AWWA ACE92195

A rapid increase in demand has placed continuous pressure to expand the wellfield in Collier County, Florida. A large quantity of freshwater is available from the Lower Tamiami Aquifer in the Golden Gate Estates areas. The physical availability of the water supply would be more than sufficient to meet future potable water demands for several decades into the future, but new environmental regulations and water quality problems have placed limitations on future wellfield expansions. Although the aquifer is semi-confined by clay beds occurring both above and below the aquifer, there is concern that leakage of water from the overlying water-table aquifer will cause unnatural and significant declines in the position of the water-table and surface water levels. These environmental concerns necessitated the development of a large scale, three-dimensional groundwater flow model of the area to be used in the design of the wellfield and in predicting aquifer pressure under various hydrologic conditions.