A public meeting will be held next week in Tampa on an Ocala company’s application to pump nearly 500,000 gallons of water daily from two Sumter County springs.
The meeting, which will address six water use and three environmental resource permit applications, begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Tampa Service Office of the Southwest Florida Water Management District at 7601 Highway 301 North, Tampa.
SWR Properties of Ocala, also known as Spring Water Resources, has applied for a 20-year permit to begin pumping water by November from Fern Spring and an unnamed spring along County Road 470 near Sumterville.
More than 200 emails and letters objecting to the plan, many from The Villages, have been sent to the state Water Use Permit Bureau over the past month. An overflow crowd opposed to the pumping attended a March meeting of the Sumter County Commission.
The public meeting allows “interested stakeholders” an opportunity to comment on pending applications prior to permitting decisions, according to the district.
According to the company’s application, the well normally would operate 13 hours a day and fill 80 trucks with 6,200 gallons each. In peak months, it would operate 24 hours a day, pumping 892,000 gallons daily and filling 144 trucks.
The water would be sold to Azure Water of Leesburg, which supplies grocery, convenience and other stores with bottled water under several brand names.
In March, Ralph Kerr, a senior professional geologist with the Water Use Permit Bureau gave company manager Darryl Lanker three months to clarify the project’s anticipated effect on the Belton’s Millpond, which is nearby. Kerr wrote in a letter that the pumping could drain the millpond and the requested amount of water might need to be reduced.
The company plans to build a pumping station, loading driveway and modular office building on the 10.5-acre property, which it owns.
