Hydraulic Modeling and Engineering Evaluation of Fort Myers Beach's Water Distribution System

This paper applies hydraulic modeling to evaluate the water distribution system of the Town of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Fort Myers Beach is a small island town located in Southwest Florida. The Town does not have its own water treatment plant. Instead, the finished water is provided by Lee County. To meet fire protection and other emergency uses, the Town has two ground storages and three booster pumping stations to provide adequate water flow and residual pressure. Like other coastal communities in Florida, the number of residence and water demand patterns in the Town vary significantly by two seasons (wet and dry). Therefore, it is a challenging task to design and evaluate a water supply system to meet two dramatically different demand characteristics. In this paper, engineers evaluate flow and pressure in the water distribution system under both PDD + FF (Peak Day Demand + Fire Flow) and PHD (Peak Hour Demand) scenarios, and the existing storage and pumping capacities as compared to the national standards and local ordinances. Based on the simulation results, critical areas with potential low pressures, especially when fire flow is needed, are identified and recommendations of system upgrading are also provided. The feasibility study of building the Town's own water treatment plant is also recommended due to increasing water demand at the south end of the island and raising water fees per the annual and monthly water bill reports. Furthermore, the additional ground storage tank capacity is suggested to meet fire protections and other emergencies (for example, hurricane events).