Following three water service disruptions and boil-water advisories affecting residents in the city’s northern service area over the past month, the Groveland City Council held a workshop Thursday, October 8, to review the city’s most urgent water infrastructure needs and discuss how to prioritize and fund critical improvements.
During the workshop, council members approved a halt to the planned utility rate increase as the city reassesses its infrastructure priorities and funding needs. The increase was part of a multiyear utility rate plan approved in 2024 to help finance major improvements, including new water treatment plants, pipelines and other essential infrastructure.
Although the workshop was prompted by the recent service disruptions, the discussion extended beyond the immediate problems to encompass Groveland’s citywide, five-year capital improvement plan. Council members reviewed the broader challenges facing the city’s water system, including aging infrastructure, outdated technology and the need for greater reliability and emergency preparedness.
The most recent pause was caused by a break in a 16-inch water main that was about 30 years old, according to city information shared with residents. Although the workshop was called in response to a succession of three water disruptions and boil-water advisories for residents in the city’s northern service area, the Council focused on the full, citywide, five-year capital improvement plan. The intent was to better understand the holistic challenges facing the city, including aging infrastructure and technology.
The city’s water services contractor, Woodard & Curran, shared a presentation that included a risk-assessed list of urgent projects and solutions, including:
- Overhauling SCADA systems in all the city’s four water plants. SCADA, which stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, is a computerized network of software and hardware used to monitor, control and automate water treatment and distribution processes in real time. The existing system was responsible for two of the three recent disruption events at the Sunshine Water Plant.
- Creating system redundancy by building a second water main pipe to deliver water from the plant for about 1.2 miles along US 27. The original pipe was installed by the developer of what’s now the Trilogy neighborhood and has failed five times in the past four years. A break in this pipe caused the third disruption on September 30. Alternate ways to create redundancy will also be explored.
- Improving lightning suppression systems at all plants to decrease vulnerability to weather-related incidents. A lightning strike is suspected to have caused a separate water main break at the Sunshine Water Plant in summer 2026.
- Physical improvements and enhancements to security systems at all water treatment plants to keep sensitive technology, equipment and structures secure.
Other projects deemed urgent but at a slightly lower risk level include new electrical systems, advanced monitoring systems and connecting the Sunshine Water Plant to the Sampey Water Plant to create additional redundancy. If one plant experiences an outage, the second could deliver water while repairs are made to the first.
Woodard & Curran also presented a list of critical spare parts and other items necessary for emergency preparedness; with these items in inventory, they can be replaced more quickly, potentially reducing the time during which residents may be without water or with reduced pressure.
In addition to Woodard & Curran, a group of citizens, most of whom reside in Groveland, also presented their perspectives and asked questions about the veracity of currently available information.
The discussion on Groveland’s ongoing efforts to address water services will continue at a workshop next Thursday, October 15, at 10 am when the City’s Communications Department and other utility partners will present further on ways in which the city’s systems will be improved.
If you missed it, you can watch the meeting here: https://www.youtube.com/live/L2T-FrG7V6Q?si=D354AL1vh7G1ppWs
