Reverse Osmosis in Lake Worth

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When Laurence McNamara, Chair of Citizens Come first Political Action Committee, first presented his innovative idea of bottling a small percentage of our reverse osmosis water, branding it and selling it in order to make much needed revenue, 71% of the pollsters on this blog agreed that this was a good idea. He brought it up in front of the Commission and they remained silent. Someone must have thought the idea had some merit because yesterday the City was distributing bottled water from our Reverse Osmosis system at its plant tour. Everyone with whom I spoke agreed that it was a terrific idea. McNamara suggested taking 1% of our water from our new reverse osmosis system, bottling it for revenue thus putting our name on the map.

Attended by approximately 600 people, Lake Worth's Reverse Osmosis plant had its official dedication and public relations event on Saturday at the Water Plant. Some of our Commissioners, as well as utility personnel wearing new blue shirts with the city logo were out in force and all highly enthusiastic. It was just another great moment for Lake Worth. All citizens who came were able to tour the new plant and a "free" lunch was provided. On the shuttle, a lady with her kids was only coming for the free lunch. Her husband worked there, she said. Everyone loves the free lunch, not just Commissioners.

The RO system treats brackish water from the Floridan Aquifer. In reverse osmosis, high pressure is applied to the water being treated, forcing pure water through a semipermeable membrane and leaving behind the dissolved salts. Because the salinity of water in the Upper Floridan aquifer is considerably less than that of seawater, the expense of reverse osmosis treatment is also less. We drilled Floridan aquifer wells and installed associated wellhead pumps, piping, backup power sources and Floridan aquifer raw water transmission mains.

Our plant was completed in the early part of July 2011 and presently it is producing about 1.5 million gallons daily but can produce 4.5 million gallons. Looking to the future, the Commission agreed that our system needs to expand to accommodate growth. Our system can do just that, producing up to 9 million gallons a day. You are now drinking our new water.

This is a great achievement for Lake Worth and for Commissioner Golden who had been promoting our own RO for years. "This is the future," she said. City Manager Susan Stanton has said that she predicts the cost of our water will go down. With the cost of water going up 5.25% this year, this operating cost will be fully analyzed once a year to ensure Lake Worth customers the best price possible. Who knows--if we do go forward with bottling our own water, the generated revenue will drive down the overall operating costs. This would be a bureaucracy and a department that has lucrative possibilities and one that would get my support.

Reverse Osmosis Plant