Groveland officials are reviewing urgent water system improvements after three recent disruptions left residents in the city’s northern service area dealing with outages, reduced pressure and boil-water advisories.

At a Thursday, Oct. 8, workshop, the City Council discussed how to reprioritize and fund critical projects, including replacing computerized plant controls and adding a second water main to provide another route for water delivery.

The discussion covered the city’s full five-year capital improvement plan, with attention to aging infrastructure and technology, according to a city press release.

Woodard & Curran, the city’s water services contractor, presented projects ranked by risk and urgency. Among the top priorities is overhauling the computerized monitoring and control systems at all four of the city’s water plants.

Known as SCADA, short for supervisory control and data acquisition, the technology monitors and automates water treatment and distribution. The city says the existing system at the Sunshine Water Treatment Plant was responsible for two of the three recent disruptions.

The third involved a major water main break Sept. 29 that affected about 3,500 homes. As previously reported by Style, the city temporarily shut down the Sunshine plant while crews repaired the damaged main, and it distributed bottled water to residents.

Another urgent proposal would add a second water main along about 1.2 miles of U.S. 27, creating a backup route to deliver water from the plant. According to the city, the original pipe was installed by the developer of what is now the Trilogy neighborhood and has failed five times in four years. The city says it will also explore other options for backup service.

Additional priorities include improving lightning protection and strengthening physical security at the plants. The city says a suspected lightning strike caused a separate main break at the Sunshine plant earlier this summer.

Projects ranked urgent but at a slightly lower risk level include electrical upgrades, advanced monitoring equipment and a connection between the Sunshine and Sampey water plants. That connection could allow one plant to supply water while the other undergoes repairs.

The contractor also identified critical spare parts to keep on hand for emergencies, potentially shortening outages by allowing crews to replace failed equipment more quickly.

A group of citizens, most of them Groveland residents, also presented concerns and questioned the accuracy of information available about the water system issues, according to the release.

The discussion will continue at another workshop at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 15. The city’s Communications Department and other utility partners are scheduled to present additional information about planned system improvements.

Residents can watch a recording of the Oct. 8 workshop on the city’s YouTube channel.

Photos: Roxanne Brown