“That's like [saying] I've gotta run the Disney marathon by Oct. 1st,” Shadrix said. “There's no way I can. I can train every day for six hours and can't do that. So you've given me an insurmountable task given the deadline to overcome. It's not good.” 

Jen Bolling, Ocoee’s acting utilities director, later told VoxPopuli in a phone interview that the city had requested an extension to develop cost-effective projects and get them designed and constructed, but was denied. As were any ideas that Ocoee officials offered as potential workarounds.

“We continue to try to come up with options to work with the county to come up with a fair solution to the county and to our residents,” she said.

Two challenging options 

Ocoee has two options for mitigating the price increase. Behind Door #1 is the opportunity to construct a backup groundwater supply to meet average and daily demand. According to Orange County that would lower the reclaim water rate to 81 cents per 1,000 gallons. 

Shadrix explained during the March city commission meeting that that would hurt the city’s conservation efforts. 

“We will be required to construct and permit a well that will be taking water from the Floridan aquifer to meet those demands along with the tank and pump and treatment station because it'll have to be treated before it goes into our reclaim system,” he said. “The sad, cruel irony of this is reclaimed water is supposed to be our alternative supply in the name of conservation in protection of the Floridan Aquifer,” he said.

Behind Door #2 is constructing the well plus building a storage tank capable of holding 2.1 million gallons — a day’s worth of reclaimed water — to supplement the system. That would drop the rate to 64 cents per 1,000 gallons — close to what the city is paying now. But Shadrix estimated start-up construction costs to be between $4.5 million and $5 million. Again, there's still the daunting deadline. 

VoxPopuli asked Orange County why Ocoee had to have facilities constructed by Oct. 1 to qualify for lower rates. A spokesperson told VoxPopuli via email that that the county was "not requiring any customer to make infrastructure changes, but some customers may find it cost-effective to make certain changes in order to qualify for a lower rate.”

In a followup phone interview, Orange County spokesperson Debbie Sponsler told VoxPopuli that Ocoee was not being singled out, that this was a countywide rate increase. "This is not specific to them. We're working with all of our reclaimed water customers," she said.

“I know there's a sentiment from the county that they don't want to subsidize municipal utilities, and they feel like they are,” Shadrix said. “But as a reminder, we're all wearing a conservation badge. I think there is some onus on the county — aside from a money grab here —  to help those of us who have a fractional comparative budget of their own, trying to meet the goals of minimizing additional drawdowns from the aquifer.” 

Bolling told VoxPopuli that she’s scoured the city’s 2012 contract with Orange County and there is nothing in the agreement about requiring a backup supply of reclaimed water. She said the idea of a backup supply was broached only last November.  

“We have done an online search, and also in our records, we don't find any reference where the county has requested that we have a backup supply,” she said, explaining more fully during the city's April 1 commission meeting. “I have contacted the previous two utilities directors. They have both indicated that there have been no discussions of this backup supply." She said she's been working on Ocoee's water supply planning and permitting since 2006. "There were no discussions during my time as a consultant before joining the city that we were going to do the backup supply.”

The backup supply is a must-have now, Sponsler explained, because the county shifted Ocoee into a new Priority price category, based on meter size. Meters of one inch or larger, like those used by Ocoee, she said in an email, "are subject to our priority rate, or to the lower rates if they meet the criteria for backup supply or backup supply with storage."

When Orange County representatives met with city officials in November 2024, they "made it clear that the City of Ocoee did not meet the qualifications for the reclaimed water rates it is currently being billed," Sponsler said. She explained that the "2012 agreement clearly states that the city must pay Orange County for reclaimed water at the rates established by resolution of the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, as amended from time to time, for the class of customer for which the city qualifies."

She added that the county agreed to delay the rate change until Oct. 1 because they "recogniz[ed] the financial impact of the required rate change on the city."

A new price category

Orange County said the rate increase is needed because of higher operating costs and greater demand from its commercial customers. According to the county’s notice, the price increase will “ensure fair rates that better reflect the true costs incurred while encouraging conservation.” 

The county told VoxPopuli that its reclaimed water production for landscaping irrigation has been operating at a $5 million deficit because production costs more than what was being charged. Money generated from the new rates on county municipalities is expected to help defray the costs.

The Orange County Board of County Commissioners passed the rate increase Feb. 11, by 6-1 vote, with District 5 Commissioner Kelly Semrad dissenting.

Semrad was concerned the rate increase could negatively affect agricultural and small businesses. She also said landlords would likely pass on increased rate costs to their tenants at apartment complexes.

“When we see large commercial businesses in the tourism industry that are watering their beautiful landscapes, that maybe there's an opportunity to look at increasing rates there as opposed to increasing rates on everyday working families,” Semrad said during a recent phone interview.

VoxPopuli reached out to Ocoee’s representative, District 2 Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore, for comment by phone and email. She did not respond. 

No alternatives 

Ocoee has launched rate and feasibility studies to assess the most cost effective ways to approach the reclaimed water project, but in the meantime city officials are attempting to find workarounds. To their frustration, they say their ideas keep getting shot down by the county. 

“ We did reach out to, our much closer cousin in Winter Garden because they currently have surplus [reclaimed water] that even our golf course can't use,” Shadrix said in March. “We were told by Orange County that we can't use reclaimed water from another system. We can only use a Florida aquifer well as a backup system.” 

Both he and Bolling said they disagreed with that approach. 

“That goes against our sustainability policy,” said Bolling. “It goes against what the water management districts are implementing.”

Shadrix prefers policy mandates, warning residents not to irrigate or restricting irrigation to a single day. 

“They rejected all manner of those types of options that we threw out,” Shadrix said. “Without trying to sound antagonistic toward Orange County, it is drawing dangerously close to them dictating policy to us in order to purchase wholesale reclaim water.” 

Sponsler told VoxPopuli that's not so, that Ocoee can tap into Winter Garden's reclaimed water supply or pass an emergency water ordinance.

"We're not prohibiting them from doing anything," she said. "If the workaround meets the criteria, fine. They can do what they need to do. But they still have to qualify for the lower rate."

Orange County has posted a bill calculator for customers to estimate their monthly bills under the new rates.

‍Norine Dworkin contributed reporting to this story.