A water main break directly outside Groveland's Sunshine Water Treatment Plant disrupted service to about 3,500 homes on Tuesday, forcing the city to shut the plant down temporarily and issue a precautionary boil-water advisory. The break struck the city's northern service area, hitting neighborhoods near Cherry Lake Road, State Road 19, Wilson Lake Parkway and U.S. 27.
The rupture knocked the plant offline while crews scrambled to repair it, according to FOX 35 Orlando. As reported by WFTV, “The Sunshine Water Plant has been temporarily shut down as crews repair a water main break directly outside the facility,” and the city's water system was working to supplement the lost pressure while the assessment continued.
Interim City Manager Tim Maslow said pressure could begin returning to the affected homes as early as 6 p.m. Tuesday, though the boil-water notice would stay in place until testing confirmed the water was safe to drink, per Lake and Sumter Style. Public Works Director T.J. Fish pointed to the culprit: a roughly 30-year-old, 16-inch main that, in his words, “was already past its useful life.”
A Pattern of Plant Problems
Tuesday's break marked Groveland's third recent water disruption tied to the Sunshine Water Plant, following two earlier incidents involving the facility's computerized pump controls, the outlet's report notes. A September 25 outage left roughly 2,500 to 3,000 residents affected after software shut off the plant's pumps for about 30 minutes, an issue also detailed by WESH, which reported pressure drops near Wilson Lake Parkway and Cherry Lake Road.
Before that, a full pump failure just after 5 a.m. on September 16 triggered a drop in water pressure and its own boil-water advisory, according to ClickOrlando. Crews restored pump operations and service before 8 a.m. that day, though the advisory remained active. A later WESH report put the number of residents affected by that pump failure at roughly 5,000.
Residents and Businesses Losing Patience
The repeated outages have worn on the community. Residents told FOX 35 Orlando their neighborhood had dealt with three separate disruptions at the Sunshine Water Plant since June, with business owners citing repeated outages, water-quality concerns and higher bills as ongoing sources of frustration and added operating costs.
In response to the software-related failures, city officials directed the plant's operator to stop relying on the troubled SCADA system and instead run the plant manually around the clock while pursuing a permanent fix, per WESH's reporting. Groveland's official alert confirmed it had issued a precautionary boil-water advisory, and the city said bottled-water distribution was scheduled Tuesday at Cherry Lake Prep, according to information posted on Groveland's water utilities page.
Funding a Fix
Alongside Tuesday's repair effort, officials announced a $7.88 million Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant intended to help overhaul the aging Sunshine facility, Lake and Sumter Style reported. Groveland officials said additional updates would be released as repairs continued, per WFTV's report.
