TAMPA - Regional water managers are spending a half million dollars researching whether Hillsborough County should inject millions of gallons of treated wastewater into the vast underground lake known as the Floridan Aquifer.

If Hillsborough adopts the practice, called aquifer recharge, it would become the first county in Florida to use the technique.

Aquifer recharge is a way to reuse wastewater now dumped into rivers and bays. The injections would stop saltwater from flowing into the aquifer at the coast and bolster groundwater supplies to meet future population growth.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District is studying the concept, which originated in California more than 30 years ago. The study should be done by the end of March.

"We're not asking to build it or get it permitted" right now, said Dave Moore, the water district executive director. "We're asking: What are people doing around the country or around the globe and do something similar here that's safe for the environment and creates additional water supply."

Rainwater that seeps underground in Florida is carried like a conveyor belt toward the coast, where it escapes the aquifer through springs and seeps. Moore said if highly treated wastewater could be injected near the coast, it would allow more groundwater to be pumped farther inland.

"If you can put a gallon of reclaimed water in, you can take out a gallon of water for processing on somebody's water-use permit," said Steve Daignault, Tampa's director of Public Works and Utilities.

Full Story: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/sep/23/me-injecting-effluent-into-aquiferbeingweighed/