Estimated Water Use Report - Southwest Florida Water ...

2005 Estimated Water Use Report
Total Water Use = 1,102 mgd
Executive Summary
The Estimated Water Use report goal is to
summarize and analyze freshwater use in the
Southwest Florida Water Management District
(District). The report is used as a data source
for a variety of water supply planning and
management purposes.
Freshwater use during calendar year 2005 is
examined in this edition of the Estimated
Water Use Report. In addition to reporting
total water use, six specific water use
categories are individually analyzed: Public
Supply, Domestic Self-supply,
Recreational/Aesthetic, Agricultural,
Mining/Dewatering, and
Industrial/Commercial.
The Public Supply category includes public
water systems and privately held water utilities
required by permit to report pumpage to the
District. Water utilities that are too small to be
required to report pumpage also are included.
The Domestic Self-supply category assesses the
estimated freshwater consumption from nonpermitted
individual wells.
Recreational/Aesthetic use includes water
used for self-supplied large-scale landscapes,
parks, and golf courses. The Agricultural use
category provides estimated water use by crop
type. Mining/Dewatering examines the selfsupplied
water use of mining operations,
itemized by the type of material being
extracted. The Industrial/Commercial category
disaggregates water use data by industry type,
including power generation for those
businesses and institutions that are selfsupplied.
The primary sources of data for this report are
unpublished water use permit (WUP) records,
especially pumpage records, which specific
permittees are required to submit on a regular
basis. Additional data sources include, but are
not limited to, an annual survey of Public
Supply permittees, population studies from the
University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and
Business Research, and agricultural water use
data.
In 2005, an estimated 1.1 billion gallons of
freshwater was withdrawn each day within
the District. Approximately, 76 percent of the
withdrawals were supplied from ground-water
sources (Table B-1).
Total Public Supply Use = 605 mgd
In 2005, Public Supply water users, including
Domestic Self-supply, constituted the largest
single category, withdrawing an estimated
605 million gallons each day (mgd), or 55
percent of total freshwater withdrawal
(ground and surface) within the District .
Agricultural water users consumed 312 mgd
or 28 percent (ground and surface) (Table 9).
Industrial/Commercial and
Mining/Dewatering each consumed 62 mgd
and 54 mgd, respectively (Table 9).
At the county level, Hillsborough and Polk
counties used 220 mgd and 203 mgd of total
fresh water, respectively. In these two
counties, most of the water was used to
support population and economic growth.
With approximately 125 mgd, Manatee
County used most of its water to support
Agriculture (74 mgd) and Public Supply (51
mgd) categories.
In 2005, Hillsborough County maintained the
largest total Public Supply water withdrawal of
the sixteen counties. An average of 227 mgd
was withdrawn each day in Hillsborough
County, or approximately 21 percent of the
District's total water withdrawal. A portion of
Hillsborough County's total withdrawal was
exported to Pasco and Pinellas counties. In
Pinellas County, 93 percent (107 mgd) of its
total water was consumed for public supply
purposes.
Total Agricultural Water Use = 312 mgd
In 2005, agriculture water consumers in
Manatee, Polk and Hillsborough counties used
74 mgd, 55 mgd and 48 mgd, respectively. For
a summary of total estimated water
Southwest Florida Water Management District
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