Drinking Water History

Timeline

• In 1965, the City of Apopka installed its first drinking water well and began construction of the Jack G. Grossenbacher Water Treatment Plant. This was the first City owned water treatment plant to provide potable water service to the citizens of Apopka. The plant consisted of a 500,000 gallon treatment and storage tank, as well as a pump house to distribute the water throughout the City.
• In 1976, the City dug a second, much deeper well at the Grossenbacher plant  to meet the City’s demand for reliable potable water service.
• In the early 1980’s the City purchased the Sheeler Oaks Water Treatment plant with its one deep water well and a 1 million gallon treatment and storage tank to expand production and treatment of this valuable resource.
• In 1985, the City expanded the Grossenbacher Plant by adding a 1 million gallon storage and treatment tank, as well as a high service pump station to distribute more water to our customers.
• By 1989, the demand on our wells had again increased due to a growing population, so the City dug a third deep water well at our Grossenbacher facility.
• In 1997, the City’s demand for potable water had become higher than ever. In response to this demand, the City began construction on our Northwest Water Treatment Plant. At construction completion in 1999 we had drilled one deep water well and completed a 1 million gallon treatment and storage tank.
• In 2002, a second deep water well was added to our Sheeler Oaks Plant.
• In 2004, we added a second deep water well to our Northwest Plant.
• In 2006, the City purchased two existing water plants from Orange County to expand our treatment and distribution capacity to the northern and western sections of the City. These plants are the Mt. Plymouth Lakes plant which has two ground water wells and a 500,000 gallon treatment and storage tank, and the Plymouth Regional Water Treatment plant which had three ground water wells and a 750,000 gallon treatment and storage tank.
• In 2014, as part of our permitting under the St. Johns Water Management District, we added a 4th well to our Plymouth Regional facility. This new well dips deeper into the aquifer and has a much higher pumping capacity than the other three combined.
• In 2019, we increased our production capacity once again by deepening both of our wells at the Mt. Plymouth Lake plant and upgrading our distribution equipment.

Future Plans

As to future plans, we have begun the design process of relocating and deepening of one of our wells at the Grossenbacher plant. We are planning to deepen our original wells at the Plymouth Regional plant. We are designing new storage and treatment tanks for some of our existing plants, and are beginning the design phase for a 6th water treatment facility in the Southwestern portion of the City.