Punta Gorda utility director warns supply shortfall, outlines $37.7 million RO expansion and staffing needs

Tom Spencer, the utility director for Punta Gorda City, told residents at a public briefing that the city’s water system is operating close to supply limits and that officials are planning a reverse-osmosis (RO) plant expansion and other capital work to avoid shortages.

Spencer said the city’s current peak day water demand reached about 9.53 million gallons per day in 2023, while regulatory minimum flows and levels (MFLs) restrict withdrawals from the Shell Creek Reservoir during the most restrictive period to about 3.4 million gallons per day. The city’s RO plant can produce about 4.0 million gallons per day; combined, Spencer said, that gives roughly 8.22 million gallons per day of dependable supply in the most restrictive period.

The situation matters because planning and plant sizing depend on peak demand, which Spencer said already exceeds earlier projections: "The projected demand for 2050 is 12,000,000 gallons a day," he said, and a 2015 report that forecast an 8.5 million gpd peak by 2030 has been outpaced.

Spencer summarized the staff-recommended response: expand the RO plant and the well field to add redundancy and resilience. "The project to do the RO expansion in the well fields is about $37,700,000," he said, citing the city’s 2024 estimate. He said the expansion would bring the well field capacity to about 11 million gallons per day and—with the RO expansion—provide the additional 4 million gpd the city needs to reduce dependence on emergency interconnects.

Why it matters: legal and physical constraints limit what the city can withdraw from Shell Creek Reservoir during dry months, and peak demand drives capital planning. Spencer said the city receives…