Tours of Water Treatment Plant
Group tours can be scheduled for the Carlton Water Treatment Plant located off Border Road in Venice. Arrangements for tours must be made in advance.

Carlton Facts
There is perhaps nothing more important than protecting our environment. We must, however, do this while providing for the needs of our customers now and in the future. The nature of our work, managing water and wastewater utilities, requires us to be environmentalists. We must work in harmony with the environment in order to remain in business. The T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Water Treatment Plant is an excellent example of Sarasota County’s commitment to the environment.

An example of Sarasota County’s commitment to harmony with the environment:

• The tract contains over 24,000 acres with 99% of the land remaining in its natural state protected from further development.
• Environmental Services Resource Management is responsible for the land management and Community Services
  manages public recreation areas.
• The Electrodialysis Reversal (EDR) Water Treatment Plant:
  • Can produce 12 million gallons of water per day
  • Is one of the largest EDR facilities in the world
  • Produces 85 gallons of drinking water for every 100 gallons withdrawn from the ground; this compares to 60 -70 gallons produced per 100 gallons for reverse osmosis, another membrane process
• Reject water from EDR:
  • Contains about 20% as much salt as sea water
  • Is disposed of by injecting it into deep wells
  • Is of higher quality than the original water in the deep wells
• The production wellfield:
  • Contains 14 wells
  • Wells are spread out on the property to mitigate the potential for drawdowns
  • Withdraws from Floridan and intermediate aquifers
  • Water withdrawn from these aquifers has too many minerals to drink without treatment
• Special County monitoring programs ensuring no environmental harm include:
  • Ecological Monitoring Plan
  • Vegetative Monitoring Plan
  • Hydroecological Monitoring Plan
  • Annual assessment of hydrologic system
  • Annual color infra-red aerial photographs.

T. Mabry Carlton, Jr. Water Treatment Plant Brochure