Water | reefresort

The amount of fresh water on earth is limited; even though 71 percent of earth’s surface is covered with water, only 1 percent is clean and fresh drinkable water.

The Reef Ocean View Resort is committed to sustainable practices by using the combination of various water sources. The main water source comes from rainwater collection; the rest of the water supply is provided by The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA). In one of the pools on our property we are using salt water pumped from the ocean due to its therapeutic nature.

The idea is to take advantage of 49 inches of average annual rainfall per year on Islamorada. Our hotel chose to build a modular water tank that can store up to 60,000 gallons of rainwater.

The Reef Ocean View Resort will use rainwater as a primary source for our swimming pool, irrigation, showers, toilets and faucets in the kitchens and bathrooms. This water will be tested daily to ensure that the quality of the water is safe for human use.

The Reef Ocean View Resort will also be connected to the FKAA system, which guarantees the water supply of entire property continuously; if the water in the rainfall tank is low, the system will be redirected to use the water provided by the FKAA until the water level in the cistern is adequate.

Since The Reef Ocean View Resort uses primarily solar energy as its energy source for entire property, the water heating systems will be based on solar power as well.

For additional control of the water usage The Reef Ocean View Resort decided to install the pressure reducing valves. These types of valves reduce the water pressure from 100 psi to 50 psi, which decreases the water flow by one third. Lower water pressure also lessens the risk of leaking pipes, water heaters and taps.

The Reef Ocean View Resort will also install faucet aerators; they are small valves that break the flow of water into fine droplets and entrain air while maintaining wetting effectiveness. They are inexpensive and can reduce the water use at each faucet by as much as 60 percent whilst maintaining a strong flow. Typically, they use 7.5 liters of water a minute compared with conventional faucets, which use 11–19 liters.

Our hotel will have infra red sensors on bathroom faucets, to ensure water consumption is up to par.

All bathrooms will have low-flow showerheads, because they are very inexpensive and they use around 9.45 liters of water per minute, which is almost two times less than the conventional showerhead.

The low flush toilets will be installed in order to save approximately six liters of water per flush, compared to conventional toilets, which can use 10-20 liters of water.

The disposal of wastewater will be handled by FKAA. The installations of this company are very modern and efficient. There is no economically justified reason for The Reef Ocean View Resort to install and use our own systems for disposing wastewater. Due to the rainwater collecting that is taking place on the property we cannot reuse gray or recycled water for irrigation. Our rainwater thank is below ground and if we would reuse gray water for lawn irrigation, the recycled water would be mixed with fresh rainwater.