Central Florida's future of water focuses on remote reservoir with contentious past

A peace treaty as thick as a book making its way around Central Florida could begin to wean the region of its addiction to water from the imperiled Floridan Aquifer.

The agreement, which took five years to draft, calls for extraordinary cooperation among governments to pump from Taylor Creek Reservoir, a hidden lake 30 miles southeast of Orlando fiercely guarded by its landlord, the powerful Deseret Ranches. Costs could run in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with a precise figure depending on pipeline routes and technology yet to be decided.

If it happens, and with legal work and construction taking a period of years not yet specified, faucets in homes across Central Florida would run with treated lake water for the first time.

“There was no playbook to go to,” said John “Jack” Walsh, director of Cocoa utilities, which is positioned for a premier role in the unfolding initiative. “We did almost the impossible.”

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