Citrus Irrigation With Reclaimed Wastewater

In 1986 the City of Orlando, Florida; Orange County; and area citrus growers implemented an innovative program to reclaim municipal wastewater for irrigation of citrus trees. This program, known as Water Conserv II, is planned to ultimately provide up to 50 million gallons per day of reclaimed water to as much as 15,000 acres of citrus grove land. In this paper, the authors present the program concept; identify public health issues that were considered; describe the facilities that were constructed to treat, transmit and distribute the reclaimed water; discuss operational factors and summarize initial observations of the project’s performance after the first two years of operation.

Paper published with permission.