CFWI kicks off 2025 Regional Water Supply Planning effort

The Central Florida Water Initiative (CFWI) Regional Water Supply Plan (RWSP) team held its first virtual meeting to kick off the 2025 planning effort, which was attended by nearly 70 CFWI team members and stakeholders.

The 2025 RWSP will identify existing and projected water needs as well as projects and funding sources to meet those needs over the next 20 years. The plan, which is a five-year update to the 2020 CFWI RWSP, is a collaborative effort between the St. Johns, Southwest and South Florida water management districts as well as various agencies, utilities and stakeholder groups. The CFWI Planning Area consists of all of Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Polk counties and southern Lake County, covering approximately 5,300 square miles.

“The RWSP is a collaborative effort, so it was great to see so many stakeholders participating in our first meeting,” said Claire Muirhead, Regional Water Supply Planning Coordinator for the St. Johns River Water Management District.

During the meeting RWSP team members reviewed a high-level schedule for developing the draft plan, which will be available for public review in early 2025. The final plan is scheduled to be approved by the governing boards of the three water management districts by the end of 2025.

RWSP team members also confirmed that the plan will incorporate the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) population projections. Draft projections are expected in Fall 2022 and final projections in 2023. Stakeholders will have opportunities to discuss the projections with the RWSP team once the projections are available.

The RWSP team will be holding meetings with stakeholders every two to three months and will begin meeting more frequently once the draft population projections are available. For more information on the RWSP effort, please contact the CFWI water management district contacts at cfwiwater.com/contacts.