osmosis System ($6 million), and aquifer recharge projects (Northwest Hillsborough Aquifer Recharge,
$1.5 million, and Palmetto Dry Season Reclaimed ASR, $903,491) to utilize deep aquifer storage and
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