GROVELAND, Fla. — A Groveland City Council member is pointing to aging equipment, deferred investment and a series of separate failures as residents question the city’s repeated water outages and boil water notices.
Councilwoman Amy Jo Carroll, who represents District 5 and is running for reelection, addressed the problems Wednesday in a post on her campaign Facebook page.
Carroll said a lightning strike caused the first recent outage at the Sunshine Water Treatment Plant. She said two subsequent outages involved the plant’s outdated supervisory control and data acquisition system, commonly known as SCADA.
A water main break near the plant Tuesday appeared to be a separate problem, she said.
Carroll said replacing the SCADA system has been on the city’s infrastructure list since 2021. The project had been scheduled for funding in 2028 but has now been moved forward and funded for the upcoming year, according to her post.
She also said the city is working to add water treatment capacity, although that project is not expected to be completed until the first half of 2028.
“There simply isn’t a quick fix,” Carroll wrote.
Channel 9 previously reported that the city issued three boil water notices during September. The city’s 2022 Utility Master Plan also called for spending more than twice as much on growth-related needs as on existing infrastructure needs over five years.
Groveland Transportation and Public Works Director TJ Fish previously told Channel 9 that the SCADA technology and electrical systems need to be replaced.
The city raised its utility rate structure by 40% in 2024, with additional 10% increases planned in subsequent years. City officials have said rates remained unchanged for years while needed maintenance and capital projects were delayed.
Read more about the water main break and the affected service area here.
Carroll said Groveland was approved this week for a $3.9 million grant and a $3.9 million interest-free loan to begin improvements at the Sunshine plant. She did not provide additional details about the funding source in her post.
The city lifted its latest precautionary boil water advisory Thursday after crews repaired the water main and testing showed the water met safe drinking standards.
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