Civic Association kicks off season weighing the future of Palm Beach's potable water
Should Palm Beach continue its water contract with West Palm Beach, or will it decide to join Lake Worth’s smaller, but more technologically advanced drinking water system?
That question was at the heart of an expert panel discussion Thursday hosted by the Palm Beach Civic Association during its 81st annual Welcome Back Forum.
The town currently receives its potable water from West Palm Beach under a contract set to expire in 2029, though Palm Beach officials are weighing whether to renew the contract.
However, the town’s decision would need to come by 2027, Council President Bobbie Lindsay told the more than 100 people in attendance, who included Council Members Ted Cooney, Lew Crampton, Bridget Moran; and Lake Worth Beach Mayor Betty Resch.
Talks over switching the town’s water supplier began in 2021, after a blue-green algae bloom in West Palm Beach’s water supply forced residents to turn to bottled water, since boiling the tap water did not destroy the toxin cylindrospermopsin. “This event demonstrated to all of us the vulnerability of our potable water supply and its safety,” Lindsay said. “It raised questions about whether the system we use today currently is capable of delivering long-term, safe water.”
Because the city of West Palm Beach uses surface water as its source, the system’s susceptibility to algae-created toxins remains a looming threat, Everglades Law Center Policy Director Lisa Interlandi said. The threat of algae-created toxins is especially pertinent when West Palm Beach’s faces drought conditions and the city is forced to supplement its primary water source, the Grassy Waters Preserve, with water from Lake Okeechobee.
With the significant amount of nutrients entering the lake via agricultural runoff, “unfortunately, the lake's water quality is not looking to get better in the near future," Interlandi said.
On the other hand, Lake Worth Beach’s water source is the deep, brackish Floridan Aquifer, which by its nature is less vulnerable to organic contaminants or toxins, said John Potts, senior consultant with Kimley-Horn and Associates, the firm that led Palm Beach’s potable water review.
While the city of West Palm Beach did apply for the permits needed to drill into and use the aquifer, that project will likely run until 2050, Potts said.
However, more pertinent than the source of water, is the different treatment methods used by the respective cities’ water treatment plants.
For West Palm Beach, water begins by passing through activated carbon, before flowing through a lime treatment process, which softens and reduces the cloudiness of water by removing unwanted minerals, Potts said. The water then flows through a sand filter before being treated by an ultraviolet-light filter.
During West Palm Beach’s treatment process, chlorine can also be added to the water to eliminate other contaminants. While the process effectively removes most contaminants, problems come when an unknown contaminant is introduced into the water supply, Potts said.
That was the issue West Palm Beach faced during the 2021 algae bloom, Potts said, noting that the species of blue-green algae was rarely seen in Florida’s waterways. Also, while the UV filters “deactivate” organic contaminants, those contaminants can regrow, Potts said.
Lindsay said the town’s new water system must include a reverse-osmosis, or membrane filtration, system. The system allows water to pass through a plastic membrane that filters out contaminants from a water source at the molecular level, Potts said.
Since its fundamentally a simple barrier, he said the system can also filter out new contaminants.
"There will be more contaminants discovered in our water, or identified in the future," he said.
Its the system that Lake Worth Beach currently uses to great results, he noted.
However, even with the benefits presented by Lake Worth Beach's water system, there are two obstacles the town and Lake Worth Beach will face if Palm Beach decides to make the switch.
First, the Lake Worth Treatment Plant will have to increase the reverse-osmosis system's capacity. Potts said this shouldn't be a challenge as the system is both cost-effective and much smaller compared to a traditional filtration system.
Second, the town will have to install pipelines that run from Lake Worth Beach, across the Intracoastal, and up the island's South End, Potts said. "So, that's a significant investment," he said.
The town has also considered co-funding with the city of West Palm Beach its upgrades to the West Palm Beach water system, so either decision would be a significant investment, said the event's moderator, Civic Association CEO Michael Pucillo.
And that's all without mentioning the state of the town's piping, Lindsay said, noting that 38 miles of the town's 75 miles of water pipes will be more than 70 years old by 2027, well above the 50-year average lifespan of water pipes.
"I think that your council looks at safe, clean water as a principal responsibility ... it's our job to make sure that the water coming in that we are drinking and consuming is fit to drink," Lindsay said.
Also speaking at Thursday's event were Innovate Palm Beach Executive Director Jared Shahid, and Palm Beach Civic Association Chief Operating Officer Mary Robosson.
Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Civic Association kicks off season discussing future of town's water
