Water Authority of Volusia

Years of efforts to ensure a safe and plentiful water supply in Volusia County resulted in a brand new agency and a fresh approach to conservation efforts.  With 11 different water utility providers, Volusia County created the Water Authority of Volusia in October 2003 to develop a more unified approach to water policy.

 WAV's biggest project to date is  an effort to connect various city water utilities to one another and to Volusia County, which will increase how much groundwater officials can pump by about 2 million gallons per day. Maximizing that amount will delays the need to develop other water sources. It also provides alternative sources during emergencies, main breaks and planned outages. Congressman Mica secured $900,000 in federal assistance in fiscal year 2003 to kick-start the effort, which was planned to begin with three interconnections among Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and Holly Hill in spring 2004. In all the project calls for 21 interconnects at a cost of $9 million.

The WAV is a voluntary consortium that includes 13 of the 16 cities as well as the county government, with the goal of providing high-quality water in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.  Plans call for ramping up water conservation efforts in addition to interconnecting the water utilities of member governments.  This agency builds on several predecessor water consortiums, including the Volusia Water Alliance, the Volusia City-County Water Supply Cooperative and the Halifax River Water Supply Authority.  WAV is also investigating the possibility of using treated water from the Atlantic Ocean or St. Johns River.