This is a quick answer to a question on the RO plant...

This is the status of the RO plant according to page 84 of the proposed FY 2012 Budget.  I will be commenting more on this, but having our own RO plant is actually going against a trend toward more consolidated, regional, public infrastructure - especially for communities of our size in a metropolitan area.  We did have to back out of a deal with Palm Beach County - which we had to pay them to exit for work they did in good faith. This did not help our image with the County Commission.  It is still referenced as an example of how Lake Worth cannot be trusted.  Depending on who you talk to, it was either a good or bad deal for the City dollar-wise.  I have my doubts.  The driving force behind it was to control our resources and keep our own waterworks employees - who are all unionized.  They felt threatened by the County deal and were the biggest proponents for the RO plant.

No one, to my knowledge, has addressed the amount of electric power that these plants need to run - which I have heard is extremely high.  We are also using deep-well injection for the effluent from the plant - which has unpredictable environmental consequences.  During the first attempt at permitting for the RO - the city planned to use an existing outfall pipe to the ocean.  Despite assurances from consultants that a permit would be possible, it turned out to be a major issue and DEP wouldn't issue the permit.  This prompted the need to go with the County option- and leave a lot of money on the table that had already been spent on the plant.

It turns out that more is known about the effects of the effluent (highly saline, with some organic material) on the ocean's ecology than what happens when that stuff is deep-well injected.  But concern about the reefs won the day in the eye of public opinion.  This is a thumbnail sketch and others can add details if they wish.

All of this water supply issue was due to saltwater infiltration of our old wells that are some of the farthest east in Palm Beach County.  That is why we will always be under the most stringent restrictions on water imposed by the Water Management District- whether or not the RO plant will have an impact on those restrictions is yet to be seen.  With the County water deal, it was a potentially unlimited supply, but we would have no control over future costs.  I sometimes wonder if part of the decision to go with the RO plant was to limit the supply of water in the future as a way to say "no" to development.