“Florida has more than 1,700 streams and rivers, 7,800 freshwater lakes, 700 springs, 11 million acres of wetlands, and underlying aquifers yielding freshwater.”  Although Florida has a high average annual rainfall of about 55 inches, it pumps water supplies faster than its rainwater can replenish. “In 2005, the total amount of water withdrawn in Florida was estimated at 18,354 million gallons per day, of which 37 percent was freshwater and 63 percent was saline water.” Ground water accounted for nearly 62 percent of freshwater withdrawals, and surface water accounted for the remaining 38 percent of the freshwater.”

In the Tampa Bay area, public supply and agricultural irrigation used the largest amount of fresh ground water in 2005, while commercial-industrial-mining self-supplied, domestic self-supplied, recreational irrigation and power generation consumed the second largest amount. Demand for public supply is positively correlated with population and Florida has experienced significant increases in population over the past several decades. Although Public Supply consumes the greatest amount of the fresh water supply in the Miami area (48%), Agriculture self-supplied usage trails closely at 44 percent.  The SFWMD regulates water usage in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Broward, as well as several other counties.  According to their 2000 data, 42 percent of Agriculture water was used to irrigate sugarcane, 32 percent for citrus, and 18 percent was used for melon, vegetable and berry crops. 

The state of Florida actively encourages and promotes water reuse.  The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has enacted rules to govern the reuse of water.  The practice of water reuse amounts to transforming domestic wastewater into high-quality reclaimed water through an extensive treatment and disinfection process.  The resulting reclaimed water is then used for a variety of purposes such as, agriculture or landscape irrigation, ground water recharge or industrial processes. Water reuse provides the dual benefit of conserving freshwater supplies and aiding their replenishment. 

According to the DEP, Florida reuses more water than any other state, averaging 660 MGD of reclaimed water each day.  “In 2006, Florida's Water Reuse Program was the first recipient of the EPA Water Efficiency Leader Award. Even as a national leader, Florida is only reaching a fraction of potential reuse opportunities.”

In 2001, reclaimed water was used to irrigate 122,382 residual landscapes, 419 golf courses, 405 parks, and 188 schools. The Figure below shows the distribution of reclaimed water use by application for Florida in 2005.  Public Access Areas and Landscape Irrigation represented over 48 percent of the reuse application, the largest segment measured.

Demand for healthcare is rising as people are living longer and the population continues to grow rapidly. Subsequently these trends are driving construction and remodeling rates for the healthcare industry as well as increasing the demand for healthcare equipment.  These trends also create a need to provide more services; and the need for healthcare administrators to find new ways to fight costly infections.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in the United States, as many as one in 10 patients, or two million patients a year, acquire a nosocomial (a healthcare service unit or hospital acquired) infection; of those patients, about 90,000 die as a result of the infection. The resulting annual cost is estimated to range from $4.5 billion to $11 billion. One third of nosocomial infections are considered preventable, if proper measures were taken for infection control.

The research conducted on the healthcare industry divides facilities into three main categories: ambulatory care; hospitals (general and specialty); and long-term care.  Ambulatory care refers to any medical care which is delivered on an outpatient basis.  Ambulatory surgical centers (ASC) are included in this category.  Since their inception almost 40 years ago, ASCs have demonstrated an exceptional ability to improve quality and customer service while simultaneously reducing costs. At a time when most developments in health care services and technology typically come with a higher price tag, ASCs stand out as being an exception to this rule.  More than 22 million surgeries a year are performed in these clinics across all 50 states.  The figure below shows the number of inpatient surgeries compared to the number of outpatient surgeries in the U.S. In 2007, over 22 million surgeries were performed in an outpatient setting, while less than 10,000 surgeries were performed in traditional inpatient hospital setting. The figure for outpatient-based surgeries is expected to continually increase, while the figure for inpatient-based surgeries is expected to continue to decrease.