Municipal wells close to the Atlantic Coast cannot be expected to supply the steadily increasing population of Volusia County, Florida, indefinitely without causing saltwater intrusion problems. Therefore, new wells will be drilled away from the coast. The source of water for the planned artesian aquifer well field will be leakage from the water-table aquifer above. A digital model of the leaky aquifer system indicates that long-term yield of about 20 million gallons per day can be expected without the cone of depression dropping low enough to cause saltwater intrusion. Some types of land development could remove potential recharge from the area. Model tests with decreased leakage indicate that a large amount of potential recharge water would have to be removed from the system to effect an appreciable lowering of the cone of depression. Lowering the recharge potential by 20 percent apparently would have little effect on the cone. Lowering the recharge potential by 60 percent would, according to the model, increase the maximum depth of the cone by 27 percent. Land development that would redistribute potential recharge, rather than drain it away from the system, would have little effect on the aquifer beneath the well field.
