Cost-Effectiveness of Water Reuse in Florida

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection sponsored the University of Florida to update and refine current water reuse methodologies for assessing reuse feasibility. One of the key limitations to economic optimization of reuse systems is the failure to assign ownership of the reuse system. Current methodologies call for all costs of facilities previously constructed or under construction to be considered as sunk costs. These costs are considered to be borne by the system and therefore future users of reclaimed water have only to pay usage charges equal to the incremental costs of serving their properties. In this paper, a more appropriate definition of sunk costs is used, one which recognizes that these costs should be included in life cycle cost evaluations. A case study of the water reuse system in Dunedin, Florida is presented. In this system, property owners that use or could use reclaimed water contribute to the capital costs.